Fazliddin Muhammadiev’s Journey to the “Other World”: The History of a Cold War Ḥajjnāma

Die Welt des Islams. 2021. Vol. 62. No. 1. P. 21–52.

Бобровников В. О., Kalinovsky A.

Fazliddin Muhammadiev’s Dar on dunyo (“In the other world”), first published in Tajik
in 1965 and later translated to Russian, Uzbek, and many other languages, is the only
known fictionalized account of the ḥajj produced in the Soviet Union. Based on a trip
made by the author in 1963, the novel provided the Soviet reader a rare glimpse into
this sacred rite. Drawing on archival sources, contemporary responses, and the text
itself, this article traces the origins and publication history of the novel, situates it
within Soviet domestic and foreign policy goals, and analyzes the text to see how the
author tried to reconcile competing ideological priorities.

Ключевые слова: паломничество, Cold War, ориентализм, «холодная война», non-fiction novel, identity, narrator, soviet orientalism, нон-фикшн, ḥajj narratives, little homeland, малая родина