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

GERMANYASWARTIME"REVOLUTIONARY" 59

problems."Finally,theGermanshadlittlegeographicknowledgeof
Palestine,Syria,andEgypt;theyhadto rely,ironically,onBritishmaps
oftheregion."
Prufer,too,founddifficultorganizingananti-Britishrebellionand
terroristcampaigninEgyptwhileatthesametimehelpingrecruit
BedouinsfortheTurkishmilitaryexpedition.Enverhadorderedthe
creationofaspecialArab auxiliaryunitwithintheVIIICorps.In
Damascus,Beirut,andelsewhere,Prufer,usuallyin Arab dress,culti-
vatedfriendlyrelationswithinfluentialshaykhs,otherArabnotables,
andTurkishofficials,bribingthemwithgiftsanddecorations.He
assistedinenrollingfifteenhundredvolunteers,butthenumberfell
farshortoftheseveralthousandwhichtheGermanshopedfor,and
many,Pruferobserved,wereunreliable."
Inaddition,andwiththeblessingofKress, hecontinuedto seek
spies toenterEgypt,includingsometojointheplannedcomitaji
unitsandtomineanddynamitetheSuezCanal.Hiseffortsgenerally
failed, however.ThedubiousplanofrecruitingBedouincriminals
fromLebanondispleasedTurkishleaders,whodelayedreleasingsome
fromprison,andmoneyprovedinsufficienttotransformthenew
recruitsintotrustworthyagents."

ExpeditionMania,theArabs,andPropaganda

Meanwhile,inBerlintheforeignministryandGeneralStaffcontin-
uedinfuriousfashiontopushforwardGermany'shastilyconceived
plansfortheMiddleEast.JagowapprovedOppenheim'sformation
ofasmalltranslationofficewithinthePrussian ministryofculture
toproducepro-GermanpropagandapamphletsinArabicandmod-
ernIndianlanguages."
Butthemostnoticeableactivityinthisregardinvolvedaflurryof
Germanexpeditionsandindividualssentbytheforeignministryand
GeneralStafftotheMiddleEastandNorthAfricatoinciteMuslim
rebellions.Mostofthemissions,whichBerlinorganizedwithonly
thenominalapprovaloftheTurksandincompletedisregardofIs-
lamic-andparticularlyArab-customs,weredesignedtoassistthe
operationsalreadyunfoldingagainstEgypt.Theexpeditionsaimed