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

26 WARBYREVOLUTION

dominantineasternMesopotamia,Persia,andYemen,abhorredthe
SunniMuslims,themainstreamofIslam,andthattheywouldprob-
ablynotcollaboratewiththeTurks.Further,Lowtherclaimed,the
ArabhadnorespectfortheTurkas aMuslimandfeltthattheca-
liphateshouldbeinArabhands.NordidLowtherregardpan-
IslamismasdangerousinIndia:IndianSunnisviewedtheYoung
Turksas"sacrilegiousrevolutionaries"whohaddeposedGod'select,
Abdul-Hamid,fromthecaliphateandreplacedhimwithapuppet."
During19IIand 1912 theYoungTurksstrengthenedtheirauthor-
ityandthatofthearmyovertheparliamentanddomesticopposi-
tiongroups.MuchofthisresultedfromthefurtherOttomanmili-
tarylossestoEuropeanforces. IntheTurkish-Italianwarof19II-1912,
TurkeylostLibya to Italy,andinthefirstBalkanWarof 1912 the
PortelostnearlyallofitsremainingEuropeanterritories.vThefail-
ureofConstantinopletodefendLibyaweakeneditspositioninthe
eyesoftherestivenon-OttomanpeoplesoftheTurkishempire,par-
ticularlyArabs,anddestroyedmuchoftheconfidencetheyhadina
YoungTurkrevivalofthecountry.Soonaftertheoutbreakofthe
warwithItalyaTurkishofficialwarnedLowtherthatthesurrender
ofLibya to aChristianpowerwouldmeanamassrisingoftheArabs
againsttheTurks.Nevertheless,duringthewar theTurksdiscour-
agedGermanefforts(takentopromotepan-Islamism)torecruitEgyp-
tianstofightfortheOttomanandArab forcesinLibya.>

Emerging ArabUnrest

AmajorreasonwhythePorteintensifiednationalistpoliciesyet also
appealedtopan-Islamism(asnotedbytheBritish)was toreconcile
theArabsoftheOttomanEmpiretoTurkishrule. By19IO-19IIa
steadilyunfolding"Arabquestion"existedintheempire.SeriousArab
discontentwiththeTurkshadappearedinMesopotamiaandYemen,
includingviolentassaultsbyArabsonlocalTurkishgarrisonsand
trade.TheTurkshadfoughtsince 1869 aprolongedcolonialwar to
subjugateYemen,butbeginningin 1905 theYemenirebellion
intensifiedandcausedseriousproblemsfortheOttomans."
SmallgroupsofArabshadthoughtofeitherpoliticalreformof
theTurkishgovernmentthatwouldgrantArabsgreaterautonomy