Arabs and Young Turks Kayali.Pdf
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Arabs and Young Turks Preferred Citation: Kayali, Hasan. Arabs and Young Turks: Ottomanism, Arabism, and Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, 1908-1918. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1997 1997. http://ark.cdlib.org/ ark:/13030/ft7n39p1dn/ Arabs and Young Turks Ottomanism, Arabism, and Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, 1908– 1918 Hasan Kayalı UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley · Los Angeles · London © 1997 The Regents of the University of California To Ayşe, Murat, and Nihal Preferred Citation: Kayali, Hasan. Arabs and Young Turks: Ottomanism, Arabism, and Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, 1908-1918. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1997 1997. http://ark.cdlib.org/ ark:/13030/ft7n39p1dn/ To Ayşe, Murat, and Nihal Acknowledgments I owe a special debt to Feroz Ahmad, who has shared with me over the years his wealth of knowledge and insights on the Young Turk period. I am fortunate to have received inspiration and guidance from the late Albert Hourani. The doctoral dissertation that anteceded this book was supervised by Zachary Lockman, who has graciously supported my work since. Engin Akarlı, Chuck Allen, Selim Deringil, Stephen Humphreys, William Ochsenwald, Roger Owen, and an anonymous reader kindly read and commented on parts or the whole of drafts. I would like to acknowledge the financial and institutional support of the Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies; the History Faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the American Research Institute in Turkey; the American Council of Learned Societies; the Department of History, the Academic Senate, and the Hellman Family Foundation at the University of California, San Diego. Thanks are also due to the staffs of the Başbakanlık Archives (İstanbul), the Public Records Office (Kew Gardens, London), the Aus wärtiges Amt Archives (Bonn), Haus-, Hof-, und Staatsarchiv (Vienna), Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères (Paris), the archives of the Turkish General Chief of Staff (Ankara), the Widener Library and the Geisel Library (especially Library Express). I am indebted to Philip Khoury, Thomas Philipp, and Leila Fawaz for supporting my academic endeavors over the years. In this regard, I wish also to express my gratitude to L. Carl Brown, Renata Coates, Ali Gheissari, Şükrü Hanioğlu, Kemal Karpat, Rashid Khalidi, Walid Kha lidi, Avigdor Levy, Michael Meeker, Donald Quataert, Bassam Tibi, Judith Tucker, and Mary Wilson. Lynne Withey of the University of California Press took an early interest in the manuscript and sponsored it with grace and efficiency. Tony Hicks directed the production of the book, and Lynn Meinhardt copyread the text. The cheerful company of the RC, Mufundi, and İTÜ fellows and friendships that grew over countless cups of tea at the Başbakanlık made the writing of this book less of a lonely experience. I owe by far the largest debt to my wife, Ayşe Kayalı, and to my parents, Reşid and Mihriver Kayalı, for all the sacrifices they have made. http://www.escholarship.org/editions/view?docId=ft7n39p1dn;chunk.id=0;doc.view=print (1 of 105) [6/4/2008 5:19:35 AM] Arabs and Young Turks La Jolla May 1996 Note on Sources Two considerations governed the choice of primary material for this project. First, the objective being to investigate trends, attitudes, and policies in İstanbul in their “imperial” context, particular attention was given to documents of the central government, parliamentary proceedings, and the capital’s contemporary daily press. Second, as far as non-Ottoman primary material is concerned, the unbeaten track of German and Austrian consular correspondence was explored, in addition to French, American, and the extremely rich (and equally well exploited) British Public Record Office collections. Each of these collections has proved to have different degrees of usefulness for different periods. For instance, for periods of strict censorship, the Ottoman press loses much of its utility. For the years of World War I, the value of German, Austrian, and American sources increases as British and French consular reports cease. The following abbreviations have been used in the text: Archival Sources AA Auswärtiges Amt, Bonn ATASE Askeri Tarih ve Stratejik Etüt Dairesi (Archives of the Turkish General Chief of Staff, Ankara) BBA Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi (Ottoman Prime Ministry Archives), İstanbul BEO Bab-ı Âli Evrak Odası DH Dahiliye (Ministry of the Interior) DUIT Dosya Usulüne Göre İrade Tasnifi FO Foreign Office HHS Haus-, Hof-, und Staatsarchiv, Vienna IJMES International Journal of Middle East Studies İ.Um. İdare-i Umumiye KMS Kalem-i Mahsus MAE Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Paris. Correspondance politique et commercial, 1908–1918 MMZC Meclis-i Mebusan Zabıt Cerideleri (Proceedings of the Ottoman Parliament, 1908–1918) MTV Muhaberat-ı Umumiye İdaresi Mütenevvia Kısmı PA Politisches Archiv PRO Public Record Office, London SYS Muhaberat-ı Umumiye Dairesi Siyasi Evrakı TCTA Tanzimat’tan Cumhuriyet’e Türkiye Ansiklopedisi (Encyclopedia of Turkey from the Tanzimat to the Republic) US Records of the U.S. Department of State Relating to Internal Affairs of Turkey, 1910–1929 Note on Transliteration Lest I appear to concur with T. E. Lawrence’s dictum that “I spell my names anyhow, to show what rot the systems are,” a word of explanation is needed about spelling. Arabic and Turkish words that are familiar to the reader in their Anglicized versions are rendered as such and not in transliteration or in italics (e.g., vizier). Only an incomplete system of transliteration is used for Arabic words. Most marks that are not on an English keyboard are omitted. Only the hamza (’) and ‘ayn (‘) are indicated. I have chosen to use Turkish renderings of words that are common to Middle Eastern languages and regions, as most of the non-Western texts I used were Ottoman or modern Turkish. The transliteration of personal names poses a more substantive problem and may prejudge important issues in the present study, which touches on questions of ethnic identification. Personal http://www.escholarship.org/editions/view?docId=ft7n39p1dn;chunk.id=0;doc.view=print (2 of 105) [6/4/2008 5:19:35 AM] Arabs and Young Turks names common to Arabs and Turks (often Arabic in origin) have identical rendering in Ottoman Turkish and Arabic. However, in their modern Turkish rendition some Arabic names become unrecognizable (e.g., Esat and As‘ad). I have had to make a decision between the Turkish and Arabic versions of a transliteration of a personal name on a case-by-case basis. (Thus, for instance, Mahmud Shawkat Pasha has been preferred to Mahmud Şevket Pasha.) If certain transliterations appear unusual, they should be evaluated within the context of the arguments. Map Introduction We know by now something of what the British thought about the Arabs, and of what Arabs thought about the British and Turks, but what the Turks, and in particular the Turks of the Committee of Union and Progress, thought about the Arabs is still largely an unanswered question.[1] Fifteen years after they were written, Albert Hourani’s words remain valid. This study addresses the very void Hourani mentioned. Its purpose is to illuminate not so much what the Turks thought about the Arabs (for the preoccupation with mutual perceptions only produces sterile and polemical analyses),[2] but what the policies of Ottoman governments were in the Arab-populated parts of the empire, as well as how these policies were refashioned at the beginning of the twentieth century, specifically during the last decade of the Ottoman state. An examination of Ottoman government and the Arabs also has to address the genesis and development of Turkish and Arab nationalism, because nationalist discourse is salient in the established scholarship on the period in general and the topic of the Arab policy of the “Young Turk” governments in particular. The reinstatement of the Ottoman constitution (first promulgated in 1876 but suspended within two years by Sultan Abdülhamid II) on 23 July 1908 marks the beginning of the second constitutional period of the empire. Though only a brief episode when viewed against the vast span of Ottoman history, the second constitutional period (1908–18)[3] was marked by extraordinary social and political transformations. The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 introduced parliamentary rule and liberties that recast social, political, and cultural life in the wake of the long autocratic reign of Abdülhamid. The revolution, however, failed to arrest the rapid territorial dissolution of the empire. In Europe, the events of July 1908 prompted Bulgaria’s declaration of independence, Crete’s decision to unite with Greece, and the Austrian annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Within four years the Ottoman government ceded Libya and the Dodecanese Islands in the Aegean Sea to Italy and virtually all remaining European territories except İstanbul’s Rumelian hinterland to the Balkan states. It confronted insurgencies in Syria, Albania, and Arabia (i.e., the Arabian Peninsula). The second constitutional period also encompasses World War I, the major watershed in the history of the modern Middle East. http://www.escholarship.org/editions/view?docId=ft7n39p1dn;chunk.id=0;doc.view=print (3 of 105) [6/4/2008 5:19:35 AM] Arabs and Young Turks One may argue that less is known about the second constitutional period than the earlier periods of Ottoman history. In spite of its significance and the presumable ease of treating a fairly recent period, this era of constitutional monarchy has escaped systematic examination and consequently has suffered from misrepresentation. There are a number of reasons for the historians’ neglect of the period. First, there is the elusiveness of Ottoman official documents for these years. This is partly explained by the disarray of documentary sources due to disruptions caused by revolutionary change, the administrative inexperience of the newly forged governing elite, the succession of unstable governments after the revolution, and the continual state of war in which the Ottomans found themselves from 1911 on.