Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Singapore, 1915, and the Birth of the Asian Underground
- 2 Living in the Material World: Cosmopolitanism and Trade in Early Twentieth Century Ladakh
- 3 Nation, Race, and Language: Discussing Transnational Identities in Colonial Singapore, circa 1930
- 4 Intimate Interactions: Eurasian Family Histories in Colonial Penang
- 5 Citing as a Site: Translation and Circulation in Muslim South and Southeast Asia
- 6 Popular Sites of Prayer, Transoceanic Migration, and Cultural Diversity: Exploring the significance of keramat in Southeast Asia
- 7 Connecting People: A Central Asian Sufi network in turn-of-the-century Istanbul
- 8 ‘Enough of the Great Napoleons!’ Raja Mahendra Pratap's Pan-Asian Projects (1929–1939)
- 9 Chinatowns and Borderlands: Inter-Asian Encounters in the Diaspora
- 10 Creating Spaces for Asian Interaction through the Anti-Globalisation Campaigns in the Region
- Contributors
- Index
7 - Connecting People: A Central Asian Sufi network in turn-of-the-century Istanbul
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Singapore, 1915, and the Birth of the Asian Underground
- 2 Living in the Material World: Cosmopolitanism and Trade in Early Twentieth Century Ladakh
- 3 Nation, Race, and Language: Discussing Transnational Identities in Colonial Singapore, circa 1930
- 4 Intimate Interactions: Eurasian Family Histories in Colonial Penang
- 5 Citing as a Site: Translation and Circulation in Muslim South and Southeast Asia
- 6 Popular Sites of Prayer, Transoceanic Migration, and Cultural Diversity: Exploring the significance of keramat in Southeast Asia
- 7 Connecting People: A Central Asian Sufi network in turn-of-the-century Istanbul
- 8 ‘Enough of the Great Napoleons!’ Raja Mahendra Pratap's Pan-Asian Projects (1929–1939)
- 9 Chinatowns and Borderlands: Inter-Asian Encounters in the Diaspora
- 10 Creating Spaces for Asian Interaction through the Anti-Globalisation Campaigns in the Region
- Contributors
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Most closely associated with the fabled Silk Road, Central Asia is known for its evocative landscape and the extensive network of overland trade routes that connected the Asian continent to the Middle East and the Mediterranean until roughly the eighteenth century. Yet even after the relative decline in the overland caravan trade, these routes continued to connect people from the region to the central Islamic lands, most notably the scores of pilgrims who set out annually for the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. In fact, in the second half of the nineteenth century, Russian imperial expansion across the region had the unintended consequence of bringing broader segments of Central Asian society into sustained contact with western Asia, as innovations in transportation technologies such as railroads and steamships made travel to Ottoman cities more accessible. Travelling westwards and northwards through the Russian empire, pilgrims from increasingly diverse economic backgrounds embarked on journeys that often included extended visits to Istanbul, where many stayed in ‘Uzbek’, ‘Kashgari’, and ‘Bukharan’ lodges that were part Sufi confraternity and part urban caravanserai. In the Ottoman capital, these travellers took up odd jobs and engaged in commerce to finance their journeys, and sought out the ceremonial blessing of the sultan-caliph at Friday prayers before continuing on to the Hijaz. Without doubt, they built on and expanded the reach of Central Asian networks in the Ottoman empire. But what exactly did these networks look like and how did they function? Who were the people who patronised them and brought them to life?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Sites of Asian InteractionIdeas, Networks and Mobility, pp. 144 - 170Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014