Imperialism through Islamic Networks 43India intersected with hajj routes from the Caucasus, the idea of a Russian con-
sulate was first suggested by a Russian military officer named E. I. Chirikov,
who arrived in the Ottoman city in 1849 as part of an international team to set
postwar borders between Persia and the Ottoman Empire. During his stay in
the city, Chirikov noticed large crowds of Muslim pilgrims from the South
Caucasus—he estimated at least 6,000 a year—in transit to Mecca and various
Shiʿi shrines. Many of them approached his Russian colleagues for “help in
dealing with the Ottoman authorities.”^79 In two separate reports sent to the
army’s general staff in the 1850s, Chirikov proposed that Russia could use the
hajj traffic as an “excuse” to open a consulate there that could “keep the British
away from Russian territories around the Caspian Sea and Central Asia” and
function as a spy apparatus to “keep officials in far-away St. Petersburg
informed.”^80
As for Titov’s proposal to have a Russian agent installed in Mecca, the Otto-
man grand vizier implied that while his government would not allow Russia to
post a formal consular agent in Mecca, it might permit a kehaya, chosen from
among Muslims in the Caucasus, preferably a Sunni. His job would be to “rep-
resent his coreligionists before the authorities in Mecca,” supervise the process-
ing of the estates of deceased pilgrims, and “defend” pilgrims from exploitation
by locals. Titov next forwarded his proposal to Vorontsov, presenting it as a
response to the disasters pilgrims had suffered the year before, and acknowl-
edging the concern that Vorontsov had for the subjects under his authority. He
elicited Vorontsov’s response to the plan.^81
Vorontsov received Titov’s proposal at a time when he was trying various
strategies to discourage Muslims from making the hajj and other cross-border
pilgrimages to Shiʿi shrines in Persian and Ottoman lands, mainly Mashhad,
Najaf, and Karbala. One strategy was to dissuade Muslims who applied for
passports by expressing concern for the welfare of the families they left behind
during their long absences. Vorontsov was concerned in part about the daunt-
ing volume of hajj traffic, and its potential future growth. He acknowledged
that because of the difficulties and expenses of the journey, relatively few Mus-
lims made the pilgrimage every year. However, he noted that the overall Mus-
lim population in the Caucasus was enormous, and Russia’s policy of religious
toleration precluded him from turning down requests to go to Mecca, so he
wanted at least to keep the numbers low.^82
Vorontsov’s motivations were also economic. His investigations into the
routes and costs of Muslim pilgrimages abroad had revealed huge costs: at least
200 rubles to get to Mecca, one hundred to get to Karbala, and forty to fifty for