Hajj in Odessa

[Sasha Senderovich]

Dear Eileen,
If my memory is not playing tricks on me, I remember coming across
references to Muslims from Russia making the hajj in two travelogues about
Palestine:

1) По Палестине: изъ путевых заметокъ М. М. Усышкина. С.-Петербургъ, 1894
2) Л[ев] Ш[тернберг]. По Палестине: письма с дороги. [Одесса, 1910]

Both Ussyshkin and Shternberg are interested in exploring the new Jewish
agricultural colonies in Palestine and that's the purpose of their
respective trips and the emphasis of their travelogues, but they do both
sail from Odessa and do both describe the journey by ship. I really can't
remember if the Muslim passengers on the hajj that they encounter board in
Odessa or at a stop-over in Istanbul, but it's probably worth checking. I
would imagine that Russian Muslims doing the hajj who sail from Odessa would
go to Jaffa or Port Said before continuing on, so these journeys overlap
geographically. (I think Shternberg also describes the part of the Hejaz
railway that went from Haifa through the Jezreel valley, the Hejaz probably
being part of your project as well somehowl...)

Best wishes,
Sasha Senderovich

==========================
Sasha Senderovich, PhD candidate
Slavic Languages and Literatures
Harvard University
senderov at fas.harvard.edu


On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 4:04 AM, Eileen Kane <ekane2 at conncoll.edu> wrote:

> Dear Colleagues,
>
> I am writing a book about the hajj in imperial Russia, focusing in part on
> the
> hajj traffic through Odessa between the 1880s and WWI. If anyone out there
> has come across any references to the hajj in novels or memoirs about late
> imperial Odessa, I would be very grateful to know.
>
> Many thanks, Eileen
>
> Eileen Kane
> Assistant Professor
> Department of History
> Connecticut College
> 270 Mohegan Avenue
> New London, CT 06320
>
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