Ottoman Empire and the Arabs

Sharif Hussein Ibn Saud and the Fall of the Ottoman Empire
Introduction
The Ottoman Empire was served by a strong military and centralized political structure, but with territory that stretched into both the East and the West, the Ottoman Empire was also greatly served by its geography and the diversity of this realm. At the heart of its rule was the power of Mecca and the religious significance Mecca held for the Muslims. The relationship among the Ottomans, the Arabs, the Egyptian Ibrahim Pasha and his Sons, the Sharif of Mecca and Ibn Saud in Central Arabia all contributed to the strength of the Ottoman Empire. This paper will examine these relationships, the geographical and diverse characteristics of the Empire and the role that Mecca played in holding it all together. Ultimately it will show that the Ottomans lost the Empire as a result of turmoil among radical factions in both the Ottoman and the Arab camps, with the British implementing a divide and conquer strategy to undo the Empire in WW1.
Geography and Diversity
In the 13th century, Anatolia was little more than a nest of independent Turkish principalities. Osman ruled one of these principalities on the Byzantine frontier. His people consisted both of Turkish tribes and Byzantine expatriates, some of whom had converted to Islam and some of whom had not. Osman began to grow his territory by conquering frontier towns that dotted the Sakarya River. Osman’s son picked up the mantle where his father left off, and stretched the Ottoman rule over Anatolia and to the Balkans. Venice ruled Thessaloniki but this too was taken by the Ottomans, and the Battle of Nicopolis at the end of the 14th century closed out the Crusades and, for the Christian West, ended in defeat. Mehmed took Constantinople the following year and agreed to allow the Eastern Orthodox to continue to practice its religion in exchange for the city’s recognition of Ottoman authority. From that point on, the Ottomans pushed westward into Europe and northern Africa, and eastward.
The Black Sea to the north, the Red Sea to the south, the Mediterranean to the west and the Caspian and Persian Gulf to the east essentially serve as the natural water boundaries of the Ottoman’s geographical realm. The diverse collection of people spread across this wide range included Christians (both Roman and Eastern Orthodox), Muslims, Jews (both Sephardic and Ashkenazi), Persians, Egyptians, and Russians. These people were ethnically, religiously, culturally, socially, and politically diverse, but the Ottoman Empire was able to rule over them by allowing them to maintain their customs so long as they demonstrated submission to the authority of the Empire. Stability was the end goal, not assimilation. Economically, the Empire was able to keep it together thanks to trade routes that obliged the East and West to go through Empire’s territory all along the coast of the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, the heart of the Empire (Faroqhi 2004).
Mecca
Mecca played a major part in providing cultural unity to the Empire. Mecca was the destination of Muslim travelers during Hajj, and once captured by the Ottomans they provided safe passage for all Muslims making this journey. For this reason, the Ottomans became seen as “Servant of the Holy Places,” a beloved title that signified the respect of Muslims for the Ottoman rulers (Faroqhi 1994, 74). However, the Ottomans were not direct descendents of the Prophet, and so their authority was always tenuous at best. To maintain the well-wishes of the people, the Ottomans had to engage in various social projects, such as construction and financial support. They also had to entrust the care of Mecca to the Sharifs, who held a high degree of independence and autonomy though they submitted to the Sultan (Faroqhi 1994, 147).
This arrangement allowed for the British to create a wedge between the Arab world and the Ottomans in the 20th century. The British sought to gain control if only by proxy in the Middle East, and the way that they saw to overthrow the Ottoman Empire was to use the divide and conquer strategy. Thus, the British appealed to the House of Saud and supported the Arab Revolt between 1916 and 1918. Hussein bin Alif was the Sharif of Mecca at the time and he led the revolt against the Ottomans (Wilson 1991). The Arab nationalists wanted independence and the British wanted influence in the region, as it was a crossroads between the East and the West. They also did not want Germany, which was aligned with the Ottoman Empire, to have influence in the region. To ensure stability in the region once the Ottomans were overthrown, the British needed the Arabs to coalesce around a new ruling family, which is where the House of Saud came into play (Anderson 2014). T. E. Lawrence was instrumental in setting up Ibn Saud to be the new ruler of the realm, the new protector of Mecca, and the new symbol of Arab independence. The state of Saudi Arabia came into existence for this very reason (Murphy 2008).
Thus, so long as the Ottomans by way of the Sharif had remained on favorable terms with the Arabs, they had enjoyed their rule in the Arab world. When the British began taking steps to sway the Arab world through the House of Saud, the dynamic changed. The Ottomans were thus undermined by the rise of Arab nationalism, which was in turn supported by the British. The British, moreover, were financed by the Zionist movement, which had the aim of securing for itself land in Palestine, which it was indeed promised in the Balfour Declaration issued during WW1. By the 20th century, the Ottomans were no longer viable as the kind of world stage power broker needed to influence and control populations.
Relationships
Arabs
The Ottoman relationship with Arabs was always deferential as the Ottoman rulers were generally seen as pious leaders. Since they were not direct descendents of the Prophet, they had to appeal to the Arabic world by protecting their holy places, showing their love for Islam, and leading exemplary lives.
Part of the problem between the Arabs and the Turks arose when the Three Pashas attempted in the early 20th century to disrupt the unity that had evolved over the course of centuries in the Empire. The Three Pashas were part of the radical Turkish nationalist faction and this faction seized control in 1913. To that point, the Sharif of Mecca—Sharif Hussein—had been living in Constantinople and was said to speak Turkish more fluently than he spoke Arabic (an indication of the degree to which the Sharif was simpatico with the Ottomans). However, when the radical Turkish nationalist faction took power, it disrupted the unity and the balance of power that implicitly existed between the Turkish Ottomans and the Arabic world, essentially overseen by the Sharif. The radical Turks wanted to centralize their authority and wield more power than was in the tradition of things. This itself was in part a reaction to a faction of Arab nationalists (the Young Turks) seeking political influence. Nonetheless, the move of the Three Pashas drove the Sharif into the hands of the British, who swiftly set up a plan to install a new Arabic order.
Egyptian Rule
Egyptian rule under Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt was granted by the Ottoman Sultan in the early 19th century after the victory of Muhammad Ali, Ibrahim’s father, over Ibn Saud (Khaled 2009). The British even then were seeking to influence the region, and Ali’s defeat over British forces won him favor with the Sultan. Thus, Ali, Ibrahim and his sons were permitted to rule Egypt. The Pashas punished the House of Saud and maintained the rule over the region, while submitting to the Sultan. Egyptian rule under the Pasha was thus important to Ottoman rule over the Empire throughout the 19th century.
Sharif of Mecca
The Sharif of Mecca was crucial to Ottoman rule as well since the Sharif oversaw the maintenance of the holy places important to Muslims, including Messina and Mecca. The Sharif, as Sharif Hussein showed, was not always stationed in the holy places. There was a general reciprocity of feeling and respect between the Sultan and the Sharif, which was why Hussein took up residence in Constantinople for much of the year. The Sharif was, however, important to the Arabic world and the Ottoman Turks understood the limitations of their own personal influence in that world. The Sultans had no claim over the religious beliefs of the Arabs. Moreover, because Islam had splintered into groups, with Wahhabism acting as the radical expression of Islam, represented by the House of Saud—a second ruler of Arabic influence was needed to maintain order in the Arabic world. This was the function of the Sharif of Mecca, and it was an especially important relationship that the Ottomans cultivated up until the Three Pashas made their power play, frightened Sharif Hussein and essentially spoiled the party.
Ibn Saud
Ibn Saud led the Wahhabist faction of Islam in the Middle East and was viewed as a threat to Ottoman rule in the realms nearest the holy lands most valued by the Islamic people. Iban Saud was not in sympathy with the Ottomans or their influence and sought to establish a much more extreme Islamic state. Ibn Saud and the House of Saud in general was thus an antagonist to Ottoman rule. For that reason, the British looked to Ibn Saud and the House of Saud as an ally and they used this family when the time came for the British to make its move in dividing and conquering the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East.
In the build-up to WWI, Ibn Saud had allied himself with the Ottoman Empire, but he soon betrayed them to work with the British, who offered him his own state (Saudi Arabia) should he join forces with them to overthrow the Empire. Ibn Saud defeated rival factions within the Arabian Peninsula after the end of WW1, secured oversight of the holy lands and obtained a modest income from this new protectorate. The Saud family, supported by the British, took power in the Arabian Peninsula and Wahhabism spread.
The Saudi State
The first Saudi state was formed in the 18th century in 1744 near Riyadh, from where the nexus of control of region now known as Saudi Arabia was located. Ibn Abd al-Wahab was imam there until 1773, at which time the influence of the House of Saud was totally achieved. The northern Najd was incorporated into the Saudi and by the end of the 18th century, al-Hasa was also absorbed. Taif and Medina were added in 1802 and 1804 respectively. By in 1818 the Saudi state was destroyed by Mohammad Ali Pasha, the Egyptian viceroy of the Ottoman Empire.
Six years later, however, the Saudi dynasty had returned and consolidated its power mainly in Nejd. Al Saud battled with the other main Arabian ruling family, al-Rashid. By the end of the 19th century, Al Saud had been beaten by al-Rashid and took up exile in Kuwait.
The British intervened in the 20th century to gain control in region and collaborated with the House of Saud to take back control of Arabia against the Ottomans. The story of Lawrence of Arabia tells of the intrigue that took place behind the scenes. With the fall of the Ottoman Empire in WW1, the return of the Saudi state was facilitated by the British, who profited by having a loyal family now in firm control of the territory. The current Saudi state exists as a wealthy, modernizing Arab nation that often works with the UK and the US towards Western foreign plans in the Middle East.
Conclusion
The Ottoman Empire ruled for centuries in the Middle East and along the shores of the eastern Mediterranean, stretching into Europe and into Russia in the Balkans. The land was diverse and full of a variety of ethnic groups—from Christians to Jews to Arab Muslims. The Ottoman Turks were able to maintain a balance of power during this time by respecting customs and engaging in favorable construction that improved the lives of the inhabitants. To maintain influence in the Arabic world, the Turks relied on the Sharif of Mecca—and when that balance was upset, the Empire came crashing down. With the support of the British, the House of Saud was firmly ensconced as the ruling family of Arabia, a position it has maintained since the 20th century.
Bibliography
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