The Great Pilgrimage of Muslims of the Turkestan Region: the Attitude Tsarist Administration to Religion

Abstract

Spiritual and religious aspects played an active role in all spheres of public life of the Turkestan region, which was part of the Russian Empire in 1865. This includes the issue of performing the pilgrimage duty to Mecca and Medina, the holy cities in the minds of Muslims. In solving the mechanisms of the spiritual and religious sphere of the region, the Russian administration had to face this phenomenon. The whole point was in the unauthorized implementation of the pilgrimage of those who wished to establish Russian power in Central Asia. As a result, episodes of epidemics occurred more than once in the Middle Ages, which caused major negative consequences to the Turkestan region. In order to prevent this, the tsarist authorities had to approve legislative pilgrimage projects. But it should be noted that the legislative projects were implemented taking into account the mentality and customs of the local population. Based on historical research, it can be argued that a number of disagreements arose between the departments of the tsarist administration in this direction. Without a doubt, all this was aimed at ensuring that the Hajj mission meets the interests of the state and believers. The bodies of Russian foreign diplomacy abroad contributed to the solution of legal, economic, transport and medical issues of Muslim pilgrims. Thanks to the effective regulatory and medical regulations adopted by the tsarist government, we were convinced that the number of Muslim pilgrims departing from the Turkestan region increased from year to year. That is, the pilgrimage process had a development phenomenon. In this article, on the basis of archival and research materials, the general state of the development of a large Muslim pilgrimage in the Turkestan region and the elements of the attitude of the authorities to it are analyzed.