Thread by @YeniceriQ

Islamic brotherhood between Turks & Arabs during the Sharifian Revolt! [Thread]

Saud Al Rashid the Emir of Jabal Shammar dynasty remained loyal to the Sultan-Caliph in Isntabul & fought alongside with Ottoman army. Emir Saud with Fakhri Pasha the Ottoman governor of Madinah. 1️⃣

The Ottoman force included many Arab units who stayed loyal to the Sultan-Caliph & fought well against the Allies. Moreover the Arab soldiers of the British sponsored Sharifian army were Bedouins which were more loyal to their clans & fought only if paid in advance with gold. 2️⃣

The Bedouin would not fight unless paid in advance with gold coin, and by the end of 1916, the French had spent 1.25 million gold francs in subsidizing the revolt. British were spending £220,000/month to subsidize the revolt managed by T.E Lawrence of Arabia who headed revolt. 3️⃣

Moreover, the Ottomans relied upon the support of Emir Abd al-Aziz ibn Mutib of the Emirate of Jabal Shammar, whose tribesmen dominated what is now northern Saudi Arabia and tied down both the Hashemites and Saʻudi forces with the threat of their raiding attacks. 4️⃣

William L. Cleveland of Simon Fraser University states that the revolt failed to generate significant support from within the Ottoman Empire's Arab provinces, but it remained largely limited to tribal levies from the Arabian Peninsula loyal to Sharif Hussein. 5️⃣

Efraim Karsh of Bar-Ilan University considers the term Arab Revolt as a misnomer, as it implies that the majority of the Ottoman Arabs rebelled, but in fact, the majority stayed loyal. 6️⃣

According to Karsh, Arab nationalism was not yet a mass movement, even in Syria, where it was strongest. Many Arabs gave their primary loyalty to their religion or sect, their tribe or their own government. The ideologies of Islamism was strong competitor for Arab nationalism.7️⃣

Before 1914, of the ten million or so Arabs living under Ottoman rule, only 350 were involved in various feuding nationalist groups, and even then, most of whom wanted autonomy, rather than independence. 8️⃣

Thus this debunks the claim that "All Arabs rebelled against Ottoman Sultan-Caliph" as we know that in reality, only a couple of tribes rebelled that too with British bribes & persuasion. There was not a wider sense of Arabic Nationalism as common Arab preferred Islamic unity. 9️⃣

Sources:

Murphy, David (2008) The Arab Revolt 1916–18. Pg 24

Michael Korda, Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia pg 19

William L. Cleveland; Martin Bunton (2016). A History of the Modern Middle East (6 ed.) page 128.