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

BRITAIN,GERMANY,ANDTHEMIDDLEEAST II

scholarsstudyingtheOrient.AsGermany'srelationswithTurkey
expanded,thisgroupfollowedotherEuropeanOrientaliststo the
OttomanprovincesinNorthAfricaandtheMiddleEast. In r875, for
example,theEgyptianshadappointedaGerman,WilhelmSpitta,
directorofthenationallibraryinCairo,apositionheldbyGerman
scholarsuntilr9II.39TheBerlingovernment,whichlimitedits con-
tactsintheMiddleEastmainlytotheTurks,whointurnjealously
guardedtheirruleovertheotherpeoplesoftheOttomanEmpire,
oftenusedtheseGermanscholarstocollectintelligenceintheArab
hinterland.
Oppenheim'stravelsandarchaeologicalresearch,financedby his
familyandfacilitatedby hisfluencyin Arabic, tookhimto Greece
andConstantinople(r883),theMaghreb(r886, r892),andLibya (r892).
Duringthefallofr892, hevisitedCairoforthefirsttime,meeting
leadingEgyptians,travelingtheNile River,studyingtheArabiclan-
guage,morality,andcustoms,andlearningaboutIslam.Inasmuch
astheGermanforeignministryhadtoapprovehis travels,Oppenheim
usedhisfriendandmentor,thenotedAfricanexplorerGerhard
Rohlfs,toestablishcloserelationswithseveralministryofficialsand
diplomats.TheseincludedPaulGrafvonHatzfeldt,theambassador
inLondon,andPaulKayser,theinfluentialdirectoroftheforeign
ministry'scolonialdepartment.Consequently,duringOppenheim's
visitin r893 to Syria,Mesopotamia,thePersianGulf,Muscat,Aden,
Zanzibar,andGermanEastAfrica, he filedextensivereportsonpo-
liticalandmilitarymatters.Heespeciallyrecommended,regarding
therelationshipoftheOttomanstotheArabs, thattheTurksdis-
playconsiderablearmedpowerandbuildstronggarrisons.
ReturningtoGermany,hevisitedLondonandnumerousBritish
Africanists.InOctoberr895 hejourneyedagaintoConstantinople;
thesultan,acknowledginghisgrowingreputationasbothan
Orientalistandsomeonewithties to hishomegovernment,received
himin anhour-longaudience.Back inGermanyhe receivedfrom
theforeignministryacommissiontoleadanexpeditiontotheLake
Chadareatosecureit forGermany,atrustthatfurtherevidencedhis
blossomingrelationshipwiththeministry.
InMarch,withtheassistanceofHatzfeldt,Oppenheimgained
entryintotheconsularservice,overcomingconsiderableanti-Semitic