Happy to share my new article, "Letters from the Ottoman Empire: Migration from the Caucasus and Russia's Pan-Islamic Panic," published by Slavic Review. doi.org/10.1017/slr.2023.164

For years, I have been searching for Muslim refugees' letters exchanged between the #Ottoman and Russian empires in the 1850s–1914. I was lucky to find quite a few: in archives in Tbilisi, Baku, Moscow, Vladikavkaz, and Makhachkala and private collections in #Jordan and Dagestan. The article explores the secret transborder #letter exchange of Caucasus Muslims and reactions by #Russia.

I argue that Muslims' letters from the Ottoman Empire fueled the Russian government's paranoia about Pan-Islamism that purportedly threatened Russia's colonial project in the #Caucasus. The Pan-Islamic panic shaped Russia's migration policies and colonial governance, including bans on Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, emigration, and return migration.

#histodon #histodons #history #MiddleEast #Turkey