Forging a Russian Hajj Route 119To this end, in 1907 Stolypin drafted, and got the Senate to ratify, “Rules on
the Transport by Ship of Muslim Pilgrims from Black Sea Ports to the Hejaz
and Back.” These rules described the cramped and unsanitary conditions pil-
grims had long been suffering aboard steamships. The new rules required that
ships provide adequate drinking water and food, access to clean toilets (at least
one toilet per hundred passengers, and sex segregated), an onboard disinfection
room and fully equipped medical clinic, ventilation and regular cleaning of
below-deck space, and at least 1.5 square meters of space per pilgrim.^96
Besides imposing new restrictions and requirements on steamship compa-
nies, the 1907 rules greatly expanded the role of Russian officials in Odessa in
regulating hajj traffic, by establishing the city as the main port of exit for Mus-
lim pilgrims leaving Russia (Feodosiia, which already had an established quar-
antine system, was made the port of return), and creating a Port Pilgrimage
Commission in Odessa. Headed by Tolmachev, the commission included local
sanitary, trade, and customs officials and Russian steamship company repre-
sentatives, and its basic duties were to set ticket prices on steamships carrying
Muslim pilgrims, ensure their sanitary screening in the port, inspect and issue
certificates to steamships approved for hajj transport, and appoint doctors to
hajj ships.^97
Perhaps most significantly, the new rules limited the ports hajj pilgrims
could use to depart the empire each year. They stipulated that, in consultation
with the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Internal Affairs would name the
designated ports of departure in the Black Sea and announce them six months
ahead of the scheduled hajj rituals, in newspapers across the empire, so that
pilgrims could plan their journey.^98 The 1907 rules were the first of two major
measures that Stolypin would introduce to finally organize the hajj in Russia.
His next move would be to appoint a hajj leader for the empire.