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

12 WARBYREVOLUTION

oppositionin theforeignministry.Throughtheappointmenthe
hoped,albeitwithoutsuccess,to winadmissiontotheprestigious
diplomaticcorpsandtherebytheGermanupperclass."Theminis-
trycanceledtheLakeChadmissionanddecidedtosendhimto
Egypt;"itassignedhimtotheconsulategeneralinCairo,withthe
rankofattache.Exceptfor atriptoSyria in1899,duringwhichhe
discoveredtheancientHittiteruinsatTellHalaf,andavisitduring
1903-1904totheUnitedStates,heremainedinCairountil19IOY
OnceinEgypt,Oppenheim,anextremeAnglophobe,immersed
himselfinanti-Britishpolitics.Theoriginsofhisintensedislikeof
Britainremainunclear.Hispassionfor IslamicandArabculture,
coupledwithBritain'scontrolandinfluenceover Egypt, severalzones
onthePersianGulf,andotherIslamicstates,mayhavecontributed
toit. So alsocouldhave hisambitiontomovefromtheGermancon-
sularservicetothediplomaticcorps,adistinctionobstructedby his
Jewishbackground;hemayhave feltthatanti-Britishviews (while
theywerenotaswidespreadintheforeignministryaselsewherein
theBerlingovernment,forinstanceinthenavy)wouldfacilitatesuch
apromotion.
Oppenheimfinancedmuchofhisworkin theconsularservice
fromhisprivateresourcesandseemedtopossessa freehandin es-
tablishingintimateties toEgyptianleadersopposedtotheBritish
occupationoftheircountry."SoonafterarrivinginCairohemet
theyoungAustrian-educatedkhedive,AbbasHilmiII,theTurkish
viceroy in Egypt.Thekhedive,whohadascendedtheEgyptianthrone
in 1892 andresentedopenlytheBritishoccupationofthecountry,
receivedtheGermanattachein aprivateaudience.Thereafter,much
totheangeroftheBritishconsulgeneral(oftenreferredto by Brit-
ainas itsAgentorResident)inEgypt,EvelynBaringLordCromer,
OppenheimbefriendedAbbasHilmi.^44
Moreover,theGermanmetoftenwithanti-BritishEgyptianna-
tionalists.TheseincludedtheeditoroftheCaironewspapersl-
Muayyed,ShaykhAli Yusuf,andthelaterfounderofthenationalist
party,MustafaKamil;bothmensupportedtheclaimsofthekhedive,
theOttomans,Islam,andsecularnationalism.Oppenheimalsomixed
withteachersandstudentsattheal-AzharUniversityinCairo,where