PZ 2934/37 'The Caliphate (of Islam)' [‎41r] (81/136)

THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
EASTERN (General).
CONFIDENTIAL.
IE 1114/1034/65]
Sir M. Lampson to Mr. Eden.—(Received February 28.)
(No. 169. Most Confidential.)
Sir, Cairo, February 17. 1938.
I HAVE the honour to report that the Turkish Minister, in conversation
with Mr. Hamilton, recently referred to a conversation which had taken place
between the Aga Khan, who has just been staying in Cairo, and Sheikh
El Maraghi. This conversation had been reported in the press. Shevki Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders.
understood that the Caliphate question had been discussed at this meeting, and
he presumed that the Aga Khan was acting on behalf of the British Govern
ment, who, he suggested, favoured the Caliphate of an Egyptian monarch who
would be more or less under their wing. Mr. Hamilton pointed out to the Turkish
Minister that it had always been the policy of His Majesty’s Government to
refrain from any interference in the Caliphate question.
2 . Before his departure, the Aga Khan informed me on the 11 th February
of the gist of his conversations with Sheikh El Maraghi. He said that the
sheikh had quoted historical precedents for local rulers assuming local Caliphate
titles in the past. Sheikh El Maraghi had urged that the same thing could
properly be done in Egypt to-day, and, if done by one Moslem ruler, it would
doubtless be done by others, e.a., the Nizam of Hyderabad, the Imam of the
Yemen, Ibn Saud, and so on. The Aga Khan suggested to me the parallel in
England, where The King's title as Defender of the Faith was recorded on the
coins in current use.
3. I observed that this was all new to me, and I was not sure of my ground.
We had carefully kept out of the Caliphate question hitherto. My instinct was
that any claim to the title, however limited, might well cause trouble, not only
in the Arab world, but more especially with Turkey, where its limitations might
not be understood.
4. The Aga once more emphasised that each ruler’s Caliphate would be
specifically confined to his own territorial limits. He did not think that Turkev
had any reason to complain, she having been the first to set the example.
5. I mentioned that I happened to know that the Turkish Minister here
was already uneasy about these conversations. The Aga Khan earnestly begged
me to disabuse the Minister of any idea that a universal Caliph was in any sense
under contemplation. Only territorial Caliphates were being contemplated.
6 . The Aga Khan then continued that the more important part of his
discussions with Sheikh El Maraghi had turned on the modernisation of Moslem
teaching and tenets. Religion had tp keep pace with modern developments,
otherwise its fate was sealed. The claims of science had to be taken into account.
There was also the question of the treatment of women. His own sect, the Aga
Khan claimed, were already far advanced and had been so for the past thirty
years. Other Moslems, however, were not so advanced. Cairo was the best centre
for starting new Moslem developments. Indeed, Sheikh El Maraghi had already
done so in many ways, e.g., by the introduction of modern astronomy, physics, &c.,
into the programme of the Azhar.
7. The Aga Khan added that he would write to me more fully about these
matters if they began to assume concrete shape.
8 . I have since had these matters considered by my expert advisers, and
would submit the following comment. The argument about territorial Caliphates
is specious. For nearly 300 years after the overthrow of the Abbasid Empire by
the Moguls, numerous independent Moslem princes, disregarding the puppet
Abbasid Caliphs in refuge at Cairo, assumed Caliphate titles, until gradually
the spread and consolidation of the Ottoman Empire and its predominating
influence in the Islamic world put an end to this practice except in remoter or
more heretical corners of Islam, e.g., Morocco and the Yemen.
[230 ee—1]
i zT 1
2471 '
February 28, 1938.
Section 1.
I 933
Copy No. 4 2