128 Chapter Four
Syrtlanov, a Bashkir from Ufa, who had recently served in the Second Duma.^34
To this group, he described his ideas for organizing the hajj, and improving
travel conditions for pilgrims through Russian lands with his facilities. One of
those present later recalled how Saidazimbaev had presented himself as moti-
vated “solely by a noble and pious goal, of protecting pilgrims from exploita-
tion,” and how nearly everyone was “moved by the benevolent goals of
Saidazimbaev,” and his willingness to spend tens of thousands of rubles to help
his fellow Muslims make the pilgrimage.^35
With the help of Muslim Duma deputies, Saidazimbaev next arranged a
meeting with the Committee of the Volunteer Fleet. As noted in chapter 3, the
Volunteer Fleet was one of Russia’s two main state-sponsored steamship lines.
Along with ROPiT, it was trying to expand its operations in Russia’s Black Sea
ports, where European shipping companies dominated transport. Both were
heavily subsidized by the Russian government, which controlled their boards.
Both had been involved, to varying degrees, in hajj transport in the Black Sea
since the late nineteenth century, with ROPiT taking the lead.^36
In this meeting, Saidazimbaev played to the commercial interests of the fleet,
offering to help it break into the lucrative business of hajj transport in the Black
Sea. Saidazimbaev proposed an exclusive deal whereby he would “attract pil-
grims” to the fleet’s ships “in the largest possible numbers,” in return for a cut
of every pilgrim ticket he sold. To get pilgrims to choose Volunteer Fleet ships
over its competitors, he proposed building ticket offices to sell the fleet’s tickets
in railroad stations across the empire, starting with the station under way in
Tashkent. He claimed to also own a plot of land in Odessa, where he proposed
to build a large, multipurpose hajj complex where all pilgrims would stay while
in the city.^37
In proposing this deal, Saidazimbaev was surely aware of the fleet’s ongoing
financial troubles and desire to break into new markets. Since the opening of
the trans-Siberian railroad in 1903, the fleet had lost much of its business
ferrying tea, colonists, soldiers, and convicts between Odessa and the Far East.
It suffered further losses after the Russo-Japanese War broke out in 1904, and
trade between Odessa and the Far East came to a standstill.^38 Searching for
new ways to fill its ships, the fleet had become interested in hajj transport,
especially out of Odessa, which had only just become a major hub of the
traffic.^39
Saidazimbaev’s proposal offered the Volunteer Fleet a chance to make mil-
lions of rubles by monopolizing the traffic in and out of the Black Sea. He
claimed to have the know-how and legitimacy to get pilgrims to take the fleet’s