2 WARBYREVOLUTIONThe British Empire,theSultan-Caliph,and Pan-Islamism
By 1907 thelargestEuropeanempire,thatofBritain's,includedIn-
dia,southernPersia,theprincipalshaykhdomsofthePersianGulf,
Aden,Egypt, andaportionofthesultanateofZanzibaralongthe
EastAfricancoast.Theempirenumberedninety-sixmillionMuslim
subjects,almostone-thirdoftheworld'sMuslimpopulation.In con-
trast,thenumberofMuslimsunderFrenchruleinAfricaandAsia
totalednineteenmillion,roughlyasmanyas livedunderRussianrule
inCentralAsia.'
LondonexercisedmuchofitsvastinfluenceintheMiddleEast
andsouthernAsiathroughitscolonial,butpowerfulandofteninde-
pendent,GovernmentofIndia.NotonlydidtheRaj win or force
promisesfromlocal Arabshaykhdoms(whichincludedKuwaitand
Muhammarah)intheneighboringPersianGulfto keepforeigners
out,butithandledBritain'srelationswithAden,Afghanistan,and
theOttomanprovincesofsourhernMesopotamia.'
Britainalsoattempted,aspartofitsMiddleEastpolicy, to pre-
servethemostpowerful,butcontinuouslydeclining,Muslimstate,
theOttomanEmpire,whichlayontheroutefromEuropetoIndia.
Since,particularly, 1830 BritainhadengagedinwhatEnglishmen
called"theGreatGame,"protectingIndiafromRussianattack;it
was for thatpurposethattheBritishextendedtheirinfluenceinto
Turkey,andintootherIslamicstates,includingPersiaandAfghani-
stan,as well.'
TheOttomanEmpire,despitetheeffective lossofits rule inEgypt
toBritainin1882,ofTunistoFrancein1881,ofLibya toItalyin19II-
1912,andoftheMuslimkhanatesofTurkestantoRussia,remained
theonlysignificantfocusofMuslimpowerintheworld.Thedes-
poticsultan-caliph,Abdul-Hamid,inparttooffsetthelossofOtto-
manterritoriestotheWestandRussia,attemptednotonlyto cen-
tralizehis powerintheremainderoftheempirebutalso, in the
process,toestablishthedoctrineofpan-Islamism.Accordingtothat
ideologytheTurksproclaimedthesultanthetrueandrightfulca-
liphwho,havinginheritedhis officefromthelastArabcaliphin1517,
heldareligiousauthority,distinctfrompoliticalauthority,over all
theworld'sMuslims.Furthermore,pan-Islamismcalledonall Mus-