Between Freedom and Sectarianism: Muslim Astrakhan at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century

• In Event: Gates for Freedom, Bastions for Geopolitics: Port Cities of Russia’s Empire

Abstract

Port cities epitomized a function of Russia's modernizing empire, as they promoted encounters among its multiethnic subjects. Liliana Riga and Ilya Gerasimov have argued that the Russian language enabled recent migrants to cities to share sociopolitical grievances and to create a distinct plebeian society that cultivated multiethnic collaboration in trade and crime. This paper considers the role of the Turkic language in navigating this cosmopolitan terrain. Following Ilham Khuri-Makdisi's study of the circulation of radical ideas through eastern Mediterranean port cities, this paper addresses Astrakhan as a crucible of freedom and sectarianism for its Muslim inhabitants. Astrakhan was a hub of overlapping trade networks, labor markets, Sufis, and radical Muslim youth. Connected to Baku, Astrakhan was distinctive for the vibrancy of the workers' strikes during the 1905 Revolution, and it was also the city where Muslims were galvanized by the news of revolution from the Iranian shore of the Caspian Sea. Moreover, Astrakhan was a city of exile from the Volga basin and the Caucasus. Tatar radicals from Kazan evaded the police to find shelter in an Azerbaijani publishing enterprise. The Shiite minority welcomed multiethnic Muslim locals and newcomers to their religious events, a practice which provoked local Tatar notables' jealousy and sectarian hatred. Thus, Astrakhan also helps us bridge the existing regional division of labor in the historiography of Islam in the Russian Empire.

Author

• Norihiro Naganawa, Hokkaido U (Japan)