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

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ber1915.TheBritishgovernment,actingthroughMcMahon,theHigh
Commissionerin Egypt,agreedin alettertoHusaynibnAli,theSharif
ofMecca, to hisdemandthatBritainsupportArabindependence
fromtheTurksinArabia,Mesopotamia,andmuchofSyria.
Bythisagreementandinsubsequentexchangesofmessages,Cairo
andLondonencouragedHusaynto raiseanArabrevoltagainstthe
Turks,amatterthatKitchenerandthesharif'sson,Abdullah,had
discussedduringthefallofI914-2Husayn,withhisuniqueposition
intheIslamicworldasguardianoftheholyplaces,andhisrelative
independence,wasnotonlytheobviouspersontoleadanArab rebel-
lionbutalsotheonewhocouldbestcountertheeffectofthesultan-
caliph'scall tojihad.
Thedetailsofwhathascometo beknownastheHusayn-McMahon
correspondence,whichresultedin anAnglo-Araballiancelatermarred
bygreatcontroversy,neednotberecountedhere.Nonetheless,the
immediatefactorsproducingthatOctoberasuddenBritishinterest
inthealliancewiththesharifareofrelevanceforthisstudy.Despite
thealmostuniversalrejectionbyMuslimsoftheholywarproclaimed
bythesultan-caliph,anddespiteBritishintelligencereportsstretch-
ingbacktothespringillustratingtherefusalofArabsinArabiaand
MesopotamiatosupporttheTurks,Britishleadersstillseemed
hauntedbytheprospectofajihadassistedbyGermany.'
ThishelpstoexplaintheresponseoftheBritishto avisitonII
OctoberbyMuhammadSharifal-Faruqi,an ArabofficerintheTurk-
isharmywhohaddesertedfromtheTurkishforcesatGallipoli,to
ColonelGilbertClayton,theheadofBritishintelligenceinCairo.
AI-FaruqiclaimedtorepresentasecretArabmilitaryandnationalist
society(al-Ahd)inSyriaandMesopotamia,agroupthatwasallied
totheSharifofMeccaandwishedtocollaboratewiththeBritishin
returnfor Arabindependence.Claytonbelievedal-Faruqi,although
infacthe wasnospokesmanforal-Ahd.Theapparentemissaryas-
serted(erroneously)thatboththeTurksandGermansintendedto
granttheArabstheirterritorialdemandsbutthatifBritainsup-
portedArabautonomyalongtheterritoriallineslaidoutbytheSharif
ofMecca, theanti-Turkrevoltwouldbeginatonce.Theinterview
withal-Faruqisetoffapanic,extendingfromCairo'sleadersupto
Kitchenerin theWar Office, thattheArabsmightgo over to the