Paper long abstract:

As the fifth pillar of Islam, Muslims perform hajj pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime during the month of Ramadan. The hajj pilgrimage was also an important meeting point of Muslims of various regions of the world and exchange of ideas and experiences. The route to the pilgrimage journey itself was a lifetime experience for most Central Asian Muslims as it went through other countries and regions which they have never seen before. Mulla Mahmud Alim Mahdum, a chief editor of 'Turkistan Viloyatining Gazeti' was among the pilgrims of Central Asia who traveled to Mecca in 1909. Mulla Mahmud was not an ordinary pilgrim, as a representative of Russian Administration of Turkistan, he wrote memoirs on his journey describing the social and economic difference between the Muslim societies in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Mulla Mahmud astonished by the economic advancement of Odessa, Istanbul and Mecca, technological development and convenience of travel on a steamship. He especially described the new style schools of Istanbul by comparing them with the ones recently introduced by jadids in Central Asia. As the representative of Russian Administration of Turkestan, Mulla Mahmud also had meetings of rulers of Istanbul, Mecca, and Medina. Throughout his journey, he wrote his memoirs back to Tashkent routinely which were published in his newspaper. His memoirs are an important historical source as it was written not as laymen or travelogue but written as comparative analyses of two different societies by a journal editor. Furthermore, he also was a proponent of the modernity of Central Asia under the Russian influence, however, his travel experience in advanced Muslim cities gave him an opportunity to compare Central Asian modernity with those cities. The paper analyzes the memoirs of Mulla Mahmud and compares it with other travelogues written during that period of time in order to examine how Muslims of Central Asia understood the modernity and how it changed by experience and time.