Russia as a Crossroads of the Global Hajj 7imperialism.^14 Across colonial contexts, the introduction of railroads and
steamships had transformed the pilgrimage from a small-scale ritual per-
formed mainly by elites into a mass annual event dominated by the rural poor,
who packed onto the decks of Arabia-bound steamers on third- and fourth-class
tickets. Their wretchedness at the hands of greedy ship captains made head-
lines in Europe, and provided the scandal at the heart of Joseph Conrad’s 1900
novel Lord Jim.^15
A growing body of work explores how Europe’s imperial powers all began
to sponsor the hajj in the nineteenth century, as part of broader efforts to
accommodate Islam in their empires. As an obligatory ritual and a cross-border
migratory phenomenon, the hajj posed unique challenges to these efforts.
Unlike other Islamic institutions, such as mosques or law courts, which had a
local, fixed character and an obvious hierarchy, the hajj was loosely organized,
had no official leadership, and involved long-distance travel along ever-shifting
Figure I.2. Hajj pilgrim praying on
the deck of a steamship. Early 1900s.
(Library of Congress, Prints and
Photographs Division,
LC-M34-A-355)