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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