Page:EB1922 - Volume 32.djvu/45

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PAN-ISLAMISM
27


2. The Italian War. To some extent this split was retarded by European aggression, which may be said to have culminated in 191 1. The interference of Great Britain and Russia in Persia and the French scheme for governing Morocco as a protectorate had made it clear that Turkey was the only Islamic state which could compete with the European Powers on anything like equal terms. The Italian attack on Tripoli in Sept. of that year evoked widespread sympathy with Turkey among the Islamic commu- nities. The Javanese press, e.g., made no secret of its desire to see Turkey triumph, and the Mahommedan press of Egypt warmly espoused the side of Turkey. At a meeting held in Kabul the Amir of Afghanistan took part in a demonstration in favour of the Turks, and in India money was collected for their assist- ance. Care, indeed, had been taken by Italy to avoid all ap- pearance of an attack on Islam itself, and the Pope himself warned Christian soldiers against considering the campaign as a crusade; but to the Moslem, Christian and European are not very clearly distinguished, and it was plausibly argued that Eu- rope was not now satisfied with protecting Christians within the Ottoman Empire, but had resolved on partitioning that empire among non-Moslem Powers. In proclamations issued in Con- stantinople the Sultan whose dominions were thus attacked was described as the legitimate ruler of 300 million Moslems (swelled by some journalist to 400 million), and a demand was raised for the restoration of his arbitrary powers.

Islam was not united on this occasion in the defence of the Ottoman Caliph, for while the Iman of San'a ceased hostilities, the Idrisi chieftain in Asir favoured the Italians. On the other hand, the Turks had the cooperation of the Senussis, who in the preceding century had kept aloof from their quarrels. The Com- mittee of Union and Progress is said to have been astonished at the amount of sympathy which the cause of Turkey had evoked, having expected, e.g., that the Tripolitans would be indifferent to the change of rule, whereas they in fact stubbornly resisted the invaders. The Committee in consequence proceeded to make certain concessions to Arab sentiment, without, it is said, actually altering their policy. A beneficent Islamic society was founded in Constantinople, under the patronage of the heir appar- ent, chiefly with Egyptian money; and an attempt was made to found a Moslem university in Medina. Schemes were started for promoting the study of Arabic under efficient instructors; and there were authoritative pronouncements that racial differ- ences in the Ottoman Empire need not be suppressed.

3. The Balkan War and its Consequences. This war, which broke out in Oct. 1912, demonstrated the military weakness of Turkey, though the recovery of Adrianople after the Armistice was greeted with telegrams of congratulation from all parts of the Moslem world. Clearly, however, up to this point Pan-Islamism had failed in its original design, that of arresting the progress of European aggression and eventually restoring Islamic rule in Asia and Africa. It had, however, aroused fairly general sym- pathy with Turkey and perhaps brought home to many Moslems the idea that someone claiming to be their Caliph existed. Sub- scriptions to the national defence fund of the Ottoman Empire flowed in from various quarters; owing to the efforts of a deputy of the Duma, Tas-pula 'Abdul Jalil Oghlu, the Moslems of Sam- arkand sent a handsome subscription in Aug. 1913; and in Bos- nia, which had quite lately formed part of the empire, the opinion was said to be general that the ruin of Turkey would be an im- mense disaster from the religious point of view. From this region, too, sums of money were sent to the Red Crescent and the national defence fund. In May the Moslems of Delhi sent the sum of 1,600 to the Ottoman Minister of Finance for the hous- ing of immigrants who had lost their homes in the recent war. Subscriptions were also promised from Java and the Malay States. The talk about the need for union between Moslems was renewed in the Moslem press throughout the world; notably in the Habl al-Matin, a Pan-Islamic journal in the Persian lan- guage published in Calcutta; and societies with the object of either spreading Islam or producing unity among Moslems were founded in different regions; e.g. a jam'iyyat al-itlifaq, "Society of Concord," founded in Muscat, a khariji state. An anjuman-

i-himaya-i-Islam, " Society for the Defence of Islam," of Auck- land, California, is also mentioned.

The language used by journalists caused some apprehension to the European governments responsible for great numbers of Moslems, and complaints were made that in the Islamic terri- tories of Russia the charge of Pan-Islamism was easily leveled and resulted in frustrating the efforts that were being made for spread- ing education. The Islamic reactionaries, who dreaded the modern learning, obtained the imprisonment of modernisr teach- ers by informing the authorities that the latter were engaged in Pan-Islamic propaganda. Any Moslem who took in the jour- nals of Cairo or Constantinople, or had studied in either of those cities, was suspected of pursuing these schemes. On the other hand, the plan pursued by the imperial government in its scheme for enforced education was the Russification of all its subjects. One member of the Duma, Sadr ad Din Maqsudoff, had some years before defended his co-religionists from the charge of Pan- Islamism which the Moslem schemes for education had incurred; while claiming that the Russian Moslems were loyal to the Government, he maintained that their nationality was Islam.

In Syria and Mesopotamia nationalism at this time was de- veloping, and Pan-Islamism making little way.

Two works issued in Constantinople in the year 1913 illustrate the ideas of Moslem publicists on the phase which the question had now assumed.

One of these is the Ittihad al-Islam (" Unity of Islam " or " Pan- Islamism ") of Jalal Nuri Bey, of sufficient importance to be translated into Arabic in 1920, seven years after its first appear- ance. In the face of the weakness displayed by Turkey in her last wars it was no longer advisable to demand a general uprising of Islamic peoples to free themselves from European oppression; hence the author, while anticipating yet further defeats and losses, substitutes for a plan of cooperation a vague hope, to which Moslems should cling. This hope is not confined to pro- ceedings in Islamic areas.

He hopes that China and Japan will become cordial friends and so prevent the further spread of European domination in Asia; and thinks that the republican Government of China will be better for the Moslems there than the imperial Government had been. He thinks that the Arabic-speaking people of Africa and Asia will one day form -a single state, without indicating what the relation of that state to the Ottoman Empire is to be; the older Pan-Islamism had on the whole favoured " decentralization," i.e., a confederation of Moslem countries under Ottoman hege- mony. He advises the English to bestow on their Asiatic posses- sions the status of Canada or Australia, as in that case the inhab- itants will cooperate cordially against their enemies.

In the matter of the sectarian divisions of Islam, which from the first have rendered Pan-Islamism impracticable, this writer's method is to some extent drastic: the minor sects in the Otto- man Empire (i.e. probably the Zeidis, Isma'ilis, Nuseiris, etc.) should be wiped out. In the case of the more important Shi'ah sect his advice is that the Moslem should forget that he is a Sunni or a Shi'i and remember only that he is a Moslem. This probably means that the Shi'is, who are in a minority, should abandon their system in favour of the other.

While asserting the superiority of Islam morally to Christian- ity as practised in Europe, he is anxious that European science should be adopted and its methods assimilated; and he advises the adoption of the distinction between the civil and the religious code, to the unification of which he attributes the decadence of Islam. Education should, he holds, be taken out of the hands of religious authorities and be secularized ; thus mediaeval scholas- ticism will be abolished. What concerns the conscience should be left to religion, whereas commercial affairs should be regulated by codes which admit of improvement. These doctrines are so unorthodox that his Arabic translator has occasionally to register a protest. They look like Pan-Islamism with the Islam omitted.

This writer repeatedly speaks of the Moslems as a nation of 300 million individuals attached to each other by a bond of unique strength ; indeed, the phrase Union of Islam is, he thinks, tautologous, as the word Islam of itself implies union. Whatever