188 Acknowledgments
the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, and the Inter-
national Research and Exchange Board funded overseas research trips to Rus-
sia, Ukraine, and Georgia. A fellowship from the National Endowment for the
Humanities supported a year of research and writing, and a grant from the
American Association of University Women paid for child care and camp one
summer so that I could focus full-time on writing.
I have benefited from the extraordinary generosity of colleagues who invited
me to their institutions to present my work, read drafts of book chapters, and
shared precious sources and data from the archives. Doug Northrop was an
enthusiastic and crucial supporter of this project early on. I thank him for
inviting me to share my ideas as part of a migration series at Michigan. John
Randolph and Eugene Avrutin included me in their marvelous conference on
mobility in Russia, and this experience helped me to see the hajj as part of that
history. John generously read a draft of chapter 2, and his thoughtful comments
helped me refine my ideas. Allen Frank took time to answer my questions about
Old Tatar and helped with transliteration. Bob Crews offered intellectual sup-
port and good advice throughout the writing of this book. Paul Werth deserves
special mention: he alerted me to the Tbilisi archives as a rich source on the
hajj, and shared his hard-won list of relevant documents from that archive to
help me get started. Pat Herlihy shared her unrivaled knowledge of Odessa and
her contacts there, and read multiple drafts of chapter 4. Mustafa Tuna sent me
copies of hajj memoirs he had collected for his own work, and Benjamin Schenk
gave me precious lists of documents on hajj pilgrims and railroads in RGIA.
Norihiro Naganawa kindly let me cite his marvelous unpublished work on
early Soviet involvement in the hajj. Peter Holquist also shared sources, and
showed great interest in this project. The fantastically talented Halit Dündar
Akarca helped me read through Turkic-language manuscripts and newspapers;
I could never have included these crucial sources without his help. Pamela
Haag’s superb editing helped me get this book into the shape I wanted. In Rus-
sia, the Islamicist Efim Rezvan helped me locate photographs at the Kunst-
kamera, and shared his knowledge of the hajj. In Odessa, Oleg Gubar, one of
the city’s best kraeveds, helped me track down sources I would never have
found on my own. I must also thank my superb research assistants in Odessa,
St. Petersburg, and Istanbul: Victoria Mudraya, Evgenii Grishin, and Ceyda
Yüksel.
Bill Nelson made the excellent maps for this book. And my colleague at Con-
necticut College, Beverly Chomiak, generously spent hours helping me create
map templates using GIS software. I thank them both. I am deeply grateful to