Russian Hajj: Empire and the Pilgrimage to Mecca by Eileen Kane (review)

This monograph is an excellent contribution to the study of empire and Islam, Muslim mobility, and governance. Russian Hajj investigates how Russia became a patron of the hajj in the late nineteenth century. The study fills a historio-graphical gap, as for much of the twentieth century scholars faced ideological and practical constraints to conducting research on the topic. Eileen Kane’s captivating book is based on archival research in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and Turkey.

This book focuses on the hajj infrastructure that the Russian Empire constructed between the 1840s and the 1910s and that the Soviet Union briefly reanimated in the 1920s. The focus on the state and its infrastructure circumscribes the scope of the “Russian hajj” that Kane describes, which she diligently acknowledges throughout the book. Not all – perhaps, not even a majority of – Russian hajjis used Russian-owned trains and steamships to get to Mecca. Many chose foreign boats or traveled overland by crossing state borders clandestinely and without proper documentation. Kane examines how the state attempted to increase its share of the lucrative pilgrim market – made up of Russian Muslims from Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Volga region, and Siberia, but also of foreign Muslims from Iran, Afghanistan, and China, who were interested in a faster, cheaper, and more reliable route to the Hejaz.

Kane’s focus on Russia’s organization of the hajj provides the book with a solid structure and foundation to explore fascinating themes: the evolution of Russian diplomacy in the Middle East, Muslim entrepreneurship, and tensions between regional and imperial governance over Islam. Kane also masterfully weaves Russian Muslims’ impressions of the hajj throughout the book. In the literature on Muslim mobility between the Russian and Ottoman empires, firsthand written accounts by Muslim travelers are rare, which makes Kane’s discovery of “hajj memoirs” all the more valuable.

Kane’s book integrates Russia into the study of Ottoman and Islamic history.¹ It also follows in the footsteps of recent studies that have enriched our understanding of how the Russian Empire governed and engaged with its sizable Muslim community.² Kane’s conceptual framework draws on Robert Crews’s seminal work on Imperial Russia’s sponsorship of Islam.³ Similarly, Kane argues that, over the course of the late nineteenth century, the Russian state came to sponsor the hajj by building legal and economic infrastructure that aided Muslims in their journey. Other European empires have also engaged in the management of the hajj at the time.⁴ The British, the Dutch, and the French sought to regulate the hajj in order to prevent epidemic outbreaks and the spread of anticolonial ideas. The Russian case was different, Kane argues, because the Russian hajj was not a matter of overseas colonial governance. It was intertwined with domestic issues, and the government sponsored it not only to deter potential threats but also to “advance secular state and imperial agendas” (P. 9).

Kane’s argument is appealing, not least because it “normalizes” Russia’s relationship with its Muslim population. Governing Russian Muslims – the empire’s second largest religious community – constituted more than top-down risk management. Many officials saw an untapped economic potential of Russia’s Muslim population. Viewing the hajj as an empire’s opportunity, not as something it had to deal with, is certainly a welcome historiographical intervention. Kane’s argument is also convincing. The imperial transportation industry stood to benefit from an increased pilgrim traffic, and Russia would improve its image and prestige among local and foreign Muslims.

The first chapter examines the evolution of Russia’s policy toward the hajj in the first half of the nineteenth century. Russia’s conquest of the Caucasus came with the control over ancient caravan routes connecting Persian and Ottoman realms with northern Eurasia. Russia embraced its role as a protector of hajj routes to further its diplomatic relations with its Muslim neighbors. Kane links the...