In the late nineteenth century, as a consequence of imperial conquest and a mobility revolution, Russia became a crossroads of the hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. The first book in any language on the hajj under tsarist and Soviet rule, Russian Hajj tells the story of how tsarist officials struggled to control and co-opt Russia's mass hajj traffic, seeing it as not only a liability but also an opportunity. To support the hajj as a matter of state surveillance and control was controversial, given the preeminent position of the Orthodox Church. But nor could the hajj be ignored, or banned, due to Russia's policy of toleration of Islam. As a cross-border, migratory phenomenon, the hajj stoked officials' fears of infectious disease, Islamic revolt, and interethnic conflict, but Eileen Kane innovatively argues that it also generated new thinking within the government about the utility of the empire's Muslims and their global networks.

About the Author

Eileen Kane is Associate Professor of History at Connecticut College.

Reviews

This is an impressively researched book, and many of the arguments are compelling. [Russian Hajj] makes an important contribution to debates around the reaches and limits of imperial rule in practice.

* H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online *

Eileen Kane's account of the Russian Hajj taps into a fascinating story that Daniel Brower had once called 'a blind spot in studies of Russian colonial rule' (Daniel Brower, 'Russian Roads to Mecca,' Slavic Review 55(3) (1996): 568)... Kane does an excellent job providing evidence to support her account of the Russian Hajj as one of 'toleration' and 'sponsorship' in line with the past two decades' 'imperial turn' in historiography.

* Canadian-American Slavic Studies *

[F]ascinating details of the organizational efforts behind Russia's sponsorship of the hajj are examined in this concise and informative volume on an often-overlooked chapter in Russian history.

* AramcoWorld *



Book Information
ISBN 9781501748509
Author Eileen Kane
Format Paperback
Page Count 258
Imprint Cornell University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 454g