Russian Muslims’ Pilgrimages to Makkah

in the Early Twentieh-Century

Dr. Serguei E. Grigoriev

The celebration of the Centennial of the establishment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1999 was considered by its subjects, by all the Muslims of the world, and by those who are interested in the history and culture of this state as one of the most significant and memorable events of the year.

Thanks to God’s will the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the home and the custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. All the Kings of the country, beginning with the founder and architect of the state, His Majesty the late King ‘Abd al-‘Aziz, and after him His Majesty the late King Saud, His Majesty the late King Faisal, His Majesty the late King Khaled and the present head of state and leader of Saudi Arabia, His Majesty King Fahd, have taken thorough care of and are now the vigilant guardians of the Holy Places of Hejaz – Makkah al-Mukarrama, the Honoured, and al-Madinah al-Munawara, the Radiant. Their Majesties have long been looking after the Pilgrims (al-Hujaj), and attend comprehensively to the needs of all Hujaj coming every year to these cities for the Holy hajj, a sacred duty for all the Muslims of the world. The state of Saudi Arabia, headed by His Majesty King Fahd, does its best to secure the Pilgrims’ welfare and appropriate services for them during their stay there. Much has been done by His Majesty King Fahd to facilitate the process of Holy Hajj for the numerous pilgrims coming to Saudi Arabia from Russia. All Russian Muslims and Muslims from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) were greatly impressed by the honourable and magnanimous decision of His Majesty King Fahd to pay their expenses during the Hajj of the year 1998.

As is well known, Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, and every Muslim has to perform it at least once in his or her lifetime. The pilgrimage takes place between the seventh and the thirteenth days of the month Dhu’l-Hijjah, the last month of the Muslim calendar. Every year millions of pilgrims come to the Holy Mosque (al-Masjid al-Haram, whose sanctuary surrounds al-Ka’ba) in Makkah al-Mukarrama from all the countries of the world, thus forming the largest annual assembly of people on Earth. Hajj is a holy duty for all Muslims, a means of acknowledgment of the might and oneness of God, and is a form of religious, social and cultural bonding between Muslims coming from every side to the Holy Places of Hejaz. Makkah al-Mukarrama at the time of Holy Hajj is the only place in the world where one can see people who have come from all the countries of the world where the followers of Holy Islam live praying, making tawaf (the ritual circumnambulation of the Ka’ba), halting at the Stone of Abraham (makam Ibrahim), drinking water from the holy well of Zamzam, marching between Safa, Marwah and ‘Arafat, casting stones at the devil in Mina, making sacrifice and so forth. Makkah al-Mukarrama is the place where they can meet each other, associate with each other and understand in their hearts the simple and true fact that Holy Islam unites them all into one great, dynamic and steadily growing society. Makkah al-Mukarrama is the place where leaders of Islamic countries and states can meet at the time of Holy Hajj. They can discuss the various problems facing their countries and the world of Islam as a whole. This Holy City is a sacred place for all Muslims, the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him). It is the place where the Holy Qur’an was revealed to Him, and through Him to the whole of mankind. It is the real and spiritual capital of the Muslim world. It is a meeting-place where all the questions and problems of the Muslim world can be freely talked about, discussed and solved.

It is very difficult to write about Holy Hajj itself, as all its aspects are already totally and completely envisaged in the Qur’an, and the procedure of Holy Hajj and its sequence and details are described in full and entirely in the Holy Sunna of the Prophet Muhammad – (Peace be upon Him), while many leading Muslim scholars, scientists and ‘Ulama have studied and analysed every aspect of this pillar of Holy Islam.

We can find information concerning the hajj and descriptions of Makkah al-Mukarrama in books written by many Arabian scholars; however, owing to the fact that we are about to deal with the information on the hajj that is to be found in the Russian state archives and in Russian periodicals we shall not here draw your attention to written historical sources in the Arabic language.

A certain number of Europeans who have converted to Holy Islam have made hajj and became hajjis. Some of them wrote reports about it. Their impressions of Makkah al-Mukarrama and the various aspects of life in this holy city, its environs and its suburbs can be found in their reminiscences, published in various countries, some of them in Europe. I may mention among them the following travellers and scientists. First, there was Ludovico Di Varthema (of Italian origin), who came to Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara at the beginning of the sixteenth century. His report of his journey through the territory of modern Saudi Arabia was published in Italy, France and England (L. Di Varthema, Travels, translated by B. Badger, London, 1863 (Hakluyt Series)). Then there was Johan Wilden – a German from Nuremberg who visited Makkah al-Mukarrama in the seventeenth century. He served in the Hungarian army and was taken prisoner by the Turks in 1604. J. Wilden later converted to Holy Islam and together with his Turkish master made hajj in 1611. He published a book about his travels in Hejaz, comprising a description of Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara (Johan Wilden, Neu Reysebeschreibung eines gefangenen Christen … welche sich 1604 angefangen und 1611 ihr End genommen, Nuremberg, 1613 and 1623). An Englishman named Joseph Pitts visited Makkah al-Mukarrama at the end of the seventeenth century. Earlier he had been taken prisoner by Algerian pirates and had converted to Holy Islam. He published a report of his journey in Arabia, including a detailed description of Makkah al-Mukarrama and the hajj itself, in 1704 (Joseph Pitts, A Truthful Account of the Religion and Manners of the Mahometans, Exeter, 1704). Ulrikh Caspar Seetzen – a German Orientalist – visited Makkah al-Mukarrama at the beginning of the nineteenth century. He wrote a number of books and articles concerning his voyages and wanderings in Arabia. The majority of his recollections and memoirs were published at the beginning of the nineteenth century in the French journal Annales des Voyages and later in Germany. Johan Ludwig Burckhardt – a famous Swiss traveller and Orientalist – visited Makkah al-Mukarrama in 1814. His impressions of his visit to this city were published later in both London and Paris (J. L. Burckhardt, Notes on the Bedouins and Wahabis, London; L. Burckhardt, Voyages en Arabie … suivis de Notes sur les Bedouins et d’un essai sur l’histoire des Wahhabites, Paris, 1835). Domingo Badiay Leyblich – a Spaniard from the city of Cadiz – came to Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara at the beginning of the nineteenth century under the guise of a certain Muslim named ‘Ali Bey al-‘Abba-si. He published a report of his journey in 1814 in Paris and in 1816 in London (Ali Bey, Voyages, Paris. 1814; Ali Bey, Travels, London, 1816). ‘Abd al-Karim – a Kashmiri by origin (the principality of Kashmir is nowadays situated in the north-western part of India and the north-eastern part of Pakistan) made hajj at the end of the eighteenth century. He spent three months at Makkah al-Mukarrama. On returning home, ‘Abd al-Karim wrote a book about his journey. It is based on the works of C. Niebuhr, a famous Danish Orientalist of the second half of the eighteenth century, on some other European historical sources, and on his own impressions of this journey (Abdul Kerym, Voyage de l’Inde a la Mekke, Paris, 1797). Georg August Wallin, a scientist from Finland (at that time a part of the Russian Empire) in the forties of the nineteenth century visited Hejaz and Nejd. He was a Professor of Helsingfors University (Helsingfors is now Helsinki, the capital of Finland). Georg Wallin wrote many scientific articles and books about his journey. The report of his expedition, containing his description of Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara, was published in London in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1854 (G. A. Wallin, ‘Narrative of a Journey from Cairo to Medina and Mecca by Suez, Acaba, Tawila, al-Yauf, Jubbe, Hail and Nejd in 1845’,. Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. 24, London, 1854). A French traveller, M. Tamisier, at exactly the same time crossed the territories of ‘Asir and Hejaz. He published a report of his travels later (M. Tamisier, Voyage en Arabie. Séjour dans le Hidjaz. Campagne d’Assir, Vols. 1–2, Paris, 1940).

An Englishman, R. F. Burton, visited Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara in 1853. He wrote a book about his voyage, which was later translated into French, German and other European languages. The memoirs of R. F. Burton are still considered by many scholars to be among the best descriptions of the holy hajj and the two holy cities of Hejaz ever made by a European (Sir R. F. Burton, A Pilgrimage to al-Madinah and Meccah, London, 1885; Sir R. F. Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to al-Madinah and Meccah, Vols 1–2, London, 1893). A Frenchman, Charles Didier, visited Makkah al-Mukarrama in 1854. He published a book about his meetings and negotiations with the Sharif of Makkah al-Mukarrama (Ch. Didier, Séjour chez le grand-chérif de la Mekke, Paris, 1857). This book contains important information concerning the relations between the Arabs and the Ottoman Empire and the then political and economic situation in the Hejaz, and description of Makkah al-Mukarrama. An English traveller and archaeologist, Charles Doughty, visited the Hejaz in the seventies of the nineteenth century. His book about his wanderings contains a fine description of the outskirts of these two holy cities (Charles Doughty, Travels in Arabia Deserta, Vols 1–2, Cambridge, 1888). In 1877–8 Makkah al-Mukarrama was visited by another Englishman – John S. Keane, who published a report about his life there (John S. Keane, Six Months in the Hedjaz, London, 1887). In the second half of the nineteenth century Makkah al-Mukarrama was visited by Snouck Hurgronje. He issued a book (supplied with photographs and maps) about this holy city too (J. Snouck Hurgronje, Mekka, The Hague, 1888). An English scientist, Eldon Rutter, published a detailed description of Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara (Eldon Rutter, Holy Cities of Arabia, London, 1928). A full list of the Europeans who visited Makkah al-Mukarrama at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries can be found in the book dedicated to the origin and development of the Wahhabi trend of Islam written by a Russian scientist, A. M. Vasiliev.¹

Many Western European, American and Russian Orientalists have studied the process of the holy hajj from the religious, historical, cultural, economic and other points of view. The territory of Hejaz and the two holy cities of Islam – Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara – were studied by the Orientalists and by travellers as well. The list of the names of the scholars who dedicated their lives to researches in this field is too long to be recited here.² Nevertheless, many scientists and scholars from Western European, North American and sometimes Muslim states who were and are engaged in the study of the holy hajj, Hejaz and the two holy cities don’t as a rule take into account books and articles on these topics written by Russian scholars. Historical materials from Russia concerning these issues often remain unknown beyond Russia’s own borders. The same is also true in respect of the numerous historical documents containing information about the holy hajj that are kept in the various State Archives of the Russian Federation. There were many causes for the existence of such an anomalous state of affairs at an earlier date. The Cold War and the so-called ‘Iron Curtain’ hampered the establishment and development of contacts – including scientific contacts – between Russia, the countries of the Muslim world, and Western European and North American states. The inaccessibility to foreign scholars and Orientalists of the bulk of the Russian State Archives aggravated this position. A relatively low level of dissemination of the Russian language outside Russia and the states of the former USSR made many scholarly books and articles published there (unless they were translated into the Arabic, English, French or German languages) inaccessible to foreign scholars. However, one of the main reasons why the works of Russian scholars on the holy hajj were unknown to the outer world was the fact that, although Russian scholars have written many books and articles about Islam as a whole, and about its predominant and all-embracing influence upon the states, economic structures, histories, and cultures and upon all aspects of the lives of the peoples of the Middle East, there were rather fewer articles dedicated to the holy hajj as such.³

Some propagandistic articles about Islam were published in the journals of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR, but these articles were written in the traditional Communist style and are barely worth mentioning, as although the holy hajj was in some sense discussed in these publications, their authors were not pursuing religious or scientific goals. Only after the fall of Communism in Russia did there appear a number of articles dedicated to the holy hajj. Some of these were published outside Russia.⁴ A number of books on the problems of the history of the various religions in Russia and books dedicated specifically to Islam in Russia touched in some way upon the hajj.⁵

The Russian Empire at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries was a multiconfessional and multinational state. Islam was the third biggest confession in Russia. The total number of Muslims living in the Russian Empire itself and in the Emirate of Bukhara and the Khanate of Khiva – Russia’s Muslim client states in Central Asia – amounted to more than 19 million people (15 per cent of the overall population of the Empire). So Russia was then (and still is now) among the biggest Muslim states in the world, if we reckon by the number of followers of Islam that it contains. The majority of the Muslims of the Russian Empire lived in Central Asia, the Crimean peninsula, the Caucasus and Transcaucasus regions, the basins of the Volga and Kama rivers, and the southern provinces of Siberia and the Urals.

The inclusion of the former Central Asian states – the Bukhara Emirate, the Khiva and Kokand Khanates and the domains of the Turkoman tribes – within the Russian Empire or Russia’s sphere of influence greatly increased the number of Russian Muslims in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Russian Muslims were endowed with the right freely to confess Holy Islam. They built new mosques; printed the Holy al-Qur’an al-Karim and books on Islam and Islamic law and culture; educated their children in an Islamic way; and fulfilled openly all their religious duties, including that of the holy hajj. The Ulama were not appointed by the Russian State. They were elected, as elsewhere in the Muslim world, by the members of the local Muslim communities. The Ulama served as registrars of the births, weddings and deaths of members of the Muslim communities. The Russian authorities of the territories where Muslims lived did not intrude into their internal affairs. The Muslims had their own judicial and educational systems, based on the principles of Holy Islam. Many aspects of their life were not controlled by the officials of the Russian Empire. Muslims from the Central Asian domains of the Russian Empire were not drafted into the Russian army.

The social elite of the Muslim peoples of the Russian Empire was deeply involved in its ruling political, economic and cultural establishment. Russian Muslims were in many cases among the noblest, most influential and richest people in the Empire. The elite of the Russian Muslims often determined the political, economic and cultural future of the state. Many Russian ministers, famous generals and officers, merchants, entrepreneurs and intellectuals were Muslims by creed and origin. Some Russian Muslims (the Princes Yusupov among others) had matrimonial ties with the Romanovs, the ruling dynasty of the Russian Empire.

Russia, being a country situated in both Europe and Asia, had had close ties with the states, countries and peoples of the Middle East since ancient times. Russians visited the Middle Eastern countries for a variety of reasons – religious, political, commercial, scientific, cultural and so forth. Scholars from Russia studied the history, culture and language of the Arab countries.

The territory of the modern Saudi Arabia – the Custodian and the Caretaker of the two Holy Mosques – is situated far away from Russia. The Hejaz at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries was a province of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey had complicated and sometimes tensed political relations with Russia at that time (there had been several wars in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries between the Russian and Ottoman Empires). As a result of this, the Hejaz was not often visited by people from Russia for political, commercial or scientific reasons. The Turkish authorities in the Hejaz, whose influence was in reality limited only to the big cities – Jeddah, Yanbo’, Makkah al-Mukarrama, al-Madinah al-Munawara, al-Ta’if and others (Turkish garrisons were stationed in these places) – were very suspicious towards people from Russia.

However, in spite of the fact that the Turkish authorities displayed such an attitude towards the Russians, some scientists, naturalists and travellers from that country managed to come to this part of the Middle East. Among them we might mention the Russian counts Abamelek-Nazarov, A. Stroganov, and A. G. Scherbatov, who were specialists in horse-racing. They visited the northern parts of modern Saudi Arabia with the purpose of improving the Russian breed of horse by purchasing Arab horses from there and sending them to Russia. The Finnish scientist G. A. Wallin (Finland was a part of the Russian Empire at that time) travelled in the Hejaz and ‘Asir. And at the end of the nineteenth century the Russian officer Davletshin, a Bashkir by birth (the Bashkirs are a Muslim tribe of Turkish origin living in the Central Asian part of the Russian Empire), came to Hejaz and visited Holy Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara. On his return to Russia he wrote a book about his journey.⁶

None the less, thousands of people from Russia came to the territories of modern Saudi Arabia every year. They were not scientists or travelers, however. They streamed to the Hejaz in order to fulfil one of the main duties incumbent on every faithful Muslim. They wanted to make the holy hajj, to see the Two Holy Mosques, to breathe the holy air of al-Haramein and to drink the holy water from the well of Zamzam in Makkah al-Mukarrama. They were pilgrims – hajjis descending from all the different parts of the vast Russian Empire. They were making a long and sometimes dangerous journey that lasted for several months. The only goals and objects of their trip were Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara.

The quantity of hajjis who came to the Hejaz from the Russian Empire was growing steadily at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. There were many reasons for such positive changes. The increasing number of Muslims in Russia, the growing influence of Islam there, the improvement of the standard of living of the Russian Muslims, the establishment of direct passenger steamship lines between the ports of Russia and Jeddah and Yanbo’ (the sea gates of Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara) – all these factors promoted a significant increase in the quantity of Russian pilgrims going to al-Haramein. As a result of these rapid changes many Russian state institutes and establishments, private companies, associations, foundations, Muslim societies and communities and mosques, newspapers, magazines and journals were involved in the process of organizing, transporting, providing for, protecting and supporting the Russian hajjis. Many different documents concerning Russian hajjis are kept in various Russian State Archives. St Petersburg, in the north-west of Russia, was the capital of the Russian Empire from 1703 to 1918. It was and is the home of many State historical archives, containing a variety of documents concerning Russian hajjis.

As I have mentioned before, approximately 15 per cent of the population of the Russian Empire was Muslim at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. The majority of Russian Muslims were spread over the vast territories of the southern, south-western and central provinces of the country. The life of the Muslims of the world (Russia included) at that time was characterized by the steady growth of their national and religious consciousness and aspirations towards educational, cultural, and economic, and later political, independence. One of the most important and foundational elements of these longings, which later mutated into political struggle, was the establishment of a number of newspapers and journals published and owned by Muslim publishers. These mass media were celebrating the spiritual, cultural and historical values of Islam and Muslim civilization as a whole, both its glorious history and more contemporary aspects. Many such newspapers sprang up in the Russian provinces inhabited by Muslims. Some of them were published in the Russian language, which was the official language of the state. But later, at the beginning of the twentieth century, many newspapers were issued in the so-called ‘Muslim’ languages of the Russian Empire – Azeri, Bashkir, Crimean Tartar, Tadjik, Tartar, Uzbek and others. Among the first ‘Muslim’ newspapers of Russia we might mention the newspaper named Terdjuman. This was edited by a famous Muslim figure in public and cultural life, the Russian statesman Ismail Bey Gaspr ‘Ali (Gasprinskiy), in the town of Baghchesarai (situated in the Crimean peninsula). This and other Russian Muslim newspapers and journals contained many articles and notes concerning the main pillars of Islam – including the hajj and how to fulfil its obligations, the Russian hajjis and their needs and requirements, descriptions of the two Holy Mosques and reminiscences of the Russian hajjis about their travels to the holy cities of the Hejaz.

Articles and assorted documents concerning the hajj found in the Russian State Archives and Russian periodicals describe the conditions of Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara at the time of the hajj, and the life, customs, and traditions of their populations: their economic and political situation, the patterns of occupation of the citizens of the two holy cities, and so on. These articles and documents give a precise account of the ethnic composition of the pilgrims, the relations that existed between them during the hajj, and so on. We can say that the Russian State Archives and the Russian newspapers published both in Russian and in the so-called ‘Muslim’ languages of the Russian Empire could well be called a treasure-house of information and written historical materials concerning the hajj. The authority of the Russian Empire helped Russian Muslim pilgrims successfully solve the various judicial, political, financial and medical problems that confronted them on their way to Arabia. Therefore we can say that the Russian State Archives, and above all those that are situated in St Petersburg, abound in historical materials and documents related to the hajj.

One of the biggest and most famous historical archives of Russia is the Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation in St Petersburg. This Archive was founded in 1922. It contains more than 6 million copies of different documents, manuscripts, official and private letters, edicts and decrees that were issued, prepared or belonged to various official establishments, institutes and organizations of the Russian Empire. These documents give a vast and detailed description of practically all aspects of life of Russian society from the opening of the eighteenth to the beginning of the twentieth centuries. Many documents from this State archive pertain to the foreign policy of the Russian Empire, including its relations and links with the countries of the Middle East.

A certain number of these records relate to the holy hajj and the solution of the various problems that were faced by the Russian hajjis who went from various parts of Russia to Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara. These documents are concentrated mainly in the following deposits or departments (enumerated by numbers) of the Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation:

N 86 – the documents of the trade shipping department of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Empire. This department’s records contain information on the process of the transportation of Russian hajjis from Russia to Arabia and back by sea.

N 95, 98 – the documents of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Empire. This department accommodates records on financial questions related to the transportation of Russian hajjis to Arabia and the allocation of financial funds by the Russian Government for the purposes of the construction of special hotels, hostels and railway stations for the use of Muslim pilgrims on the territory of the Russian Empire.

N 223 – the documents of the State Council of the Russian Empire. They hold information on procedures for solving various problems affecting Russian hajjis by the authority of the Empire. The descriptions of the progress of the hajj as seen by ordinary Russian hajjis, later translated into the Russian language, are concentrated in this department.

N 821 – the documents of the department of foreign (i.e. not Russian Orthodox) faiths of the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Empire. This department contains information on the numbers of Russian Muslim Ulama and Mullahs who went annually to the two Holy Mosques for hajj.

N 1151 – the documents of the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Empire. This department accommodates records on the judicial and administrative organization of the transportation of Russian hajjis to Arabia. The texts of the rules, laws and requirements concerning Russian hajjis in general, and in particular during their stays aboard Russian ships and in Russian hotels and hostels built specially for them are concentrated in this department.

N 1152 – the documents of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire. This department contains documents concerning the establishment of the Russian Imperial Consulate in Jeddah, and the activities of the Russian Embassies and Consulates (above all in Constantinople, Jeddah and Yanbo’) aimed at rendering various forms of assistance to Russian hajjis during their travels to Hejaz and their stay there.

N 1263 – the documents of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire. They contain information about the attitudes of the various Russian ministries, institutions and organizations involved in facilitating all the various aspects of the process of the hajj for Russian Muslim pilgrims.

N 1276 – the documents of the Office of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire.

N 1286 – the documents of the Police Department of the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Empire. These accommodate information concerning the fulfilment of various regulations by the Russian hajjis during their travel through Russian territory on their way to the two Holy Mosques.

N 1298 – the documents of the Medical Department of the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Empire hold information concerning various public health measures undertaken against the possibility of the appearance of infectious diseases brought back by hajjis within the territory of the Empire.

Each of these deposits is divided into many so-called ‘Inventories’ – subdivisions, containing thousands of items of assorted historical documents and records. They are grouped according to their origin, time of emergence, topic, or subject, or their attitude towards some particular state institution, private company, or personage, and so on. Documents of the Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation in St Petersburg form a rich collection of firsthand accounts and descriptions of many aspects of the holy hajj undertaken by thousands of Russian Muslims annually at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries.

Another important depository of Russian historical documents is the State Central Naval Archive of the Russian Federation. It too is located in St Petersburg. This archive is one of the oldest in Russia. It is the only specialized archive containing records and documents on the history of the Russian navy and merchant fleet. It was established in 1724 by Tsar Peter the Great. More than 1.2 million copies of documents, maps, ships’ logs, drawings, drafts, photos of ships and other handwritten and printed materials related to history of the Russian navy and merchant fleet are deposited there. Many of these documents pertain to relations between Russia and the countries of the Middle East – Saudi Arabia included. There are many records and papers concerning the history, economy, administrative structure, and culture of Saudi Arabia and its contacts with other countries in this archive.

As a result of the fact that ships of the Russian merchant fleet conveyed Russian hajjis to Yanbo’ and Jeddah and Russian warships sailed in the waters of the Red Sea many documents in this Archive contain precious information concerning the conduct of the holy hajj. These documents are preserved in the following deposits of the State Central Naval Archive of the Russian Federation:

N 29 – the documents belonging to the N. N. Beklemishev deposit. Beklemishev was a general of the Russian army. The documents kept in this deposit contain the reports of captains of Russian steamboats that brought Russian hajjis to Jeddah and Yanbo’ at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries.

N 417 – the documents of the General Staff of the Russian Navy. They contain reports from the Russian Imperial consul in Jeddah and the Russian consular agent in Yanbo’, which were usually closely connected with Russian hajjis. This department’s archive also contains reports from captains of Russian warships that sailed in the Red Sea at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. Some of these documents contain information on Russian and foreign pilgrims.

N 410 – the documents of the Russian Navy Ministry office. They hold information on the Red Sea; its shores (the Arabian littoral included) and the process of sailing there.

Some of these documents contain information concerning Hejaz and its cities – Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara included.

As I have mentioned before, Russian periodicals, and above all newspapers and journals issued in the so-called Muslim regions of the Russian Empire, in its capital St Petersburg, in Moscow and in the seaports of the northern shores of the Black Sea, from which the Russian hajjis sailed to Hejaz, contain many articles and reports on the life and problems of Russian Muslim pilgrims. These mass media often published the reports and memoirs of the hajjis themselves. These reminiscences usually contained descriptions of their journeys to the two Holy Mosques, of the process of hajj itself and of their impressions of the two Holy cities – Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara. The complete list of these newspapers is too long to be given in full here. I shall therefore name here only a few of them that frequently published materials on the holy hajj. These newspapers were the following (I give only their names and places of publication):

§ The Voice of Turkestan – the town of Andijan (in the Ferghana region of Central Asia, now the territory of the Republic of Uzbekistan)

§ The Trans-Caspian Review – Ashgabat (the principal town of the Transcaspian region of the Russian Empire, now the capital of the Republic of Turkmenistan)

§ Caucasus and Central Asia – Baku (now the capital of the Azerbaijan Republic)

§ Tarjuman – Baghchesarai (a town in the Crimean peninsula, now in the Ukraine Republic)

§ The Kazan Provincial Register – Kazan (a city in the basin of the Volga river inhabited mainly by Tartars)

§ The Review of the Black Sea Ports – Odessa (the main Russian seaport on the northern shore of the Black Sea)

§ Distant Lands – Samarkand (a city in the Turkestan area of the Russian Empire, now Uzbekistan)

§ The Turkestan Regional Register – Tashkent (the principal city of the Central Asian part of the Russian Empire, now the capital of the Uzbek Republic)

§ The Central Asian Register – Tashkent.

In the documents of the Russian State Archives and the articles of the newspapers of the Russian Empire we can find information concerning the following subjects:

§ The geographical origin of Russian hajjis – those provinces and dependencies of the Russian Empire that dispatched the greatest numbers of Muslim pilgrims.

§ The total annual number of Russian hajjis. The annual number of hajjis originating from every province and dependency of the Russian Empire.

§ The ethnic and tribal composition of the Russian pilgrims.

§ The social, professional and educational composition of the Russian pilgrims.

§ The annual number of Russian pilgrims applying to the Russian police in order to gain a passport for going on an officially recognized journey to Hejaz.

§ The approximate annual numbers of Russian hajjis who managed to cross the borders of Russian empire on their way to the two Holy Mosques without official permission or an official passport.

§ The organization of Russian hajjis into groups according to the places of their birth, or their ethnic, social or professional identities and origins.

§ The towns and cities of the Russian Empire that served as meeting-points for the Russian hajjis on their way to the Hejaz.

§ The itineraries of the journeys of Russian hajjis within the Russian Empire from these meeting-points to the checkpoints on the Russian borders.

§ The most commonly used routes of Russian hajjis from their home country to Hejaz, and the predominance of the sea route from the ports of the northern coast of the Black Sea to the ports of Jeddah and Yanbo’.

§ The durations of the journeys of Russian hajjis from the Russian Empire to Hejaz by sea, or by land if the land route was chosen.

§ The measures taken by the Russian authorities of the ports of the Black Sea where the embarkation of hajjis on their way to the two Holy Mosques took place that were aimed at the improvement of day-to-day conditions for the pilgrims.

§ The sanitary and anti-epidemic measures of the Russian medical authorities against possible outbreaks of epidemics of plague and cholera among the Russian hajjis.

§ The establishment of special buildings for the Russian hajjis at railway stations within the regions of the Russian Empire with a predominantly Muslim population.

§ The internal arrangements of the Russian steamboats conveying Russian hajjis to Jeddah and Yanbo’ and back to Russia.

§ The building of Russian ships specially designed for the transportation of Russian hajjis.

§ The organization of a special sea line connecting the ports of the Hejaz and the ports of the northern coast of the Black Sea for the purpose of conveying Russian Muslim pilgrims.

§ The price of discounted tickets for hajjis.

§ The competition between Russian, Turkish, British, German, French and Greek steamboats for the Russian and foreign hajjis.

§ The attempts of Russian steamship companies to gain the right to convey hajjis to the Hejaz from the countries of the Far East (Indonesia, the Philippines, Siam – now Thailand – etc.).

§ The establishment of the Russian Imperial Consulate in Jeddah for the purpose of the defence and protection of Russian interests and Russian hajjis in the Hejaz.

§ The organization of the process of disembarkation of hajjis from the steamboats in Jeddah.

§ The city of Jeddah, its population, the occupations of its inhabitants, and the ethnic and tribal composition of its residents. The customs and traditions of the people of Jeddah.

§ The economic influence of the process of hajj on the city of Jeddah and its inhabitants.

§ The placement of hajjis in hotels, rented flats and rooms in Jeddah and Makkah al- Mukarrama.

§ The formation of caravans of hajjis travelling from Jeddah to Makkah al-Mukarrama. The role of the wakils in this process.

§ The help rendered by the Russian Imperial Consulate in Jeddah to the Russian hajjis in solving various problems.

§ The march of caravans with hajjis from Jeddah to Makkah al-Mukarrama.

§ The organization of caravans. The number of people and camels. The protection of the caravans.

§ The stopping and resting places between Jeddah and Makkah al-Mukarrama.

§ Makkah al-Mukarrama. Its description from the religious, historical and architectural points of view. Its population, the occupations of its inhabitants, the ethnic and tribal composition of its residents, and the customs and traditions of its people.

§ The holy hajj. The description of the elements and rituals of the holy hajj.

§ The annual numbers of hajjis, and their ethnic composition.

§ The situation of the Russian hajjis in Makkah al-Mukarrama. The hotels and hajji-khans – hostels for Russian hajjis owned by the Russian Muslims, Tartars, Bashkirs and Uzbeks by ethnic origin. The numbers of Russian Muslims permanently living in this city. Their occupations: trading, running hostels and hotels for the hajjis, guiding and helping Russian Muslims during the hajj, studying at the madrasas (religious schools), etc.

§ The holy objects usually brought home by the Russian hajjis from Makkah al-Mukarrama (pieces of the Mahmal, a richly decorated litter containing a fresh set of black Qiswa curtains for the Ka’ba and full of gifts and provisions, sent by the Egyptian Khedive to Makkah at the time of the hajj, water from the Zamzam well, ihram (pilgrim robes), rosaries and so on).

§ The reduced customs duties imposed by the Russian authorities on the goods brought to Russia from Makkah al-Mukarrama by Russian hajjis.

Within the framework of this chapter there is no possibility of our discussing all these items. So we’ll direct the attention of our esteemed readership to just four specific topics:

1. The routes commonly used by Russian hajjis on their way to Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara.

2. The regions of the Russian Empire from where the majority of Russian hajjis originated.

3. The organization of the transportation of Russian hajjis.

4. The overall numbers of hajjis coming annually to Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara from the territory of the Russian Empire.

The majority of the Russian Muslim pilgrims who went to Makkah al-Mukarrama at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries came to this holy city by sea, aboard Russian or sometimes foreign ships that sailed out of Russian ports situated on the shore of the Black Sea. Other pilgrims – mainly those who lived in Central Asia – went to Makkah al-Mukarrama via Afghanistan and British India, and then by sea from the port of Karachi.

Russian hajjis who went to the Hejaz by sea usually used steamers that belonged to two big Russian steamship companies. These were called the ‘Volunteers’ Fleet’ and the ‘Russian Steamship and Commerce Society’. The ‘Volunteers’ Fleet’ was a big and flourishing steamship company founded in 1878. It was a joint venture, uniting both state and private capital. At the end of the nineteenth century it had 20 big steamships that carried passengers and cargo between the ports of the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, and the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This company was operating a regular line between Odessa – the main Russian seaport in the Black Sea – and ports of the Russian Far East. The steamers that served this line usually called at Jeddah and Yanbo’. The ‘Volunteers’ Fleet’ had its agencies and agents in many ports of the world, including Jeddah. Two or three modern passenger steamships that belonged to this company were specially equipped every year for the transportation of Russian hajjis to Jeddah and Yanbo’.

Another big steamship company that was involved in the transportation of pilgrims was called the ‘Russian Steamship and Commerce Society’ – ‘ROPIT’, in Russian. It had more than 25 big steamships, many warehouses, agencies in various ports of the world, shipbuilding yards, coalmines and other items of real estate. The ships of that company were used on regular passenger and freight lines that connected the ports of the Black Sea with the ports of the Arabian Gulf, the Red and Arabian seas, the Far East, the Mediterranean, South and North America, and Europe. The steamers of this company were widely used by Russian pilgrims going to Arabia. This steamship company competed successfully with the ‘Volunteers’ Fleet’ owing to the fact that the tickets it sold to Russian hajjis were cheaper than those sold by the latter.

The majority of the Russian pilgrims who went to Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara used one of the three routes that were habitually followed at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. These routes were the so-called Northern, Transcaucasus and Southern Routes.

The Northern Route originated at Russian ports situated on the shores of the Black Sea. These were the ports named Batumi, Poti, Sukhumi, Feodosiya, Kerch, Kherson, Novorossiysk, Sevastopol and Odessa. Almost all the pilgrims who lived in the European provinces of the Russian Empire, the Sunni Muslims from the Transcaucasus region, and to a small extent the Muslims of the Urals and the Siberian parts of the Russian Empire came to these ports either by train or on foot. They then sailed out for the ports of the Hejaz on ships of the ‘Volunteers’ Fleet’, the ‘Russian Steamship and Commerce Society’ – ‘ROPIT’ – and various other Russian steamship companies by way of Istanbul, Alexandria and Port Said. Later, after the construction of the Hejaz railway line, they went by sea only as far as Beirut or Jaffa. They then made their way to Damascus – the starting-point of the Hejaz railway line – and went by train as far as al-Madinah al-Munawara.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, when the Transcaspian railway that connected the shores of the Caspian Sea with Tashkent – the capital of the Russian territories in Central Asia – was constructed in Russia, the number of Muslim pilgrims from that part of the Russian Empire who were using the so-called Northern Route increased to some extent, owing to the fact that the journey by this route had become more comfortable and quicker.⁷ These hajjis went by train from all parts of Central Asia to the port of Krasnovodsk on the shore of the Caspian Sea. They then sailed out to Baku on the Caucasus side of this sea in steamers of the Russian shipping company ‘Caucasus and Mercury’, and then went by train to the ports of Batumi and Poti on the Black Sea. According to the laws of the Russian Empire all Muslim pilgrims going to the two Holy Cities of Arabia via Istanbul had to be registered there by the Russian Imperial General Consulate. But many Russian Muslim pilgrims ignored the process of registration, owing in some cases to the fact that they were travelling on false Russian passports that could be bought illegally in Moscow and the Russian ports of the Black Sea, or even that they were the owners of Persian, Turkish or Bukharan identity cards. Sometimes steamers only stopped in Istanbul for a brief period, and the Muslim pilgrims had no time to get to the Russian consulate there. The resultant lack of official registration of certain Russian hajjis in Istanbul not only resulted in the development of various difficulties for Muslim pilgrims on the territory of the Ottoman Empire, but has also to some extent distorted the statistics concerning this aspect of relations between the Russian Empire and the territories of the Arabian peninsula. The Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation possesses some documents issued by the Russian Imperial Embassy in Istanbul that indicate the numbers of Russian Muslim pilgrims who went to Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara via Istanbul at the end of the nineteenth century. According to these data there were:

789 Russian Muslim pilgrims in 1891;

804 Russian Muslim pilgrims in 1892;

1,808 Russian Muslim pilgrims in 1893; and

418 Russian Muslim pilgrims in 1894.

And later, until at least 1903 the annual number of hajjis who were registered in Istanbul ran to something around two thousand people a year.⁸

But there was also another route to Arabia that was used by Russian Muslim pilgrims who lived mainly in the Transcaucasus region of the Russian Empire, and this route was called the ‘Transcaucasus Route’. These pilgrims usually gathered on the territory of the Ottoman Empire in the city of Baghdad, and then by foot, by camel and sometimes by horse went on in the direction of the two Holy Cities of Arabia.⁹ This was a dangerous, long and exhausting route. Unfortunately, as a result of the facts that the crossings of the borders of the Russian Empire with Iran and the Ottoman Empire by Russian Muslim pilgrims on their way to the two Holy Cities in Saudi Arabia via Baghdad took place not only through the official checkpoints but often by small mountain paths and roads and that Muslim pilgrims were not registered at the Russian imperial consulate in Baghdad we don’t have any reliable statistical data concerning this second route used by the Russian Muslim pilgrims.

The third route was the so-called ‘Southern Route’, which usually originated from the town of Samarkand in Central Asia and went through the town of Mazar-e-Sharif in Northern Afghanistan, Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, the Khyber Pass, which linked Afghanistan with British India, and Peshawar, the biggest city on the north-western frontier of British India. The trip from the Russian territories to the city of Peshawar in British India through Afghanistan usually took 15–20 days. This route was dangerous and rather expensive and uncomfortable, owing to the lack of good roads in Afghan territory and because the Afghan authorities tried to extract as much money as possible from the Russian hajjis. They had to pay for crossing the border of Afghanistan itself, and the borders of each of the different Afghan provinces, and for entering various Afghan towns and villages on their way to India; special taxes were imposed on Russian Muslim pilgrims for hiring horses and camels, for being in possession of dutiable items, etc. We also have to take into consideration the fact that the Afghan government was suspicious of all Russian citizens who came into Afghanistan. Sometimes Russian hajjis were arrested on the territory of that country on the pretext that they were Russian spies. In such cases all their belongings and money were confiscated, and some of them even died in Afghan prisons on their way to the two Holy Cities.¹⁰

A question may therefore be prompted: why were Russian Muslim pilgrims – mainly those who lived in Central Asia, the Southern Urals and the Siberian provinces –using this dangerous route? There were two main reasons for this. These were: (1) the Russian Muslim pilgrims who went through Afghanistan didn’t need Russian passports for crossing the borders of Afghanistan and India – it was sufficient to present an identity card issued by the local Muslim authorities, called a tadhkera; and (2) having got to Peshawar the hajjis usually took a train to the port of Bombay, from where they sailed by British steamships to the ports of Jeddah and Yanbo’ in the Hejaz. (The trip usually took one week.) The Russian Imperial Consul in Bombay, Panafidin, reported that the number of Russian Muslim pilgrims who used that route amounted to:

1,269 persons in 1891,

3,013 persons in 1892,

3,328 persons in 1893, and

2,931 persons in 1894.11

And in 1903 there were only 500 persons who used this route.¹²

There are some other reliable sources, for example the reports of the Russian Imperial Consul in Jeddah (the consulate was established there in 1891 especially for solving the problems that arose in connection with the Russian hajjis) that can indicate the numbers of Russian Muslim pilgrims coming to the two Holy Cities by sea through the ports of Jeddah and Yanbo’ at the end of the nineteenth century:

§ In 1893 there came 6,736 Russian hajjis to Jeddah and 1,444 to Yanbo’;

§ in 1894 there came 3,349 Russian hajjis to Jeddah and 418 to Yanbo’;

§ in 1895 there came 4,714 Russian hajjis to Jeddah and 1,143 to Yanbo’;

§ in 1896 there came 1,727 Russian hajjis to Jeddah and no one to Yanbo’; and in 1897 there came 487 Russian hajjis to Jeddah and no one to Yanbo’.¹³

According to other data, in 1896 Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara were visited by 5,225 Russian Muslim pilgrims, including 1,727 persons who went there through the ports of the Black Sea and 1,370 who went through Afghanistan and British India.¹⁴

The decrease that was registered by the Russian Imperial Consul in Jeddah in the number of Russian hajjis who went to Arabia in 1896–7 can be explained by the fact that during those years there was a cholera epidemic in some southern Russian provinces. In order not to spread this disease to other parts of the world – including Arabia – the number of Russians who were allowed to visit foreign countries at that time was severely restricted. Those who came to Arabia from Russia in 1896–7 were mainly ‘illegal’ hajjis visiting Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara without official permission from the authorities of the Russian Empire.

We have some pieces of fragmentary information concerning the numbers of Russian hajjis who visited Makkah al-Mukarrama in the subsequent years. But these data don’t embrace all Russian hajjis, and apply to only some of the routes that were used by them. The documents of the ‘Volunteers’ Fleet’ steamship company show that its ships at the beginning of the twentieth century had transported the following number of hajjis from Russia to Jeddah and Yanbo’:

§ 1901 – 6,529 persons.¹⁵

§ 1906 – 5,907 persons from the Russian port of Odessa alone.

§ 1907 – 5,555 persons from the Russian port of Odessa alone.

§ 1908 – 3,524 persons from the Russian port of Odessa alone.

^§ 1909 – 2,600 persons from the Russian port of Odessa alone.¹⁶

§ 1909 – 10,969 persons from the Russian Black Sea ports to Jeddah and Yanbo’ and back.

§ 1911 – 13,539 persons from the Russian Black Sea ports to Jeddah and Yanbo’ and back.

§ 1912 – 9,787 persons from the Russian Black Sea ports to Jeddah and Yanbo’ and back.

^§ 1913 – 7,244 persons from the Russian Black Sea ports to Jeddah and Yanbo’ and back.¹⁷

Some Russian hajjis going to Makkah al-Mukarrama sometimes used other routes, including the oldest ones. These were the so-called Egyptian and Syrian caravan routes, which originated from Cairo and Damascus. These had traditionally been used earlier by the hajjis who lived in the countries of the Middle East. The Egyptian caravan route was very important. The caravans that used that route usually brought the Qiswa- the black silk cloth with which the building of the Holy Ka’bah was covered – to Makkah al-Mukarrama. Every year this was replaced by a new one. The hajjis going to Makkah al-Mukarrama by land usually gathered in a great caravan containing thousands of camels guarded by a big and strongly armed escort. For example the caravan of hajjis that went out of Damascus in 1898 was protected by a group of Turkish soldiers that consisted of 200 horsemen and 150 soldiers on camelback and was equipped with two cannon.¹⁸ This route was a very dangerous and a long one. The journey by land from Damascus via al-Madinah al-Munawara to Makkah al-Mukarrama took usually 50 days. We have no information about how many Russian Muslim pilgrims used those routes at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. The so-called Cairo caravan journey changed a little with the construction of the Suez Canal. The hajjis from Cairo started to come to the ports of Port Said and Suez. There they boarded steamships going to Jeddah and Yanbo’. Russian Muslim pilgrims did not use this route extensively, according to the reports of the Russian Imperial Consulate in Port Said. I have no precise data about the numbers of Russian hajjis who went from Cairo to Makkah al-Mukarrama by this route.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the so-called Hejaz railway, which connected Damascus with al-Madinah al-Munawara, was constructed, some of the Russian Muslim pilgrims going to Makkah al-Mukarrama started to use this route because it was more comfortable and quicker and cheaper than the sea route via Port Suez to Yanbo’ and Jeddah. Russian hajjis came by sea to Beirut and Jaffa. According to the report of the Russian Imperial consul in Damascus, in 1902 alone more than 2,000 Russian hajjis used this route. The number of hajjis who preferred this route was slowly but constantly increasing year by year.¹⁹

The question may arise: what was the total number of Russian hajjis who visited Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries? Unfortunately, we don’t have exact figures. This is because there were many routes from the Russian Empire to Arabia. Not all of them, and so not all the hajjis, were taken into consideration by the Russian Imperial Embassies, Consulates and Border Guards. We have only estimated figures that show that every year approximately 20,000–25,000 hajjis from Russia came to Makkah al-Mukarrama at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries.²⁰

One of the distinctive features of this process of the pilgrimage of Russian Muslims to Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara was that it was not controlled in any way by the Russian Administration, and was not always even organized by the Muslim ‘Ulama. Usually hajjis gathered in groups of a size ranging from 3 to 30 persons.²¹ Normally the hajjis who formed a group lived in one village, block or quarter of a town. Often they were members of one clan or social group – the members of one guild of artisans, the students studying at one madrasa, or the ‘Ulama of the same town, city, region or province. Thus in most cases each group was formed of people who were relatives or friends or belonged to one social group or simply had many common features. These groups often had a leader of their own, who was either elected by their members or sometimes was nominated by the Muslim ‘Ulama, who were usually consulted by such groups about the process of the holy hajj itself. Such a structure for a group of hajjis was commonplace in the middle of and at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The election or nomination of the leaders of groups of Muslim hajjis took place at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries not only at the places where such groups were formed, but also in the ports of the Black Sea, where hajjis boarded the ships that conveyed them to Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara. These leaders knew the Arabic language and the routes that led to the two Holy Cities. They were usually also put in charge of the food rations of the hajjis on their way to the Hejaz. They arranged passage on the ships for transportation of the hajjis. They also usually found lodgings for the hajjis at the inns, hotels, and caravanserais in Istanbul, Port Said and Suez, where the ships put in on their way to the two Holy Cities and on their way back.²² These leaders were a kind of middlemen and mediators between the authorities of the Russian Empire and the groups of hajjis. They were registrars of the names of Muslim pilgrims. They were in charge of the tickets for the hajjis, and also processed passports for them in some cases. The services of such leaders were not free of charge. Every hajji gave them a sum of money approximately equivalent in value to 10–15 roubles²³ – at that time this was big money. In order to ease the process of pilgrimage to Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara the Russian authorities, including the State Council – one of the highest Russian governmental organs – had been discussing the rules according to which the process of preparation for the holy hajj of the Russian Muslim pilgrims was fulfilled. The representatives of the Russian Ministries of the Interior, Foreign Affairs, Justice and Finance took part in these discussions in February – June of 1903. These rules were adopted by the Tsar at the beginning of June 1903, and up to 1917 the process of preparation by the Russian Muslim pilgrims for the holy hajj was regulated by them.

There were many special agencies in Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al- Munawara at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries that specialized in rendering various different services to hajjis. These services included renting houses and rooms during their stay in the two Holy Cities and in the ports of Jeddah and Yanbo’; hiring camels for hajjis; providing them with food during their journey to Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara; and giving them advice on the religious ceremonies during their stay in the two Holy Cities of the Hejaz. These agencies were run not only by Arabs but also by some other Muslims – Turks, Afghans, Persians, Indians, Tartars, Bashkirs, Uzbeks and others. There lived at that time a group of Russian Tartars in Makkah al-Mukarrama. It consisted of 31 families and was headed by a certain ‘Abd al-Sattar. He came to Arabia from the town of Astrakhan in southern Russia at the beginning of the eighties of the nineteenth century. He was the owner of an agency that was in charge of the reception of the Tartar hajjis coming from Russia.²⁴ ‘Abd al-Sattar had built in Makkah al-Mukarrama a mosque, a madrasa with 40 hujra (rooms for students) and 6 houses – hostels for the Russian hajjis. The money for the construction of the mosque, madrasa and houses was collected among the members of that Tartar group, donated by Russian hajjis coming to Arabia, and given by Muslims who lived in the Russian Empire itself. Usually such agencies had their own representatives in each of the various Muslim countries of the world. All regions of the Russian Empire where Muslims lived were divided, for example, between a certain number of the so-called dallal or wakil – the representatives of such agencies, who were in charge of organizing the holy hajj for Russian Muslims. These dallal had close contacts with local ‘Ulama and with the heads of the Muslim communities of the Russian Empire, and were in charge of the process of preparation for the holy hajj. Usually there was no competition for clients between different dallal. This was due to the fact that each of them was in charge of a certain territory, and so the wakil from other places had no right to cross the borders of their domains in order to find new clients.²⁵

The owners and members of the directors’ boards of the Russian steamship companies involved in conveying hajjis from the ports of the Black Sea to the two Holy Cities, Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara, regularly published advertising and timetables of the departures of steamships specially equipped for the hajj in newspapers and magazines circulating within Russia.²⁶

There existed a vast number of passenger agencies that specialized in the transportation of hajjis in the ports of the Black Sea, the points of departure for all the ships carrying Russian Muslim pilgrims at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. These agencies were engaged in intense competition to find as many passengers as possible against the representatives of foreign (i.e. non-Russian) agencies based in Arabia itself. Sometimes there were agents who were acting on their own account, and usually these were not Muslims – they were Greek, Armenian and Russian by origin. For example, all the Russian hajjis who sailed to Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara in 1903 from the Russian port of Feodosiya had bought their tickets for boarding the ship from an agent whose name was Theodorodis, who was a Greek by origin and was hiring and fitting out ships and then selling the tickets for them retail, making a big profit.

Sa’id Azimbaev, a Russian citizen who lived in Tashkent in Central Asia at the beginning of the twentieth century, wanted to monopolize the organization of the hajj for all the Russian Muslim pilgrims who lived in Russian Central Asia. He wanted to establish special halls designed and constructed for the hajjis at all the major Russian railway stations situated between Tashkent and Odessa – the port that at that time was the main point of departure for the Russian hajjis on their way to Arabia. Such halls were called hajji-khans, and consisted of separate sections for men and for women, who each had their own separate dining-rooms, in which only halal meals were served. Mosques and prayer-halls were constructed at the major stations. Azimbaev started a big advertising campaign, which was supported by the local Russian authorities and even by the government of the Russian Empire. Sa’id Azimbaev built 14 halls for hajjis and even began constructing special railway carriages and restaurant cars for Russian Muslim pilgrims.²⁷ In order to construct all these hajji-khans and special railway carriages and restaurant cars for hajjis Sa’id Azimbaev invested large sums of his own money. All the Russian hajjis who used these extra facilities had to pay Azimbaev approximately 15 per cent extra on the price of the ticket from Tashkent to Jeddah and Yanbo’.²⁸

From the reports of the Russian Imperial Consul in Jeddah and accounts by the captains of the Russian ships that transported Russian hajjis to Jeddah and Yanbo’ from the ports of the Black Sea we can get an overall picture of the nature of their journeys.

Usually hajjis boarding Russian ships occupied the cheapest places – the third-class cabins and the upper decks of the steamer. The rich hajjis – mainly from the territory of the Bukhara emirate – accommodated themselves in the second- and first-class cabins.²⁹ The ships conveying hajjis were usually the quickest of their class. They were specially equipped for this purpose: a separate room was converted into a prayer-hall. The food that was served to the pilgrims was always purely halal. A special Muslim cook was included in the crew. All these ships had a doctor and a stock of drugs used for the treatment of epidemic diseases. Various kinds of advertisements concerning the duration of the ships’ stays at the ports of call and the timetables for the meals on board these ships were printed in the various ‘Muslim’ languages – Tartar, Bashkir, Uzbek and Tadjik.³⁰ Strict regulations concerning the transportation of Russian Muslim pilgrims to Arabia were worked out later, at the beginning of the twentieth century, by the special order of the Tsar. These regulations governed even the number of lavatories on board the ships and other facilities.³¹ Russian ships on sailing out of the ports of the Black Sea usually called at Istanbul within one or two days. The Russian hajjis prayed at the mosques of this city, and, supposing they had not already been included as part of a group of hajjis before, they were now incorporated into one. After a brief halt the ship sailed for Alexandria, which was reached in two or three days. On calling at this Egyptian port the pilgrims, unless this particular Russian ship was itself passing through the Suez Canal, usually embarked on a train that brought them to Port Suez. This stage was very slow, and sometimes took two weeks. They then sailed from this place to Jeddah and Yanbo’ on the ships of one of the two Egyptian steamship companies ‘Magri, Rini and Co.’ and the ‘Khedive Company’, which had a monopoly on passenger transportation in the Red Sea, and this part of the trip usually took a further three to four days. If the Russian ships went directly to Jeddah and Yanbo’ then the trip of the Russian hajjis from Alexandria took only five or six days all told.³²

Russian hajjis on arriving at Jeddah usually gathered in a big caravan, which was heavily protected by Turkish soldiers. Muslim pilgrim caravans were often attacked by the Bedouin of various Arab tribes on their way from Jeddah to Makkah al-Mukarrama. Sometimes heavy losses were inflicted on the hajjis, Russians included, as a result of such raids. In 1903 alone, 40 Muslim pilgrims were killed in the course of attacks made by the Arab tribes on a caravan of the Russian hajjis, according to the reports of the captain of the Russian ship Petersburg owned by the Russian steamship company the ‘Russian Volunteers’ Fleet’. The bodies of the Russian hajjis killed during this raid were later brought on board that steamer and conveyed back to Russia.³³

The Russian Imperial Consul stationed in Jeddah and the Russian consulate agent in Yanbo’ always met Russian hajjis when they landed from steamships in these ports. The Russian hajjis started their journey to Makkah al-Mukarrama after the registration of their passports by the Turkish authorities. Russian hajjis as a rule spent several days in Jeddah, where they lived in special hostels – takiyya, four of which were constructed by rich hajjis from the Bukhara emirate and the Russian Central Asian territories and were run by the Russian Tartars.³⁴ There were not enough places for all of them in these hostels, so Russian hajjis also had to sleep in special tents and caravanserais.³⁵

The majority of the Russian hajjis who went to Makkah al-Mukarrama from the ports of Jeddah and Yanbo’ at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, in order to safeguard the money that they intended to spend on their return journeys, and to escape the threat of being robbed of it on their way to Makkah al-Mukarrama, usually gave money to the Russian Imperial Consul in Jeddah or to influential and rich citizens of Jeddah, who would return this money to the hajjis on their way back.³⁶

The analysis of documents concerning Russian hajjis that are preserved in the Russian Historical Archives demonstrates the fact that the holy hajj was usually fulfilled by well-to-do and rich Russian Muslims. For example, one of the Russian hajjis, according to the report of the Russian Imperial consul in Jeddah, V. Tzimmermann, in 1903 brought to the Russian consulate for safekeeping there 35,000 roubles – more than US$ 50,000.³⁷ An official of the Russian Imperial consulate in Jeddah, Shalim Ishaev, a Tartar by origin who made holy hajj in 1895, noted that Russian hajjis were among the richest Muslims who came to Makkah al-Mukarrama.³⁸

The journey from Jeddah to Makkah al-Mukarrama usually took two or three days, and was a dangerous one. Blockhouses with small Turkish garrisons³⁹ guarded the road between these two cities. There were many small coffeehouses, and also a kind of inns situated along this road.⁴⁰

On coming to Makkah al-Mukarrama Russian hajjis settled in a variety of guesthouses and hotels that specialized in rendering service to Russian Muslims. There were eight special hostels – takiyya – in Makkah al-Mukarrama built specially by rich Russian hajjis for their compatriots at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries.⁴¹ The price of the stay in such a hostel depended greatly on its location. The price of a room in a hostel situated close to al-Haram was higher.⁴² Many hajjis didn’t have enough money to pay for a hotel or guesthouse. They had to sleep in the open air. Usually those who did so were Indian Muslims.⁴³

Some of the Muslim pilgrims after finishing the holy hajj came back to Jeddah and from there returned to Russia by sea. But a small proportion of the hajjis on their way back visited al-Madinah al-Munawara also. The journey from Makkah al-Mukarrama to al-Madinah al-Munawara by camel took usually 12 days, and was a dangerous one. There were five special inns – takiyya – at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries built in al-Madinah al-Munawara by rich Russian hajjis especially to accommodate these pilgrims.⁴⁴ There was a special madrasa for Russian students – mainly Tartars – in al-Madinah al-Munawara at the end of the nineteenth century, the rooms of which were sometimes used for accommodation by Russian hajjis.⁴⁵ They usually went on from al-Madinah al-Munawara to Yanbo’, where they boarded Russian ships sailing back to the ports of the Black Sea. Some Russian hajjis didn’t return to Russia, but stayed on in Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara and tried to find a position or a job there.⁴⁶ Nowadays the Government of Saudi Arabia faces problems of the same kind: certain hajjis don’t return home after the end of the holy hajj, but try to stay in Saudi Arabia.

Poor Russian hajjis who came to Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al- Munawara tried to recoup the money spent on the holy hajj. They usually brought for sale Russian padlocks and copper and brass teakettles – samovars – that were popular among the natives of Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara and the numerous hajjis who came there on pilgrimage.⁴⁷

The authorities of the Russian regions inhabited by Muslims, as well as the central government of the Russian Empire, helped hajjis in different ways. Russian hajjis, like all other Muslim pilgrims who visited Makkah al-Mukarrama and al-Madinah al-Munawara, usually brought back to Russia various souvenirs that were purchased in these two Holy Cities.

Usually these consisted of:

1. Holy water from the well of Zamzam situated not far from the Holy Ka’ba, sealed in special tin cans;

2. wooden rosaries – tasbih;

3. dates in paper boxes;

4. turbans; and

5. wooden sticks for brushing the teeth.

The Russian Customs from 1903 allowed all Muslim pilgrims to bring all those things into Russia free of charge. The only restriction that remained was that one was not permitted to import more than 2 turbans and 2 wooden rosaries, or tasbih.⁴⁸

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire in 1903 recommended all Russian Ambassadors and Consuls in the European countries and towns from where Muslim pilgrims were going to Makkah al-Mukarrama to study the local laws and regulations concerning the holy hajj in order to supply information for the development of recommendations for general regulations that should regulate the process of Muslim pilgrimage from Russian territory.⁴⁹

The Deputy of the Russian Parliament O. Sh. Sirtlanov, who was the head of the so-called Islam Group and a Tartar by origin, went in 1908 to the port of Odessa on the shore of the Black Sea in order to study the difficulties facing the Russian hajjis on their way to Arabia. The results of his visit and researches were later used for the establishment of the All- Russian Society for the Assistance of Muslim Pilgrims, which came into being in 1909 after the approval of its charter by the Minister of Interior, and which greatly helped Russian Muslim pilgrims on their way to Arabia from the ports of the Black Sea.⁵⁰ The main purpose of this society was to render help, both economic and material, to poor pilgrims, including buying them tickets and giving them money for the hajj itself.

One final question to which we should attempt an answer in this chapter is: From what territories of the Russian Empire did the majority of the pilgrims make their way to Makkah al-Mukarrama? It is difficult to give a precise answer to that question that would be correct for the whole period of the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. But still, using the data that are preserved in two archives, the State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation and the Central State Naval Archive of the Russian Federation, we’ll try to answer this question.

At the beginning of the twentieth century the statistics for the distribution of Russian Muslim pilgrims, according to the reports of the Head of the Turkestan General-Governorship, which comprised large areas of Russian Central Asia, excluding the Khiva khanate and the Bukhara emirate, were as follows:

1906 1907 1908

Syr-Darya province 801 625 439

Samarkand province 329 539 365

Ferghana province 4,204 4,154 2,271

Semirechye province 643 – –

Transcaspian province 405 444 635.⁵¹

For 1896 we have information collected by the Ministry of Interior of the Russian Empire that details the process of Muslim pilgrimage to Arabia from different parts of the Russian Empire. According to these data 1,821 Russian hajjis came to the two Holy Cities. Certainly this information is not complete, because only those of them who went to the Hejaz from the Russian port of Odessa were taken into consideration. The geographical distribution of the Russian hajjis (from the point of view of from what provinces and territories of the Russian Empire they originated) in 1896 was like this:

§ North Caucasus – 625 persons

§ Transcaucasus – 392 persons

§ Turkestan General-Governorship – 274 persons

§ Bukhara Emirate – 235 persons

§ Khiva Khanate – 17 persons

§ European Russia – 152 persons

§ The Siberian and Urals provinces – 56 persons.⁵²

The number of Russian hajjis who went to Makkah al-Mukarrama through the territories of Afghanistan and India in 1896 amounted to 1,370 persons. Among them were residents of the following regions of the Russian Empire:

§ North Caucasus – 2 persons

§ Transcaucasus – 7 persons

§ Turkestan General-Governorship – 128 persons

§ Bukhara Emirate – 167 persons

§ Khiva Khanate – 13 persons

§ Ferghana Valley of the General-Governorship – 1,053 persons.⁵³

The analysis of this information shows that the majority of the Russian hajjis lived in the Turkestan General-Governorship, the territories of the North Caucasus and Transcaucasus regions, and the Bukhara emirate. The greatest single source of the Russian hajjis were the residents of the Ferghana Valley of the Turkestan General-Governorship of the Russian Empire. This situation can be explained by the fact that the territory of this valley had the most religious and well-to-do population of the whole Turkestan General-Governorship of the Russian Empire. Another reason for the predominance of hajjis from the Ferghana Valley among the Russian Muslim pilgrims was the fact that there existed numerous influential and prosperous sufi societies and organizations that organized the journey to the two Holy Cities for their members at reduced prices, and sometimes even free of charge.

In speaking about the impact and influence of the Russian hajjis on the life of the territories of modern Saudi Arabia at that time we wish to underline only one aspect of that impact – the economic one. Usually Russian Muslim pilgrims came to the two Holy Cities with substantial sums of money – no less than 300 roubles per person (more than US$ 450), which were spent on accommodation, food, hiring camels and horses for the journey from Jeddah to Makkah al-Mukarrama, souvenirs, and so on. (This sum was exclusive of the fare for the sea trip from Russia to Arabia.) The tickets bought by Russian hajjis in Russia were two-way. Taking into consideration the fact that during the holy hajj at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries the two Holy Cities in Arabia were visited by 20,000–25,000 Russian hajjis annually, and that among them there were often rich people,⁵⁴ this means that every year large sums of money brought from the Russian Empire were expended there, or in other words invested in the economy of Arabia. And we have further information that many Russian hajjis were involved in various forms of charitable and philanthropic activities on the territory of the two Holy Cities, some of which we have already discussed earlier.

Notes

1. A. M. Vasiliev, The Puritans of Islam. Wahhabism and the First State of the Saudis in Arabia (1744/5–1818), Moscow, 1967, pp. 10–11, in Russian.

2. Among the latest researches dedicated to the subject of the holy hajj I would like to mention the book named The Hajj. The Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca and the Holy Places, written by F. E. Peters, an American author and scholar who has written a number of books about the early periods of the history of Holy Islam (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1995). His book concerning the holy hajj is based on the firsthand accounts of the people who have visited the Holy Places of the Hejaz and gives a detailed description of the holy hajj.

3. Ibid.

4. S. E. Grigoriev, ‘Russian Pilgrims in Makka and Madinah at the end of the 19^th – beginning of the 20^th century’, Al -Watheekah. A Half - Yearly Journal Published by the Historical Documents Center, The State of Bahrain, Issue No. 32, July 1997 (16th year): 106– 38, in Arabic. A scholar from St Petersburg, E. Rezvan, has recently published an article in Arabic on some problems concerning the Russian hajjis.

5. R. G. Landa, Islam in the History of Russia, Moscow, 1995, in Russian.; D. Mikulsky Ermakov, Islam in Russia and Central Asia, Moscow, 1994, in Russian.

6. ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Davletshin, The Report of Captain Davletshin on his Mission to the Hejaz, St Petersburg, 1899, in Russian.

7. E. E. Bacon, Central Asia under Russian Rule. A Study in Cultural Change, Cornel University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1966, p. 112.

8. Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation. Fund N 95, Inventory N 4, File N 726. The Interior Ministry of the Russian Empire, Commerce and Navigation Department, ‘The Report of the Russian Imperial Consul in Istanbul’, p. 33, in Russian.

9. Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 821, Inventory N 8, File N 726. The Interior Ministry of the Russian Empire, Commerce and Navigation Department, ‘The Report of the Interior Ministry of the Russian Empire’.

10. ‘The Report of the Russian Imperial Consul in Jeddah’, p. 32, in Russian.

11. Ibid., pp 32–3.

12. Ibid., p.32.

13. Central Naval Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 29 – N. N. Beklemishev, Inventory N 1, File N 8, ‘On the Process of Emigration from Russia’, An Extract from the Report of the Russian Imperial Consul in Jeddah dated 18 April 1903, p. 127, in Russian.

14. Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 95, Inventory N 4, File N 726. The Interior Ministry of the Russian Empire, Commerce and Navigation Department, p. 31. Fund N 821, Inventory N 8, File N 1170, ‘The Trips of Russian Muslims to Holy Makkah and Madinah’, p. 34, in Russian.

15. Ibid., p. 34.

16. Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 1151, Inventory N 15, and File N 266, ‘On the Preparation of the Provisional Regulations for the Muslim Pilgrims’, p. 19, in Russian.

17. Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 821, Inventory N 8, File N 1196, ‘The Trips of Russian Muslims to Holy Makkah and Madinah’, pp. 44, 63, in Russian.

18. Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 98, Inventory N 6, File N 18, ‘The “Volunteers’ Fleet” Report’, p. 3. Fund N 98, Inventory N 6, File N 33, ‘The “Volunteers’ Fleet” Report’, p. 4, in Russian.

19. Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 95, Inventory N 4, File N 726. The Interior Ministry of the Russian Empire, Commerce and Navigation Department, p. 37, in Russian.

20. Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 821, Inventory N 8, File N 1196, ‘The Trips of Russian Muslims to Holy Makkah and Madinah’, p. 72, in Russian.

21. A. Menshikoff, ‘Respect towards Holy Islam’, New Times (Russian newspaper), St Petersburg, 25 November 1908, No. 11749, pp. 2– 4, in Russian.

22. Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 1151, Inventory N 15, and File N 266, ‘Provisional Rules for Muslim Pilgrims, Adopted by the State Council of the Russian Empire in 1903’, pp. 18–19, in Russian.

23. Ibid., p. 10; A. Menshikoff, ‘Respect towards Holy Islam’, New Times (Russian newspaper), St Petersburg, 25 November 1908, No. 11749, p. 2, in Russian.

24. Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 95, Inventory N 4, File N 726. The Interior Ministry of the Russian Empire, Commerce and Navigation Department, p. 31, in Russian.

25. Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 821, Inventory N 8, File N 1170. The Interior Ministry of the Russian Empire, Commerce and Navigation Department, p. 72, in Russian.

26. Ibid., p. 38.

27. Central Naval Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 29, Inventory N 29, File N 8, ‘On the Emigration from Russia’, p. 138, in Russian. Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 95, Inventory N 18, File N 253, ‘Reports of the “ROPIT” Steamship Company concerning the Voyages to the Ports of the Arabian Gulf’, pp. 10–15, in Russian.

28. A. Menshikoff, ‘Respect towards Holy Islam’, New Times (Russian newspaper), St Petersburg, 25 November 1908, No. 11749, p. 2, in Russian.

29. Ibid.

30. Central Naval Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 29, Inventory N 1, File N 8, ‘On the Emigration from Russia’, pp. 124, 126, 154, in Russian.

31. Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 1151, Inventory N 15, and File N 266, ‘Provisional Rules for the Muslim Pilgrims’, p. 24, in Russian.

32. Central Naval Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 29, Inventory N 1, File N 8, ‘On the Emigration from Russia’, pp. 123–5, in Russian.

33. Ibid., p. 147, in Russian.

34. Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 107, Inventory N 1, File N 1548, ‘The Preliminary Report of V. Romanov on his Trip to the Hejaz and the Countries of the Arabian Gulf’, pp. 124–34, in Russian.

35. Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 95, Inventory N 4, File N 726. The Interior Ministry of the Russian Empire, Commerce and Navigation Department, pp. 38–9, in Russian.

36. Ibid., p. 39, in Russian.

37. Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 107, Inventory N 1, File N 1548, ‘The Preliminary Report of V. Romanov on his trip to the Hejaz and the Countries of the Arabian Gulf’, pp. 12–134, in Russian.

38. Shalim Ishaev, ‘Makkah al-Mukarrama – the Holy Muslim City’, The Central Asian Register. A Monthly Scientific and Literary Journal, Tashkent, November 1896, p. 75, in Russian.

39. Ibid., p. 70.

40. Ibid., p. 71.

41. Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 95, Inventory N 4, File N 726. The Interior Ministry of the Russian Empire, Commerce and Navigation Department, p. 44, in Russian.

42. Shalim Ishaev, ‘Makkah al-Mukarrama’, p. 80.

43. Ibid.

44. Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 95, Inventory N 4, File N 726. The Interior Ministry of the Russian Empire, Commerce and Navigation Department, p. 71, in Russian.

45. Ibid., p. 73.

46. Shalim Ishaev, ‘Makkah al-Mukarrama’, p. 49.

47. Ibid., p. 46.

48. Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 821, Inventory N 8, File N 1196, ‘The Trips of Russian Muslims to Holy Makkah and Madinah’, pp. 4–7, in Russian.

49. Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 95, Inventory N 8, File N 726. The Interior Ministry of the Russian Empire, Commerce and Navigation Department, p. 99, in Russian.

50. Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 821, Inventory N 8, File N 1196, ‘The Trips of Russian Muslims to Holy Makkah and Madinah’, pp. 4–7, 69–70, in Russian.

51. Central State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation, Fund N 985, Inventory N 4, File N 726, ‘The Reports of the Governors and the Governor-General of Turkestan’, pp. 34–5, in Russian.

52. bid.

53. Ibid.

54. Davletshin, The Report of Captain Davletshin, p. 19.