IAFS 1000

Introduction to the Middle East

Major themes?

• Paternalism

• Unplanned empire

• Partition

• Nation-state

• Eur control of local soc (collab/resist)

• Conflict

• Cultural division

Today’s Lecture

• Background on Islam

• British empire in ME

• Ottoman empire

• Khilafat movement

CountryMuslim

PopulationPercentage of

Muslims

1 Indonesia 228,582,000 88.20%

2 Pakistan 172,800,000 97%

3 Bangladesh 162,221,000 87%

4 India 160,945,000 13.4%

5 Egypt 79,089,000 90%

6 Nigeria 78,056,000 50%

7 Iran 76,923,000 98%

8 Turkey 73,723,000 99%

9 Sudan 43,939,000 70%

10 Algeria 34,895,000 99%

Islam

http://www.al-islam.org/gallery/photos/d8.gif

له الله = ال =“the God”

جهاد = “struggle, striving”

• Allah

• Jihad =

• Not monolithic

British Interestsin the Middle East

• Access to India

— 1869: Suez Canal

• Oil

– 1908: oil discovered

– 1911: Royal Navy

reliance on oil

• Preserving status quo http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/world_maps/txu-oclc-264266980-world_pol_2008-2.jpg

Ottoman Empire

• Centered in modern Turkey

• Young Turks

– WWI: Aligned with Germany

– 1915-16 Armenian genocide

• 1920: Treaty of Sevres

– power vacuum filled by Br and Fr “mandates”

Khilafat Movement:Significance

• Pan-Islam

• Western fears

• Role today?

Al Qaida and the Caliphate

http://web.archive.org/web/20050305074732/www.usdoj.gov/ag/manualpart1_1.pdf

Al Qaida training manual

Khilafat Movement

• Shock of 1857

• Indian Muslim pride in Ottoman empire

– sultan as caliph (spiritual leader of [Sunni] Muslim umma)

– movement to protect caliphate

– Indian vs. Turkish vs. Arab views

• 1924: Turkish abolition of caliphate

Khilafat Movement (cont.)

• Lasting symbolic power

• Br fear of Muslim unrest

• Muslim recognition of this fear

• Intl Muslim protest as powerful tool

Islam

http://www.al-islam.org/gallery/photos/d8.gif

له الله = ال =“the God”

جهاد = “struggle, striving”

• Allah

• Jihad =

• Not monolithic