Imperialism through Islamic Networks 41heirs managed to recover the 300 rubles he left behind. Nevertheless, the case
offers valuable insights into how Muslims were responding to Russia’s growing
involvement in the hajj in this period. Mamad’s example suggests that by the late
1840s, Muslim pilgrims were regularly turning to Russian consular officials in
Syria for help resolving estate cases. Bazili noted in correspondence with other
officials that he had handled “many” estate cases like Kasym Mamad’s in the
past, and resolved them quickly.^72
And yet it was also clear that many Muslims continued to rely on Ottoman net-
works and avoid the Russian consulate, or to use it only when they ran into serious
trouble. It took Bazili a long time—almost two years—to investigate the Mamad
case, because neither he nor Telatinidis had any record of him. Mamad had not
registered with the vice-consulate upon arriving in Damascus, and had chosen to
leave his money with the Ottoman camel driver instead of with the vice-consul.
Bazili complained to Ambassador Titov that he and the Damascus vice-consul
had a hard time protecting the rights of Russia’s Muslims if they did not come to
the consulate to certify their transactions and deals. Bazili was frustrated that
many Muslims were still not registering with Russia’s consulates in Aleppo and
Damascus, which had been established “to protect the interests of Russian sub-
jects,” and many did not apprise the consuls of their business and trade deals. This
situation made it difficult for Bazili to deal with cases like Mamad’s, and the
lengthy investigations they required were costly for Russia’s consulates.^73
Russian officials in the Caucasus who wanted to encourage Muslims to make
the hajj through official Russian channels, by getting passports and registering
with consulates abroad, took Bazili’s complaints seriously. Reasoning that
many Muslims did not register their business transactions with Russian con-
suls out of ignorance of this “necessary formality,” Russian officials worked to
better inform departing hajj pilgrims about the consular services available, and
of the importance of informing the Russian consul or agent of their where-
abouts and other transactions with Ottoman subjects. In 1851 the viceroy’s
office ordered its officials in the Caucasus to “urge Muslims going to Persia and
the Ottoman Empire to involve Russian consular agents in their deals,” and
this order was sent also to Russian diplomatic officials in Persia and the Russian
ambassador in Constantinople.^74
By the early 1850s, officials involved in the hajj in the Caucasus and Syria dis-
agreed over whether to expand support for Muslim pilgrims further into Otto-
man lands. This is clear from disagreements between Vorontsov and Titov over