File 705/1916 Pt 1 'Arab revolt: reports' [‎244v] (36/494)

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know, Ayesha, the beloved wife of the Prophet himself, rose against the
then Khalifa—Ali—as she thought Osman s martyrdom was not revenged
by Ali. Ayesha lost the battle in the battle of the Camel (as it was called)
because ^Moslem opinion in general condemned the rising. There is not
a single Mussulman to-day who blames the Khalifa Ali for his vigorous
actions against the rebellion, led by Ayesha herself. In fact no rebellion
is alluded to by Islam. So you see the general Moslem public will never
have any sympathy with the revolt. As far as the educated Moslems are
concerned, they know the Arabs, their character and their want of military
organisation too well to take the rebellion to be serious, unless some
non-Muslim power is inclined to abuse the fanaticism of the whole Moslem
world by helping the Arabs and using them as its own tool for its own pur
pose of creating a division among Moslems or breaking their temporal power.
I do not think any sane non-Moslem Government would consider it even
worth while to do so on the present occasion.
The Mussulmans themselves would much sooner see the whole edifice of
the Holy Kaaba to be razed to the ground than its being protected by any
non-Moslem. As far as a non-Moslem prince with any sinister ambitions
against the Holy Places is concerned, she (England) can see, if she is not
blinded completely, that she can hurt neither the military nor the ecclesi
astical power and influence of Turkey and the Khalifa by helping the Arab
revolt in Mecca. In this war Turkey has not gained much from that portion
of the Hedjaz being under her control. Obviously they have not got many
recruits from either Mecca or Jeddah, because Great Britain and its Allies
were wise enough to announce that they would not interfere with the Holy
Places and Jeddah and with any religious affairs of Moslems, and the Turks
could not gain any advantage from their Sovereign being the Khalifa of the
Moslem world.
Now, if the revolt of the Arabs is really serious, the Turks will gain
a great moral advantage, and also perhaps a military advantage. Beside
the fact that the whole Moslem world will get into a condition of great
excitement, and will, as a matter of course, begin to feel suspicious of non-
Moslem designs against the temporal and spiritual domains of Islam, the
Moslems within the Ottoman Empire will then take this war to be a really
religious Holy War, threatening the control of the Holy Places. It is
absurd to think that once the question of the Holy Places of Islam is
involved the war will continue to remain only temporal. Mecca and Jeddah
are isolated places, and even if they were allowed by Turkish military
experts to drift from their hands for the time being that would not hurt the
military situation. The Turks would, on the contrary, get great support
because every Turk would be forced to believe that not only his temporal
domains, but also the spiritual domains of his Sovereign, depended upon
how he fought in this war. Even the Arabs themselves who do not belong
to the clan of Mecca Arabs would feel it their religious duty to keep the
Holy Places in a position which would keep them free from non-Moslem
interference.
In short, every statesman who can fully appreciate the psychology of the
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