Order Beyond Borders: The Azerbaijani Triangle Across Iran, Turkey, and Russia by Serkan Yolacan Department of Cultural Anthropology Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Engseng Ho, Supervisor ___________________________ Orin Starn ___________________________ Irene M. Silverblatt ___________________________ Cemil Aydin ___________________________ Michael A. Reynolds Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Cultural Anthropology in the Graduate School of Duke University 2017 i v ABSTRACT Order Beyond Borders: The Azerbaijani Triangle Across Iran, Turkey, and Russia by Serkan Yolacan Department of Cultural Anthropology Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Engseng Ho, Supervisor ___________________________ Orin Starn ___________________________ Irene M. Silverblatt ___________________________ Cemil Aydin ___________________________ Michael A. Reynolds An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Cultural Anthropology in the Graduate School of Duke University 2017 i v Copyright by Serkan Yolacan 2017 Abstract Turkey’s neo-Ottomanism, Iran’s Shi’a Crescent, and Russia’s neo-Eurasianism: together, they evince increasing transregionalism across West Asia. As states and societies interact beyond national borders, their interactions transform them from without. Evidently, the social basis of this mutual transformation is not to be found in one country but in many, spread out through networks of trade, religion, kinship, etc. This dissertation offers a model for analyzing social orders that are constitutive of multiple political domains. The model is developed through an ethnographic and historiographical study of Azerbaijanis, a Transcaucasian people with diasporic presence across Iran, Turkey, and Russia. By stitching together biographical accounts of itinerant Azerbaijanis from past and present, this study develops a temporally capacious, diasporic perspective on post-Cold War connectivity across Iran, Turkey, and Russia. This network-centric perspective shifts the focus from old imperial centers to their shared frontier as the locus of transregional analysis. In frontiers states interact through a connective tissue woven by diasporic societies whose routes, past and present, crisscross that frontier. While diasporic ties of intimacy give states access to societies beyond their domains, states may in turn sponsor such ties, giving diasporic individuals mandate to act as cultural diplomats. This shadow diplomacy is underpinned by multidirectional, competitive engagement with shared histories across political borders. vi Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ x Acknowledgment ........................................................................................................................ xii Introduction: Traveling like an Azerbaijani ............................................................................ xii The Azerbaijani Triangle: States and Networks ................................................................. 3 The View from the Frontier: Openings and Closings ....................................................... 9 Surplus of History: Pasts and Places ................................................................................. 15 Liberating the Prisoners of Time: Biographies and Itineraries ...................................... 20 1. Homecoming ........................................................................................................................... 24 1.1 Of Shrines and Seminaries ............................................................................................ 31 1.1.1 Routes of Shi’a Learning ........................................................................................... 40 1.1.2 Stars of the Caucasus ................................................................................................ 44 1.2 Of Merchants and Mullahs............................................................................................ 51 1.3 Of Endowments and Entrepreneurs ............................................................................ 60 1.3.1 To the Victor Belong the Spoils ............................................................................... 63 1.3.2 Made in Azerbaijan: Turkish Islam ......................................................................... 68 1.4 Ghosts of History ............................................................................................................ 77 2. Roots and Routes..................................................................................................................... 83 2.1 The Beating Heart of Iran .............................................................................................. 84 2.2 Scratch a Russian, you will find a Tatar ...................................................................... 93 vii 2.3 The Original Young Turk ............................................................................................ 102 2.4 Onion or Garlic? ............................................................................................................ 109 3. The Triangle ........................................................................................................................... 115 3.1 Triangle of Local Cosmopolitans................................................................................ 120 3.1.1 The City of Intellectuals .......................................................................................... 124 3.1.2 The City of Revolutionaries ................................................................................... 130 3.1.3 The City of Merchants............................................................................................. 136 3.2 Constitutional Opening ............................................................................................... 146 3.3 The Wise Fool ................................................................................................................ 152 4. Parallel Parochialisms .......................................................................................................... 158 4.1 The New Contract ........................................................................................................ 161 4.1.1 An Empire of Nations ............................................................................................. 166 4.1.2 Divided Horizons .................................................................................................... 170 4.2 Stalin’s Dream ............................................................................................................... 174 4.3 Hitler’s Dream ............................................................................................................... 183 4.4 Surplus of History ........................................................................................................ 189 5. Leaving the Cocoon .............................................................................................................. 195 5.1 The Fatwa Smuggler .................................................................................................... 199 5.1.1 In the Shadow of the Soviet Economy .................................................................. 205 5.1.2 In the Shadow of the Soviet Public ....................................................................... 207 5.2 Soviet Bridges to the Middle East .............................................................................. 211 5.3 When Imams Represented the U.S.S.R ...................................................................... 220 viii 5.3.1 The Hajj ..................................................................................................................... 224 5.3.2 The Fair ..................................................................................................................... 228 5.4 The Wise Fool’s Afterlife ............................................................................................. 234 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 237 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 242 Biography ................................................................................................................................... 255 ix List of Figures Figure 1: Mullahs on motorcycles. Qom, Iran. Photo by author. ......................................... 33 Figure 2: Mullahs in the hawza. Qom, Iran. Photo by author. ............................................. 33 Figure 3: Cartographic representation of the Shi’a Crescent. ............................................... 34 Figure 4: Bibi Heybet Mosque in Baku, 1930. ......................................................................... 38 Figure 5: Bibi Heybet Mosque being demolished, 1934. ......................................................