18 Chapter One
track down the camel driver in question—a rich Damascene and Ottoman sub-
ject named Hajji al-Esmer—and had him brought to the local Islamic court in
Damascus. There, under oath before an Ottoman judge, al-Esmer acknowledged
Mamad’s deposit and testified that he had returned it to his travel companions,
two men described in court documents as Russian subjects and Muslim mili-
tary officers from the Caucasus. At this point, the consul general transferred the
case back to Tiflis for the Russian viceroy to investigate further.^4
Mamad’s story and his heirs’ quest to recover his estate illustrate a much
broader historical change, whose effects would prove wide ranging: by the
mid-nineteenth century, as a consequence of global imperialism, the hajj was
increasingly coming under European influence and control. This was unprece-
dented. Since its eighth-century beginnings after the birth of Islam, the Meccan
pilgrimage had been performed under the patronage of Muslim rulers, through
Muslim-ruled lands, and with the help of Muslim officials along the way. Hajj
pilgrims’ ultimate destination—the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina—were
(and still are) closed to non-Muslims. This situation slowly began to change in
the sixteenth century, as Europeans explored the Indian Ocean and other parts
of Asia, conquering Muslim-majority lands and bringing long stretches of tra-
ditional hajj routes under their influence and direct control.^5 As European col-
onization grew, so did Europeans’ interest in and influence over the hajj.
Russia was unique among European empires in ruling Muslims as far back
as the fifteenth century, and had one of the longest histories of involvement in
the hajj. In the sixteenth century Muscovite Russia conquered the former Mon-
gol khanate (principality) of Astrakhan and established itself along a major car-
avan route used by Central Asians to get to Mecca.^6 Further imperial conquests
to the south and the east—of the northern shores of the Black Sea, Crimea, the
Caucasus, and Central Asia—added millions of new Muslim subjects to the
empire’s already large and internally diverse population, and brought a web of
ancient caravan routes within Russia’s borders.
For centuries Muslims across Eurasia had been traveling these lands and
routes to reach Mecca. Many took sailing vessels across the Black Sea to Istan-
bul (Constantinople) to witness the sultan’s investiture ceremonies that marked
the departure of the imperial hajj caravan from the Ottoman capital. Others,
Kasym Mamad among them, cut south through the Caucasus to join imperial
hajj caravans leaving from Damascus and Baghdad. Still others followed land
routes through Afghan and Indian lands, to board ships bound across the
Indian Ocean to Arabia.^7 This traffic continued and in fact increased after
the Russian conquests, with the introduction of railroads and steamships in the