Hicaz Yolunda Kolera: Rusya Müslümanlarının Kullandığı Karadeniz Hac Yolu ve Koleranın Yayılımına Etkisi (Cholera on the Hejaz Road: The Black Sea Hajj Route used by Russia’s Muslims and its Influence on the Spread of Cholera)

Abstract The duration of long distance commercial transportation and journeys reduced from weeks, sometimes even months to several days with the invention of steamship engines and widespread use of railroad transportation which caused an increase in both the social and economic activities of the world. In addition to such positive effects, rapid spread of contagious diseases left deep scars in human history. Cholera, as a contagious disease caused by bacteria that could only be destroyed by boiling temperatures, spread rapidly over contaminated water sources and caused a major catastrophe by killing thousands of people in an extremely short time. Cholera epidemics frequently appeared in Hejaz, the center for Muslims' pilgrimage, and it was believed that cholera spread across the world from the Hejaz region. However, the Hejaz region was not one of the areas where the cholera disease appeared as an endemic and the fact that disease was spread in the region due to hajj routes and Muslims who came to perform the pilgrimage. In this article, I discuss the Black Sea hajj route which emerged as an alternative to the Trans-Caucasus-Bagdad and Central Asia-India hajj routes used by Russia's Muslims and the threat of cholera epidemics on this route for the cities along the shore of the Black Sea