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Российский хадж. Империя и паломничество в Мекку
В конце XIX века правительство Российской империи занималось организацией важной для мусульман религиозной практики — паломничества к святым местам, хаджа. Таким образом власть старалась взять под контроль мусульманское население России, интегрировать его в имперское пространство, а также расширить свое влияние в соседних странах. В 1920-е годы советская власть восстановила имперскую инфраструктуру хаджа. Хотя с усилением ксенофобских тенденций в 1930-х хадж был свернут, влияние СССР на Ближнем Востоке во многом опиралось на остатки прежней инфраструктуры. На примере организации паломнических практик историк Айлин Кейн подробно анализирует отношение к исламу в Российской империи и в СССР, обращая при этом особое внимание на международный контекст. Таким образом история российского хаджа предстает в монографии частью глобальной истории. Айлин Кейн — специалист по исламу, профессор истории в Коннектикутском колледже, США.
296 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 20, 2023
I enjoyed reading this book about hajj, hajjis, and their interactions with Russia (its land, politics, governors, and infrastructure) in the late 19th century to the 1930s. In my readings about imperialism and the Muslim world, I haven't learned much about Russia, so this was both informative and fascinating.
As Russia's empire grew to include previously Ottoman lands (like the Caucasus) and other Muslim-majority areas (like Central Asia) Islam became Russia's second biggest religion, after Russian Orthodox Christianity. Kane argues that yes, Russia under tsarist rule and later the USSR to some extent wanted to be involved with the hajj movements of their citizens in order to control Muslims/hajj. But she also shows another side: that Russia also did this in order to benefit their own government and economy. By winning the trust of Russian hajjis, Russian politicians and administrators were able to establish better ties and also acquire considerable economic gain as the hajjis purchased steamship and railway tickets from Russian-owned companies.
Kane's sources are also well-chosen: memoirs from Russian hajjis and politicians, newspaper articles about the hajj, posters and photographs and advertisements about hajj and Russian companies offering hajj services, diplomatic exchanges between Russian ambassadors/hajjis/Ottoman and Hijazi governors, and so on.
This book nicely complements Michael Low's Imperial Mecca, which discussed the British Empire's involvement with the hajj from the mid-19th to early 20th centuries. Low and Kane show how British and Russian governments during roughly the same time period addressed their suspicions of Muslim unity/rebellion, sent Muslim spies on the hajj, issued national passports to hajjis to have more control/information and limit the ones that can go, required that pilgrims prove that they are financially capable of supporting themselves on the journey, and dealt with concerns about cholera epidemics in second half of the 19th century.
Some quotes I'll leave here for safekeeping:
“In Russia, as elsewhere, the introduction of railroads and steamships reorganized and accelerated existing patterns of human movement. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the case of the hajj. If previously the Meccan pilgrimage had occurred on a small scale within Russia, it was suddenly a mass phenomenon in the late nineteenth century. Tens of thousands of Muslims made the hajj through Russian lands every year—tsarist subjects as well as those from Persia, Afghanistan, and China—most by way of the Black Sea. Russia’s conquests of Muslim lands and peoples, and its mobility revolution, had, in effect, transformed the empire into a crossroads of the global hajj. To manage the mass hajj traffic moving through its empire and across its borders, Russia began to systematically support the pilgrimage to Mecca.”
“This book tells the story of how Russia assumed the role of hajj patron in the late nineteenth century, as part of its broader efforts to manage Islam and integrate Muslims into the empire. It explores Russian involvement in the Meccan pilgrimage in cross-border perspective, and reveals how, in the era of mass mobility, the imperial project of governing and integrating Muslims took on global dimensions. Challenging stereotypes about entrenched Islamophobia in the tsarist regime, and Russian officials' attempts to block Muslim movement abroad for fear of Pan-Islamism, it demonstrates that Russia, in fact, facilitated and even increased Muslim mobility abroad in the late imperial period by sponsoring the hajj. I argue that it did this not only, or even primarily, to control its Muslims or keep them under surveillance while abroad, but ultimately in an attempt to co-opt the mass migratory phenomenon of the haji, and exploit it as a mechanism of imperial integration and expansion.”
“The story of how Russia inherited and grappled with a haji tradition is part of the broader history of global European imperialism. By the end of the nineteenth century Europeans had brought most of the world's Muslims under colonial rule (of the world's Muslim states, only Persia, Afghanistan, and the Ottoman Empire escaped colonization). Each of the leading imperial powers of the day-the British, Dutch, French, and Russians-ruled more Muslims than did any single independent Muslim state. And most hajj pilgrims who showed up in Mecca by the late nineteenth century were colonial subjects. They arrived in unprecedented numbers, as many as 300,000 a year by the early 1900s, the result of the global mobility revolution that went hand-in-hand with European imperialism.”
“The relationship was mutually beneficial: by offering Russia's hajj pilgrims support, and getting them to turn to the Russian consulate instead of Ottoman officials and institutions, Russia was able to gain some understanding of, if not control over, the hajj traffic between the Caucasus and Ottoman lands, and justify the expansion of its diplomatic presence deeper into Syria.”
“Havinglinherited a haji tradition through imperial conquests, Russia had to decide what to do with it. As one of the five pillars of Islam, and an obligation for Muslims, the hajj could not easily be banned or stopped -and, it offered Russia opportunities for managing and governing Muslims, as well as for advancing state and imperial agendas."
As Russia's empire grew to include previously Ottoman lands (like the Caucasus) and other Muslim-majority areas (like Central Asia) Islam became Russia's second biggest religion, after Russian Orthodox Christianity. Kane argues that yes, Russia under tsarist rule and later the USSR to some extent wanted to be involved with the hajj movements of their citizens in order to control Muslims/hajj. But she also shows another side: that Russia also did this in order to benefit their own government and economy. By winning the trust of Russian hajjis, Russian politicians and administrators were able to establish better ties and also acquire considerable economic gain as the hajjis purchased steamship and railway tickets from Russian-owned companies.
Kane's sources are also well-chosen: memoirs from Russian hajjis and politicians, newspaper articles about the hajj, posters and photographs and advertisements about hajj and Russian companies offering hajj services, diplomatic exchanges between Russian ambassadors/hajjis/Ottoman and Hijazi governors, and so on.
This book nicely complements Michael Low's Imperial Mecca, which discussed the British Empire's involvement with the hajj from the mid-19th to early 20th centuries. Low and Kane show how British and Russian governments during roughly the same time period addressed their suspicions of Muslim unity/rebellion, sent Muslim spies on the hajj, issued national passports to hajjis to have more control/information and limit the ones that can go, required that pilgrims prove that they are financially capable of supporting themselves on the journey, and dealt with concerns about cholera epidemics in second half of the 19th century.
Some quotes I'll leave here for safekeeping:
“In Russia, as elsewhere, the introduction of railroads and steamships reorganized and accelerated existing patterns of human movement. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the case of the hajj. If previously the Meccan pilgrimage had occurred on a small scale within Russia, it was suddenly a mass phenomenon in the late nineteenth century. Tens of thousands of Muslims made the hajj through Russian lands every year—tsarist subjects as well as those from Persia, Afghanistan, and China—most by way of the Black Sea. Russia’s conquests of Muslim lands and peoples, and its mobility revolution, had, in effect, transformed the empire into a crossroads of the global hajj. To manage the mass hajj traffic moving through its empire and across its borders, Russia began to systematically support the pilgrimage to Mecca.”
“This book tells the story of how Russia assumed the role of hajj patron in the late nineteenth century, as part of its broader efforts to manage Islam and integrate Muslims into the empire. It explores Russian involvement in the Meccan pilgrimage in cross-border perspective, and reveals how, in the era of mass mobility, the imperial project of governing and integrating Muslims took on global dimensions. Challenging stereotypes about entrenched Islamophobia in the tsarist regime, and Russian officials' attempts to block Muslim movement abroad for fear of Pan-Islamism, it demonstrates that Russia, in fact, facilitated and even increased Muslim mobility abroad in the late imperial period by sponsoring the hajj. I argue that it did this not only, or even primarily, to control its Muslims or keep them under surveillance while abroad, but ultimately in an attempt to co-opt the mass migratory phenomenon of the haji, and exploit it as a mechanism of imperial integration and expansion.”
“The story of how Russia inherited and grappled with a haji tradition is part of the broader history of global European imperialism. By the end of the nineteenth century Europeans had brought most of the world's Muslims under colonial rule (of the world's Muslim states, only Persia, Afghanistan, and the Ottoman Empire escaped colonization). Each of the leading imperial powers of the day-the British, Dutch, French, and Russians-ruled more Muslims than did any single independent Muslim state. And most hajj pilgrims who showed up in Mecca by the late nineteenth century were colonial subjects. They arrived in unprecedented numbers, as many as 300,000 a year by the early 1900s, the result of the global mobility revolution that went hand-in-hand with European imperialism.”
“The relationship was mutually beneficial: by offering Russia's hajj pilgrims support, and getting them to turn to the Russian consulate instead of Ottoman officials and institutions, Russia was able to gain some understanding of, if not control over, the hajj traffic between the Caucasus and Ottoman lands, and justify the expansion of its diplomatic presence deeper into Syria.”
“Havinglinherited a haji tradition through imperial conquests, Russia had to decide what to do with it. As one of the five pillars of Islam, and an obligation for Muslims, the hajj could not easily be banned or stopped -and, it offered Russia opportunities for managing and governing Muslims, as well as for advancing state and imperial agendas."
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