War by Revolution. Germany and Great Britain in the Middle East in the Era of World War I

90 WARBYREVOLUTION

angrilyrejectedthefeelerandurgedItalynottoallowhimresidence
there.On 18 DecemberBritainannouncedthatithaddeposedAbbas
Hilmi,establishedinEgyptaBritishprotectoratefortheOttoman
suzerainty,andinplaceofthekhedivathadraisedAbbasHilmi's
uncle,HusaynKamil,tothethrone,withthetitleofsultan."
Whennewsofhis depositionbytheBritisharrivedinConstan-
tinople,AbbasHilminolongerlivedintheOttomancapital;ten-
sionshadrisenbetweenhimandthegrandvizier,andhehadleftthe
cityandsettledinVienna.TherehehopedtoutilizetheCentralPow-
ersfurthertoforcetheTurkstoaffirmhimaskhedive.TheGermans
andAustro-Hungarians,fortheirpart,althoughdisappointedatthe
failedreconciliationbetweentheex-khediveandYoungTurks,seem
to havebeenpleasedtohave anIslamicfigureofAbbasHilmi'sstat-
uremuchclosertotheminEurope;theyhopedthroughoutthewar
toensurehisloyaltyintheeventtheCentralPowerswonthestruggle
andtheprincereturnedtotheEgyptianthrone.TheYoungTurks,
fortheirpart,welcomedtheremovaloftheex-khedive,whomthey
viewedasbothatroublemakerandrival,fromtheirmidst."
Bytheyear'send,Germany'sdisappointingexperienceswiththe
ex-khedive,withtheSanussisinLibya,andtheconfusionthatchar-
acterizedBerlin'srevolutionaryactivitiesintheMiddleEastsuggested
thattheTurkishproclamationofjihadhadnotimmediatelyben-
efitedtheReich'spolicy.Pessimisticreportsabouttheholy warand
theArabquestionarrivedinBerlinfromGermanagentsinMesopo-
tamiaandSyria.FromBaghdad,thedragomanKalischdeclaredthat
theBritishIndianArmy,whichhadreachedas farnorthasQurnain
Mesopotamia,hadmadeagreatimpressiononthelocalArabs. He
prophesiedthattherewouldbenoanti-BritishArabrevoltinthose
regionsaslongasBritain'spowerremainedevident."Prufer,assigned
inSyria totheOttomancorpspreparingtoattackEgypt,predicted
toOppenheimthatneithertheEgyptiansnortheSudanesewould
rebelagainsttheBritish.Also, hecomplainedbitterlyabouttheprob-
lemsthatconfrontedthecorps:itsinabilityeithertofindenough
camelsfortransporttoEgyptor torecruitreliableBedouinsfor an
Arabunit;anditsfailuretoprocuresufficientweapons.OftheAr-
abs,Pruferconcluded,"Oneneednotbedeceivedaboutthefactthat
theenthusiasmfortheholywar in SyriaandPalestine,therecruiting