Ḥajj above all: Ḥakīm-khān between Mecca and Petersburg
Ḥajj above all: Ḥakīm-khān between Mecca and Petersburg

Summary/Abstract: In 1823, one of the pretenders to the throne of the Kokand Khanate, Ḥakīm-khān, went on a pilgrimage to Mecca. He reflected on the events of this five years journey in his memoirs Muntakhab al-tavārīkh (‘Extracts from History’). The Hajj was carried out on the orders of Muhammad ‘Ali-khān, who had recently taken the throne and sought to neutralize other pretenders to the Kokand throne. Having received a letter from Alexander I with an invitation to visit the Imperial Palace in St. Petersburg, Ḥakīm-khān rejected this offer. When he met the Tsar by chance, Alexander I reminded him of the invitation and the refusal received. The representative of the ruling Kokand dynasty justified his actions by his own promise to, first of all, make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and only then to visit other places. The Emperor generously endowed the pilgrim and supplied him with a special letter allowing him to freely move around the territory of the Russian Empire. However, Ḥakīm-khān decided not to make the return journey through Russia, but Persia.

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