Religion, Society and the State in Arabia

RELIGION, SOCIETY AND THE STATE IN ARABIA I RELIGION, SOCIETY AND THE STATE IN ARABIA THE HIJAZ UNDER OTTOMAN CONTROL, 1840-1908 WILLIAM OGHSENWALD OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS * COLUMBUS An earlier version of a portion of chapter 5, under the title "The Commercial History of the Hijaz Vilayet, 1840-1908," appeared in Arabian Studies 6 (1982): 57-76; it is reprinted herein by permis- An earlier version of a portion of chapter 6, under the title "The Slave Trade Controversy, 1840-1895," appeared in Middle Eastern Studies 16 (1980): 115-26; it is reprinted herein by permission. An earlier version of a portion of chapter 7, under the title "The Midda Massacre of 1858," appeared in Middle Eastern Studies 13 (1977): 314-26; it is reprinted herein by permission. Copyright© 1984 by the Ohio State University Press All Rights Reserved. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PI IBLICATION DATA Ochsenwald, William. Religion, society, and the state in Arabia. Bibliography: p. 1. Hejaz—History. I. Title. DS248.H47028 1984 953'.8 84-7498 ISBN 0-8142-0366-3 CONTESTS Preface ix Abbreviations xv PARTI: The Religious, Social, and Economic History of the Hijaz Introduction: Religion, the Ottomans, and the Hijaz 3 Chapter 1: People and Places 10 Chapter 2: Religion 39 Chapter 3: Pilgrimage and Health 58 Chapter 4: Learning and Law 74 Chapter 5: Commerce 92 Chapter 6: Social Organization 113 PART II: The Political History of the Hijaz Chapter 7: Restoration and Rebellion, 1840-1858 131 Chapter 8: The Tranquil Amirate, 1859-1882 153 Chapter 9: Compromise Challenged, Established, and Threatened Anew, 1883-1908 186 Conclusions 220 Appendix: Amirs of the Hijaz, 1840-1908 227 Glossary 228 Bibliography 229 Index 235 TABLES 1. SufiZawiyahs 43 2. Sheikhs of the Medina Haram 51 3. Numbers of Pilgrims 61 4. Value of Jidda Imports and Exports to the Nearest T.L. 1,000 94 5. Value of the Chief Jidda Imports to the Nearest T.L. 1,000 97 6. Steam Vessels at Jidda 100 7. Total Income and Expenditure for the Hijaz, in Ottoman Pounds 171 8. Expenditures of the Jidda Eyalet, 1862/63, in Ottoman Pounds 173 MAPS The Hijaz and Nearby Areas 11 Towns, Villages, and Tribes of the Hijaz 25 PREFACE RELIGION WAS THE CHIEF MOTIVATING FORCE in the social, and perhaps in the political, history of western Arabia in the nine teenth century. Secularizing European reforms had little impact in the period between 1840, whe n Egypt withdrew from the Hijaz and the Ottomans reoccupied it, and 1908, when the future leader of the Arab Revolt of 1916 became amir of Mecca. Thefirst pupose of this book is to examine the social and po litical expressions of religion as seen in the region of Mecca, Jidda, and Medina in order to establish the shape of human experience in a setting dedicated to the transcendental. In this milieu where Islam originated, it was at its most intense, for much of life was determined by it. In a continuum based upon religious versus sec ular values in society, the Hijaz was at the religious end. Others have studied Middle Eastern societies dominated in the nineteenth century by secularizers and dedicated to the restriction of the place of religion in social activity and politics to a minor role. I hope to present a picture of a society and its political structures in a chron ological setting and geographical area that was unique but that nevertheless can be useful for a deeper understanding of the Is lamic faith in both the past and present. Second, I hope to illuminate the nature of Ottoman imperial rule in its Arab provinces in the last decades of its existence and, in the process, shed some light on a major alternative to national ism. The Ottoman Empire succumbed to secular, ethnic national ism and to the armed might of the Entente Powers in World War I. Yet if nineteenth-century Middle Eastern history is seen solely as a prelude to the growth of twentieth-century nationalisms, the posi tive aspects of the Ottoman Empire may be ignored. In its central Arab lands, Ottoman provincial administration endured for four centuries despite increasing external attacks, decentralization, de population, and economic decay. Ottoman rule had supporters and provided some benefits. The other side of the coin of modern nationalism in the Middle East is the history of the prior successful functioning of Ottoman institutions. To understand either the final collapse of the empire or its long existence necessitates analyses of the empire with attention both to the failings and to the suc cesses of Ottoman rule. To date, most studies of Ottoman history x PREFACE that have dealt with provincial governments have not linked suc cess with failure, or they have been so colored by nationalist prej udice as to be nearly useless. Modern nationalism has been the major cause of two world wars and most of the extraordinary suffering and brutality that have afflicted the twentieth century. The pro-nationalist views of Arab, Turkish, and Western historians have denigrated Ottoman rule and, by implication, its anti-national policies and religious loyal ties. However, once again in the Middle East the possibility of large political units being organized on religious rather than national lines is being raised. The lessons of the past may be useful to those engaged in analyzing this resurgence of Islam. Although the Hijaz was both the birthplace of Arab political independence and the religious center of the Muslim world, its political history in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is nearly unknown. Trying to reconstruct the history of the Hijaz brings to mind the fable of the blind seers and the elephant: each perceives a different kind of being depending upon the informa tion available to him. The rare Christian traveler wh o managed to evade local authorities saw the holy cities during the pilgrimage as religious centers; European consuls, who were restricted to Jidda, kne w merchants engaged in international trade; chroniclers and later Arab nationalists concentrated on the rulers of Mecca from the point of view of their later leadership of the Arab Revolt in 1916. If the Hijaz in the modern period is to be properly understood, these facets must be combined and two missing ingredients added: the Ottoman part in Hijazi history and the religious, social, economic, and health aspects of the life of the Hijaz. It is, however, easier to prescribe such an approach than to follow it, particularly for a non- Muslim wh o is not able to visit Mecca and Medina. Also, though Ottoman records provide a rich source of information, they have been difficult of access and poorly organized until recently. I have not yet been able to locate the court records of Mecca, Medina, and Jidda. Until these records are located, much of the social, legal, and economic history of the Hijaz must remain un known. Nor have I been able to use the manuscripts by Arifi Bey cited by Ehud Toledano in his recent work on slavery. The Egyp tian archives have not been consulted for this work; they undoubt edly will be found to have much useful material that may alter PREFACE xi many of the conclusions of this book. The information contained in the tables in chapters 3 and 5 was compiled from extremely scat tered British and French consular reports; I have not found official Ottoman information on these subjects. Despite these gaps, this book does, for thefirst time, examine the religion, society, and politics of the nineteenth-century Hijaz in their mutual interactions. At present, comparisons between the Hi jaz and other Ottoman-Arab provinces in the nineteenth century are not likely, in most cases, to be productive because political his tory and social, economic, and religious historical studies have not been fully integrated. Charles Issawi's An Economic History of the Middle East and North Africa (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982) provides an extremely valuable framework for begin ning such comparisons. Unfortunately, this study was completed before Issawi's appeared. The useful works of de Gaury, Uzuncharshili, and Al-Amr deal respectively with the political happenings, Ottoman-Hijazi rela tions, and the British role in the Hijaz. None of the authors exam ines religion in detail, and none integrates social and economic history with political history. Amon g other authors there has been an unfortunate tendency to generalize about the history of the Hi jaz and to ignore the real changes taking place there in the rela tionship between religion and society. Edward Said has sarcastically, but accurately, summarized many of the secondary works dealing with the Hijaz: Arabia has been an especially privileged place for the Orientalist, not only because Muslims treat Arabia as Islam's genius loci, but also because the Hejaz appears historically as barren and retarded as it is geographically; the Arabian desert is thus considered to be a locale about which one can make statements regarding the past in exactly the same form (and with the same content) that one makes them regarding the present. In the Hejaz you can speak about Muslims, modern Islam, and primitive Islam without bothering to mak e distinctions.1 Transliteration from Arabic and Ottoman poses many prob lems. Individuals' names and most terms are transliterated accord ing to the system used in Arabian Studies, the 'ayn is not shown, and all diacritical marks are dropped. Modern Turkish spelling has been employed for Ottoman, except that "sh" and "ch" are used, xii PREFACE all "i"s are dotted, and the "o" and "u" are used for both types of Turkish "o" and "u." Authors' transliterations of their own names have been retained.

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