A Concise History of the Middle East

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World War I • 213

The Arab Revolt
On 5 June 1916 Husayn declared the Arabs independent and unfurled the
standard of their revolt against Turkish rule. The Ottoman Empire did not
fall at once, but large numbers of Arabs in the Hijaz, plus some in Pales¬
tine and Syria, began to fight the Turks. But were the Arabs in these areas
truly nationalists? Most probably did not care whether they were ruled
from Istanbul or Mecca, so long as the outcome of the war was in doubt.
The Arab Revolt raged for the next two years. Guided by European advis¬
ers, notably T. E. Lawrence, the Arab supporters of Amir Husayn fought on
the Allied side against the Ottoman Empire. Working in tandem with the
Egyptian Expeditionary Force (the British Empire troops advancing from
the Suez Canal), they moved north into Palestine. While the British took
Jaffa and Jerusalem, the Arabs were blowing up railways and capturing
Aqaba and Amman. When Britain's forces drew near Damascus in late Sep¬
tember 1918, they waited to let Lawrence and the Arabs occupy the city,
which then became the seat of a provisional Arab government headed by
Faysal. Meanwhile, the Ottoman army, now led by Mustafa Kemal (later
Ataturk), withdrew from Syria. The Turks were also retreating in Iraq be¬
fore an Anglo-Indian army. Late in October the Ottoman Empire signed an
armistice with the Allies at Mudros. The Arabs, promised the right of self-
determination by the British and the French, were jubilant. Surely their in¬
dependence was at hand.


The Sykes-Picot Agreement
But this was not to be. The British government during the war had prom¬
ised Ottoman-ruled Arab lands to other interested parties. Russia had al¬
ready demanded Allied recognition of its right to control the Turkish
Straits. In a secret treaty signed in London in 1915, Britain and France
promised to back Russia's claim. For its entry into the war on the Allied
side in 1915, Italy later demanded parts of southwestern Anatolia. The
Greeks, too, wanted a piece of Turkey, the land around Izmir, where many
Greeks lived. France, while fighting the Germans on the Western Front,
could not send many troops to the Middle East, but it wanted all of Syria,
including Lebanon and Palestine. So Britain, France, and Russia drew up a
secret pact called the Sykes-Picot Agreement (see Map 13.1). Signed in
May 1916, it provided for direct French rule in much of northern and
western Syria, plus a sphere of influence in the Syrian hinterland, includ¬
ing Damascus, Aleppo, and Mosul. Britain would rule lower Iraq directly.
It would also advise an Arab government to be given lands between the
Egyptian border and eastern Arabia, thus ensuring indirect British control

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