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

30 WARBYREVOLUTION

discouragedanyactionbythemagainsteithertheYoungTurksor
British."
Duringthefallof19II,theAustrianpriestandOrientalistAlois
MusiltraveledalongtheHijazrailroadandtotheRed Seacoast.In
reportsto hisgovernmentinViennahetooassertedthattheBritish
wereinvolvedintheregion.AccordingtoMusil,theBritishexpected
tooccupythecoastsoon.He alsorelayedinformationthatBritain
hadconcludedtreatieswithanumberofcoastalshaykhs."
AlthoughtheGermansprivatelycriticizedthesupposedBritish
involvementwiththeArabs,Berlinseemedintentondoingnothing
inMesopotamia,thePersianGulf,orelsewhereintheMiddleEastto
provokeBritaintotakearadicalpoliticalormilitarysteptostrengthen
itsalreadystrongpositioninthearea. ToavoidproblemswithBrit-
ain, theGermanseven downplayedpan-Islamism.Forexample,in
januaryrorr,theBritishconsulinBaghdad,].G.Lorimer,complained
thataYoungTurkofficerhadactedonbehalfoftheimam(thespiri-
tualleader)intheShiiteholycityofNajafbyattemptingtospread
pan-IslamicliteratureinBaghdad.TheGermanconsul,Hesse,sup-
portedtherestrainingoftheofficerbythelocalOttomangovernor-
general,NazimPasha. 58
BySeptember19IIGermansuspicions,mostofthembasedonlo-
calreportsbutunsubstantiated,ofBritishinvolvementwiththeAr-
abshadreachedthehighestlevelofgovernmentinBerlin.Thekai-
ser,apparentlyontheauthorityofOppenheim,maintainedthatthe
newBritishresidentinCairo,HoratioHerbertLordKitchener,in-
tendedtotakeadvantageoftheTurkish-Italianwar overLibya to
establishan ArabcaliphateunderEgyptianandBritishprotecrion.w
SuchclaimsofaBritish-controlledArabcaliphatehadbeenthesub-
jectofrumorsamongsomeArabnationalistssinceatleastthe1880s,
buttheGermanemperorwasonlypartlycorrect.
ExtensiveresearchhasillustratedthatBritishleadersbeforeWorld
WarI, whiletheyaccumulated,liketheGermans,substantialevidence
oftheexistenceofArabunrestas well asofasmallnationalistmove-
ment,disagreedoverwhatthesefactorsmeantandwhatBritain's
responsetothemshouldbe. By19IOBritishconsulsin Syria,particu-
larlyH.A.CumberbatchinBeirut,wereobservingthegrowingdis-
satisfactionofsomeArabswiththeYoungTurkregime,although