The Islamic Question in British Politics

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The Islamic Question in British Politics T HE I SLAMIC Q UESTION IN B RITISH P OLITICS AND PRESS DURING THE GREAT WAR. By Shchestyuk Tetyana Submitted to Central European University History Department In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Supervisor: Professor Nadia al-Bagdadi Second Reader: Professor Miklos Lojko CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2013 Abstract The thesis analyzes the role of the Islamic question in British politics and press during the Great War. The connection between British Muslim subjects and the Caliph is defined as the essence of the Islamic question. In the present work the question is considered as a wide- spread idea in British politics, which was referred to as a common point. It is suggested that the Islamic question resulted in two separate developments during the Great War: refuting the Sultan’s call to jihad, and promoting the transfer of the Caliphate to Arabia. The strategies of refuting the Sultan’s call to jihad are analyzed and the stages of the consideration of the idea of the Arab Caliphate in British policy are suggested. Special attention is paid to the year 1917, which witnessed a lack of interest for the Islamic question in the British press, but not in the governmental papers. CEU eTD Collection i Table of Contents List of Illustrations................................................................................................................... iii Introduction................................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Historiographical and Historical Background of the Islamic Question in British Politics......................................................................................................................................11 1.1. Historiographic background of the research.................................................................11 1.1.1. Historiography on the question of Caliphate and pan-Islamism............................11 1.1.2. Islam in relations between Great Britain and Indian Muslims. .............................14 1.1.3. The British policy in the Middle East....................................................................15 1.2. Historical Background: Islamic question in British politics before the Great War......17 1.2.1. Meaning of the Caliphate in the 19th century.........................................................17 1.2.2. The Islamic question: Muslim population in British-Ottoman relations. ..............19 1.2.3. The change of the role of the Islamic factor in British-Ottoman relations during the Balkan wars................................................................................................................21 Chapter 2: British Concerns about the Ottoman Sultan as the Caliph of British Muslim subjects in 1914-1915. .............................................................................................................24 2.1. British Concerns about Muslim opinion during the Period of Neutrality of the Ottoman Empire..................................................................................................................................24 2.1.1. The manifestation of British concerns in different sources. ..................................24 2.1.2. The influence of concerns about Muslim opinion and the position of Russia on British Policy towards the Ottoman empire.....................................................................30 2.2. The British Refuting of the Sultan's call to jihad..........................................................35 2.2.1. Arguing that Great Britain is not an enemy of Islam. ............................................38 2.2.2. Not a religious war for the Ottoman empire. .........................................................43 2.3. The press on the Muslim opinion in 1915. ...................................................................45 Chapter 3: The Idea of Establishing a Caliphate in Arabia in British politics (1914-1916)....49 3.1. Promoting the sharif of Mecca as an ideal candidate for the Arab Caliphate...............50 3.2. The official acknowledgment of Russian claims to Constantinople and the discussion of the Arab Caliphate in British politics, 1915. ...................................................................55 3.3. Doubts about the legitimacy of the Ottoman caliphate in the British press in 1915. ...61 3.4. The move from the Arab Caliphate to the Arab revolt (October 1915 – June 1916)....63 Chapter 4: The Islamic question in British politics and press during the Arab revolt and after. ..................................................................................................................................................68 4.1. The religious appeal of the Arab revolt.........................................................................68 4.2. The coverage of the Arab revolt or the revolt of the Holy Places of Islam in the British press (1916)..........................................................................................................................70 4.3. Islam as political factor in the Eastern reports of 1917. ...............................................79 4.3.1. Religious anti-British propaganda. ........................................................................79 4.3.2. Immunity of the Holy places and presence of the Christian troops in Hejaz and Mesopotamia....................................................................................................................83 CEU eTD Collection 4.3.3. India and Hejaz in the Eastern reports. ..................................................................87 4.3.4. The Question of Caliphate. ....................................................................................89 4.4. Changes in covering of Islam in The Times in 1917. ...................................................93 Conclusion. ..............................................................................................................................99 Bibliography...........................................................................................................................101 I. Primary Sources:.............................................................................................................101 II. Secondary Sources: .......................................................................................................104 Appendix: Tables on the sources. ..........................................................................................109 ii List of Illustrations. 1. A German cartoon about jihad, 1914 (taken from: Lawrence James, The Rise and Fall of the British Empire. London: Abacus, 1997)…………………………………………35 2. A British cartoon on jihad, from The Bystander, June 28, 1916, (taken from: Roy Douglas, The Great War, 1914-1918: the Cartoonist's View, London: Routledge,1995)……77 CEU eTD Collection iii Introduction. Though the chronological frames of the research are defined by the period of the Great War, I will not deal with military history in the thesis, but rather with history of international affairs and strategic considerations behind them. The Great War is known to be a first global conflict, which however remained mainly a European war with the principal actors and main struggles in Europe. And even for Great Britain, which was a great colonial power, the war was mainly a European one in which the war against the Ottoman empire had a minor importance.1 Thus, even in the CEU Library there are studies on international relations during the Great War or even on Great Britain during the Great War which do not even mention the issues connected with the Middle East. But my work will focus on the regions outside Europe: the Ottoman empire and British India. Therefore, though my research is dealing with Great Britain and international affairs during the Great War I realize that these issues are somehow marginal for Great Britain and for international affairs of that period. However, there are a large number of studies on British politics in the Middle East during the Great War,2 which is a research area the present thesis is the most relevant to. These studies would speak about British policy towards the territories of the Ottoman empire, the Middle East, the Arabs, or some country in particular, but not towards the Muslims. They may mention that the war with the Ottoman empire was important because of its impact on the Muslim population of the British empire, but they will not speak much of it, and devote their attention to economic, military or even international issues. Though I do not doubt the importance of economic and military issues and such studies, their approach seems a bit surprising. These scholars often repeat that from a military point of view the CEU eTD Collection Ottoman empire could hardly be considered a strong enemy.3 According to Marian Kent, even the 1 It can be seen both in memoirs : W.S. Churchill. The Great War. – V.1-3. (London), p.483-484, David Lloyd George. War Memoirs (London: Odhams Press Limited, 1938), Vol.I. David Lloyd George, War Memoirs (London: Ivor Nicholson & Watson, 1933) Vol.II., and in historical studies Lawrence James, The Rise and Fall of the British Empire (London: Abacus, 1997) pp.358-359. 2 These studies would be discussed in details in Chapter 1. 3 Basil Henry Liddell Hart, Lawrence of Arabia [Colonel Lawrence: The Man behind the Legend] (Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 1937)., p. 56; David Fromkin, A peace to end all peace: the fall of the
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