Eileen Kane's account of the Russian Hajj taps into a fascinating story that Daniel Brower had once called 'a blind spot in studies of Russian colonial rule' (Daniel Brower, 'Russian Roads to Mecca,' Slavic Review 55(3) (1996): 568)... Kane does an excellent job providing evidence to support her account of the Russian Hajj as one of 'toleration' and 'sponsorship' in ... Read moreline with the past two decades' 'imperial turn' in historiography.
Mustafa Tuna, Departments of Slavic and Eurasian Studies & History, Duke University, Durham, NC
Canadian-American Slavic Studies
Russian Hajj is an innovative, deeply researched, and fascinating book. Marvelously rich in themes and details, it asks us to reconceptualize the history and historiography of the Hajj and Muslim pilgrimage, the governing structures and ideologies of Imperial Russia as a multiconfessional state, the transformative intersections of Russian domestic and foreign policies, and the patterns of human, global migration. In exciting and original ways, Kane highlights the porousness of political boundaries and the centrality of transnational movement and cultural exchange to the making of the modern world.
Nicholas B. Breyfogle, The Ohio State University, author of Heretics and Colonizers: Forging Russia's Empire in the South Caucasus Russian Hajj uncovers a fascinating world of highly mobile Muslim pilgrims traversing Eurasia and the Middle East with the aid of a Russian state keen to exploit Muslim networks to project imperial power. Elegantly written and grounded in a close reading of a vast trove of archival sources scattered across several countries, it offers an eye-opening account of Russia as a global empire and Muslim power. Eileen Kane makes a compelling case for rethinking Russian history as global history and for reimagining the empire and its management of human mobility.
Robert Crews, Stanford University [F]ascinating details of the organizational efforts behind Russia's sponsorship of the hajj (the establishment of medical facilities along the way and outfitting ships with special rooms for ablutions as well as halal food, for example) are examined in this concise and informative volume on an often-overlooked chapter in Russian history.
Tom Verde
AramcoWorld
This is an impressively researched book, and many of the arguments are compelling. One picture that comes through most clearly is that of an empire which, although capable of conquering vast areas, was far from all-powerful when confronted with border-crossing mobile subjects. This makes an important contribution to debates around the reaches and limits of imperial rule in practice.
J.P. Slight, University of Cambridge
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