Eileen M. Kane, "Russian Hajj: Empire and the Pilgrimage to Mecca" (Cornell UP, 2015)

Mar 4, 2016

Russian Hajj

Empire and the Pilgrimage to Mecca

Eileen M. Kane

Hosted by SherAli Tareen

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Summary

In her gripping new book Russian Hajj: Empire and the Pilgrimage to Mecca (Cornell University Press, 2015), Eileen M. Kane, Associate Professor of History at Connecticut College, presents a compelling narrative of the Russian empire's patronage of the Hajj in the late nineteenth century. Through a careful study of a variety of sources including previously unexplored archives and memoirs, Kane provides a vivid picture of the often arduous journey to the Hajj, of the benefits reaped and the challenges confronted by the Russian empire in patronizing the Hajj, and of the relationship between the Hajj and global imperial politics. Wonderfully written, this book provides vital insights into Islam in the Russian empire and a fascinating window into the relationship between the colonizers and the colonized in the context of the Russian empire. Conceptually innovative, this book invite its readers to take seriously the importance of mobility in the construction of the transnational networks of travel and human encounters that defined the Hajj at the cusp of modernity, networks in which non-Muslim powers also played a vital role. Russian Hajj will also make an excellent text for courses on Islam in Europe, the Hajj, Islam and Modernity, and on Religion and Empire.

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SherAli Tareen

SherAli Tareen is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Franklin and Marshall College. His research focuses on Muslim intellectual traditions and debates in early modern and modern South Asia. His book Defending Muhammad in Modernity (University of Notre Dame Press, 2020) received the American Institute of Pakistan Studies 2020 Book Prize and was selected as a finalist for the 2021 American Academy of Religion Book Award. His second book is called Perilous Intimacies: Debating Hindu-Muslim Friendship after Empire (Columbia University Press, 2023). His other academic publications are available here. He can be reached at sherali.tareen@fandm.edu. Listener feedback is most welcome.

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