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Papers on British policy and the Arab movement [10v] (22/380)
The record is made up of 1 file (187 folios). It was created in 1 Jul 1916-7 Dec 1918. It was written in English and French. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
20
A reply-in this sense \' as eventually conveyed to King Husein by Colonel Wilson.
In “bis conyersation with Colonel Wilson on the 2nd November i ( J16, quoted above,
the Sherif twiee spoke, of the Caliphate as being in abeyance, and mentioned that he
possessed a book by a Wahabi authority in which this was demonstrated, and which he
would publish if necessary.
He developed -this thesis further in a conversation with Captain Lawrence on
the July 1917, 72 73 sand the latter received the impression that he was genuinely
averse from the;idea.of reviving the office in his own person. For the “ false Caliphate ”
of the Osmanlis he would prefer, it seems, to substitute a spiritual leadership of Islam
in his own family with some such title as Amiral Muminin, if this were genuinely offered
to him. His view appears to be that the spiritual leader of Islam should not aim at
being the political sovereign of the whole Moslem world, but that the office should be
combined with a small temporal sovereignty—for instance, over the Hejaz and its Holy
Cities—in order to secure the holder of it the independence necessary to his position.
In fact, according to this conversation, Sherif Husein aims at a position very like
that of the Papacy when it possessed the temporal power over the Estates of the
Church.
If this is the Sheriffs real view, it is remarkably divergent from the chauvinistic
trend of opinion concerning the Caliphate which seems to be more common among
Moslems at present. And it remains to be seen how he would regard the title of Caliph
if it were actually placed within his grasp.
Relation of commitments under (viii) to British desiderata.
His Majesty’s Government have succeeded so far in making it clear that they
regard the question of the Caliphate as a purely Moslem affair, without causing Sherif
Husein to doubt their goodwill towards his aspirations in the matter.
We have two purely negative desiderata—avoidance of offence on the one hand to
Moslem opinion and on the other hand to the Sherif—which have to be reconciled with
one another, and hitherto we have avoided committing ourselves in either direction in
a way that would compromise us in the other.
72 There appears to be no record in the Foreign Office of the final text of this note, the drafting of
which was leit to the discretion of Sir R. Wingate, Colonel Bremond, and Colonel Wilson.
3 174974/17
About this item
- Content
This file contains correspondence, memoranda, maps, manuscript notes, and other papers relating to the political and territorial settlement of parts of the Middle East following the First World War. Many of the papers were collected for the attention of the Middle East Committee (later named the Eastern Committee, following the mergence of the Foreign Office's Russia Committee and the interdepartmental Persia Committee) of the War Cabinet. Contributors include officials from the War Office, Foreign Office, Admiralty, and India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , as well as indivduals such as Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence. Correspondence comes from representatives of the French and Italian governments as well as British officials in Cairo and other parts of the Middle East.
The papers deal with plans for the region presuming and following an Allied victory in the First World War and take into consideration the imperial ambitions of the victorious European Powers (France, Italy, Russia, Britain, and the United States) and the multitudinous commitments made by the British to various groups. The plans are based on evolving agreements rooted in the Sykes-Picot, or Asia Minor, Agreement between the British and French of 1916. Regions under consideration include the Hejaz (sometimes written Hedjaz), Syria, Northern Iraq, Southern Iraq, Palestine, Armenia, Turkey, the Idrisi state, Yemen, Persia, and Afghanistan. Various matters are covered in the file, but particular focus is given to plans for the Sherifian family of the Hejaz, led by King Husein [Ḥusayn bin ‘Alī al-Hāshimī], which impacted upon policy in Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and the Arabian Peninsula. Other matters include the situation between Jews and Arabs in Palestine, wartime commitments to ruling shaikhs in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , the French position in the region, and desiderata of the Government of India for any peace settlement.
- Extent and format
- 1 file (187 folios)
- Arrangement
The file is arranged in chronological order from the front to the back.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front first page with 1, and terminates at the inside back last page with 187; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.
- Written in
- English and French in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Papers on British policy and the Arab movement [10v] (22/380), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F112/277, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100079857498.0x000017> [accessed 13 June 2026]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- Mss Eur F112/277
- Title
- Papers on British policy and the Arab movement
- Pages
- 1ar:1av, 1r:14r, 14r:14v, 14v, 22r:59v, 62r:98r, 99v:120v, 125r:133v, 136r:165r, 166r:167r, 167av, 168r:173r, 175r:176v, 178r:187v
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence