There are still many “blank spots” in the history of the relations between the Russian Empire with its Central Asian territories. One of such little-studied topics of this relationship of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries is the work of various espionage and secret missionary groups. In the 19th century, Central and South Asia became a playground for the geopolitical rivalry between the Russian and British empires, which was marked as “the Great Game” in the history. The Pamirs became an “arena” of this game as well. Both the methods and ways, which were incorporated by the parties in this undeclared war, were extremely diverse. The article is based on archival materials and is dedicated to the trip of two missionaries sent from Bombay to the Pamirs. According to the plans by the Russian Empire’s officials, the missionaries were supposed to campaign against the influence of Aga Khan III, the spiritual leader of the Ismailis, among his followers in the Pamirs as Aga Khan III was considered the “supporter” and “friend” of the British crown and, therefore, it was necessary to fight against his influence by all means. After the delimitation of 1895, the Pamirs were actually under the control of the Russian Empire, and any influence of Aga Khan III in this region was considered as unacceptable. The archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire contains documents which reveal the trip of the two Ismailis – Khoja Pir-Muhammed-Ibrahim and Musa-Ghulyam – to the Pamirs, despite the fact they managed to reach Tashkent only. This was quite an expensive missionary expedition for the Russian treasury, however, the Russian officials provided all kinds of support along the trip to Tashkent. Nevertheless, this mission was not successful, and the missionaries were urgently driven back to Bombay.

Key words: The Pamirs, Ismailism, Aga Khan III, intelligence officer, Bombay, Tashkent, Islam

DOI: 10.22250/20728662_2023_2_59

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About the author

Tokhir S. Kalandarov – PhD (History), Senior Research Fellow, The Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology RAS; 32A Leninskiy prospect, Moscow, 119991, Russia; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.