A Phantom Pan-Islamist: The Russian-Ottoman Border and the Curious Case of Ahmed Kadıoğlu, 1912-1913

• In Event: Bordering Practices and Border Crossings in the Late Imperial and Early Soviet Caucasus

Abstract

Despite several attempts to demarcate and stabilize the Russian-Ottoman border through mixed border commissions between 1878-1912, tsarist officialdom viewed the eastern Black Sea borderlands as a vulnerable frontier in the decades following the Russian Empire’s annexation of Batum, Kars, and Ardahan in 1878. These concerns became more acute after 1905, when the tsarist administration was increasingly haunted by the specter of pan-Islamism and the incursions of subversive individuals and ideas from the Ottoman Empire. Often what concerned Russian officials the most were the threats that they could not see. Focusing on the mystery surrounding an alleged Ottoman propagandist named Ahmed Kadıoğlu, who escaped from tsarist captivity in the mountainous region of Ajara in 1912, I explore imperial anxieties about Islam and cross-border threats on the eve of the First World War. While Kadıoğlu ultimately evaded capture and the extent of his pan-Islamist agitation remains unclear, the fears surrounding his activities and the Caucasus-wide manhunt launched to find him reveal how menacingly Ottoman emissaries loomed in the tsarist imaginary. Such anxieties about Muslim phantoms proved to be long-lasting, for suspicions about border dwellers’ latent pro-Turkish sympathies and the clandestine agitation of wandering “mullahs” endured well into the Soviet period.

Author

• Harrison King, UC Berkeley