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?