1914 Ottoman Declaration of War
From Mw
The text of the proclamation, which appears in translation below, published in the Istanbul press on Wednesday 25th November 1914 (7th Muharram 1333), was discovered in the Public Record Office in London by Professor A. L. Tibawi . He kindly passed it on to the present writer, thus affording him a ready-made opportunity to express, in the form of a contribution to this volume of studies, his regard and esteem for the honorand. Professor Tibawi has often cast his bread upon the waters; it is hoped that this time, at least, he has not had to wait too many days before finding it.
THE Ottoman Empire declared war on Great Britain and France and their allies on 11th November 1914 (22nd Dhul-Hijjah 1332), in belated reply to Russia's declaration of war on 2 November and Britain and France's on 5 November. The fatwas justifying hostilities, signed on 11 November, were promulgated on 14 November, as related in an article which appeared in the newspaper Tanin on the following day, under the debatable heading Jihad-i Ekber, Farz-i ‘Ayn. The article tells how the fatwas were signed by the Shaykh al-Islam Khayri Efendi, using a pen presented to him by ljajji Nüñ Bey, who had inherited it from an ancestor to whom it had been given by Sultan Mahmud II. The signed fatwas were placed in satin bags and, after prayers and Koranic recitations, taken by the Shaykh al-Islam in a carriage with due ceremony and handed over to the Fetva Emini, Ijaydar Efendi. For the content of the fatwas, five in number, the writer was dependent on a poor photostat of the text as given in the newspaper Iqdam for 15 November 1914, in which only the first of the five approached legibility. Professor Tibawi came to the rescue with a French version from the Istanbul daily La Turquie of 15 November, with the help of which it was possible to reconstruct the Ottoman text and make the following translation:
[edit] The Fatwas
When it is verified that enemies have committed aggression against Islam and that Muslim Lands have been seized and plundered and Muslim populations made captive, and the Padishah of Islam thereupon gives orders for the Jihad in the form of a general mobilization, then, in accordance with the beautiful verse ‘Go forth, light and heavy! Struggle in God's way with your possessions and your selves (Surah IX, 41), is the Jihad a duty (fard) on all the Muslims and does it become an individual duty (fard ‘ayn) on Muslims in every land, young or old, on foot or mounted (an illusion to one interpretation of the words ‘light and heavy' in the Koranic verse), to hasten to the Jihad with property and person?
Answer: It does
It being verified, by their attacking today with warships and land-forces the abode of the Caliphate of Islam and the Imperial Guarded Dominions, that Russia, Britain and France are hostile to the Caliphate of Islam and are striving — God Almighty forfend — to extinguish and destroy the sublime light of Islam, is it a religious duty for all Muslims under the rule of these powers and of states which are aiding and abetting them, to proclaim the Jihad against such governments and actively to hasten to the Holy War?
Answer: It is.
Whereas the achievement of the desired end is dependent on all the Muslims' hastening to the Jihad, if — God Almighty forfend — they were to lag behind, would it be a grave act of rebellion for them to do so and would they incur the wrath of God and the penalty for this gross rebellion?
Answer: They would
Even if the Muslim populations of the aforementioned governments, which are making war on the Islamic government, are compelled and constrained under pain of death for themselves and even of the destruction of all their families, it being totally prohibited in the Law for them to fight the soldiers of Islam, if they do fight them do they merit the fire of hell?
Answer: They do.
As Muslims who are under the rule of the governments of England, France, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro and their coadjutors will cause injury to the Caliphate of Islam if, in the present war, they take up arms against Germany and Austria, who are aiding the Imperial Islamic government, this being great sin will they merit painful torment?
Answer: They will.
[edit] The Proclamation
Although the Jihad is normally categorized as fard kifaya, a duty in- cumbent on the community and not on any given individual, the reasoning in the first fatwa is valid: once general mobilization is proclaimed the duty falls on every Muslim and so becomes fard ‘ayn. Thus far the heading to the article in Tanin is justifiable. Not so the use of the term Jihad-i Ekber. Insofar as ‘the greatest Jihad was a technical term, it meant not the Holy War but the spiritual striving of a man to overcome his baser instincts. True, the standard works of reference indicate that the phrase was a technical term among Sufis and the Shia, and not for the generality of Sunnis. But there is no doubt that, probably because of the strength of the Sufi Orders in Turkery, such Turks as knew the phrase knew it in the latter sense. It is significant that Halim Sabit, ~ibay, for example, the author of the article CIHÂD in Islâm Ansiklopedisi, calls the spiritual Jihad, cihâd-i kebîr. The appearance of the term in Tanin cannot be passed over as a solecism on the part of an over-zealous journalist, because the words appear in the text of the proclamation itself; which was drawn up by the High Learned Council (Mejlis-i ‘Ali-i ‘Ilmi). It was perhaps as well for the reputation of the Ottoman ‘Ulema', heirs to the tradition of Kemal- pashazade and Abu ‘l-Su'ud Efendi, that the proclamation never was ‘made known to all Muslim lands', though it may be that non-Turkish Muslims would not have been so shocked at the use of the term as some of their Turkish coreligionists seem to have been. Nevertheless, as the fatwas do not use the term, the probability is that the ‘Ulema' are to be exonerated and that the blame belongs to the Union and Progress government, which did not claim to be versed in the finer points of religious vocabulary.
[This Proclamation, decorated by an Imperial Rescript reading ‘I desire this Proclamation to be published and made known to all Muslim lands. 4 Muharram, 1333', and adorned by the Caliphal signature, was concluded on Saturday 2 Muharram, 1333 at the Bãb al-Fatwã and drawn up and signed by the High Learned Council. It has been circulated by the office of Shaykh al-Islam together with a notice to the effect that the sublime Jihãd to which the Muslims are summoned is against those who are enemies of Islam and are demonstrating and proving their enmity by their attacks and assaults on the Islamic Caliphate, and that mutual good relations with subjects of other States, which observe the treaties between themselves and the Imperial government and give evidence of amity, are a requirement of the justice and peacefulness which are the watchwords of Islam.]
PROCLAMATION
The Moscovite government seeks to reduce mankind to slavery by trying to annihilate the boon of independence, which is one of the divinely-ordained requirements of nations and peoples. For centuries it has been an unscrupulous enemy of human happiness. The calamities to which it has given rise in the Near and Far East now afflict Central Europe. It has attached to itself the governments of England and France, which account it the most agreeable pleasure for their national pride to keep millions of Muslims under the halter of slavery in the general conflict, which is now ablaze. They nourish various base aspirations, such as wresting away freedom and ensuring their own interests beneath their unlawful and tyrannical domination. Consequently, because the glorious Islamic Caliphate constitutes the point of support of the Muslim world and is the pivot of the existence of Islam, they never for one moment relinquish from their bosoms the rancorous desire to shake and weaken it as far as possible. This tyrannical assemblage, which bears the name of Triple Alliance, in the last century deprived the Muslim peoples in India, Asia, and most regions of Central Africa, of their sovereignty, their governments, and even their liberty. At a time recent enough to be termed only yesterday, they brought about the Balkan War by encouraging and protecting our neighbours. In that way they were responsible for the deaths of many hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslim souls, for the violation of the jewel of chastity of thousands of pure Muslim ladies, and for the reduction of the glorious sacred objects of Islam into playthings of desire. Just so that have now begun to foster all kinds of disorders which will turn the whole globe into a battlefield and to scatter once again towards the very heart of the community of Muhammad the most grievous sparks of this fire of war and conflict. They have been striving to extinguish — God forbid! — the clear divine light of their damnable conspiracies: ‘Desiring to extinguish with their mouths God's light, and God refuses but to perfect His light.' (Surah IX, 31).
The perspicuous religion of Islam is the choice divine light appointed for the felicity of mankind in this world and the next, by Him whose writ runs over all creation, the absolute Lord, mighty in glory, whose potent strength and overwhelming power mortal minds are too weak and deficient to comprehend. By His glorious protection was it started on its felicitous course. Since evidently those who evince hostility towards it will sooner or later be visited with the wrath of God and will be destroyed spiritually and physically, the Servitor of the Two Holy Places, the Caliph of the Muslims — may God aid him with manifest victory — has deemed it among the most solemn duties of the glorious Islamic Caliphate to summon all Muslims to a general Jihad in accordance with the lofty provisions of the preceding noble fatwas, in order to protect Islam from ill-omened aggression, on the firm basis of divine aid. God's sacred house and the pure tomb of the Glory of Mankind, which are the comfort of the Faithful, together with Jerusalem, Nejef, Kerbela, and the centre of the sublime Caliphate; in short, all the domains of Islam, which are the places where the prophets stood, where the saints sleep and the martyrs dwell, and to carry out with all valour the requirements of the pressing duty of making known the Word of God. As also to guard the honour of the perspicuous Faith against the stains of abasement, and to beg assistance and grace from the Resolver of difficulties who is the overwhelming Avenger, for the conquest and destruction of the aforesaid enemies of Islam. The Caliphal authority has, with the power of the Almighty, prepared the Imperial Army and Navy for war, by calling to arms all Ottoman subjects within its dominions between the ages of 20 and 45, without exception. In addition, the ulema, professors and teachers, and all students of the religious and profane sciences, who are the hope for the future of the nation and the Faith, together with most officials, and the young men of the motherland who are the protectors of helpless families, of frail old parents, are today being gathered ceaselessly into the Jihad-zones. Besides these, all the Faithful have received the order for general mobilization, to strive with their bodies and their property, in accordance with the import of the words: ‘Go forth, light and heavy! Struggle in God's way with your possessions and your selves.' (Surah IX, 41), so as to share in the merit of this great Jihad.
Also the Muslims in general who are under the oppressive grasp of the aforesaid tyrannical governments in such places as the Crimea, Kazan, Turkestan, Bukhara, Khiva and India, and those dwelling in China, Afghanistan, Iran, Africa and other regions of the earth, are hastening to join in this great Jihad to the best of their ability, with life and property, alongside the Ottomans, in conformity with the relevant holy fatwas. Reflecting on the noble verses, they see it as one of the greatest religious duties to save themselves from the painful punishment that may fall to their lot in this world and the next and to obtain eternal felicity. These enemies are taking under arms the Muslims who are subject to them and sending them to their deaths in the most perilous battlefields of east and west, against the Caliph of the Muslims or his allies who are assisting him. To be more precise, they are resorting to all manner of vile expedients in making Muslims the agents of their crimes against Islam. This fact constitutes a most soul-rending affliction which Muslim hearts will not be able to endure. In view of this, in particular, it is the most urgent duty and the most important act of worship for the Muslim world, putting its trust in God, to undertake every kind of self-sacrifice and to endure even the most severe constraints in order to remedy this dreadful evil. That He will vouchsafe aid and victory in every respect to the Muslims who hasten to the Jihad in the name of His perspicuous religion, is promised by His glorious and eternal grace and favour, and the sacred spiritual influence of the Prophet is present and ready to aid and assist His community, assured of salvation, who sacrifice life and property to the greater glory of the noble religion of Ahmad.
O community of Muhammad! You have been established as a meritorious community to be taken as an example for emulation among mankind, by following the beautiful way of life of the exalted Prophet through whom the perspicuous religion of Islam was revealed, and by acquiring the merits and virtues which human kind must attain, in accordance with the verse: ‘We appointed you a mid-most nation that you might be witnesses to the people.' (Surah II, 140). Wherefore all the followers of this lofty religion, whose basis is unity and the declaration of unity, whose watchword is knowledge and work, whose goal is truth and the felicity of mankind, to whatever people, to whatever region, to whatever government they may belong, the hearts of all of them are turned towards God and their faces towards the Ka'ba of God. They are gathered beneath the banner of the Prophetic praises of God, and on their foreheads is written the majestic device: ‘Thee only we serve; to Thee alone we pray for succour.' (Surah I, 4) Therefore they must live as an exalted, godly community which bows its head in humility only before the presence of the Lord of the universe. And they must possess the quality of straightway showing the awesome lineaments of the verse: ‘God loves those who fight in His way in ranks, as though they were a building well-compacted.' (Surah LXI, 4), to those workers of evil and corruption who desire to transgress against their majestic community. O Muslims, who are the obedient servants of God! Of those who go to the Jihad for the sake of the happiness and salvation of the believers in God's Unity, the lot of those who remain alive is felicity, while the rank of those who depart to the next world is martyrdom. In accordance with God's beautiful promise, those who sacrifice their lives to give life to the truth will have honour in this world, and their latter end is paradise.
O Muslims who are athirst and longing for honour and felicity and who, lavishing their property and lives for the sake of extolling truth, are ready to expose themselves valiantly to all manner of perils and dangers! In accordance with the command of God the Mighty in glory, given in His beautiful verse: ‘And hold you fast to God's bond, together, and do not scatter,' (Surah III, 98), as you gather about the lofty throne of the Sultanate in unity of heart, and cleave to the feet of the exalted throne of the Caliphate in unity of action, know that our State is today at war with the governments of Russia, England and France, and their allies, who are the mortal enemies of Islam. The Commander of the Faithful, the Caliph of the Muslims, summons you to the Jihad.
O warriors of Islam! By the beautiful divine promise it is corroborated and announced that you will destroy and annihilate the enemies of the Faith and gladden the hearts of the Believers with eternal felicity by the aid and grace of the Almighty and the spiritual assistance of our revered Prophet: ‘Fight them, and God will chastise them at your hands and degrade them, and He will help you against them and bring healing to the breasts of a people who believe.' (Surah LX, 14)
[Signed by the Shaykh al-Islam Khayri, and three of his predecessors, As'ad, Musa. Kazin and Diya' al-Din; nine Qadi l-'Askar (Kazasker), a former Kazasker and Amin al-Fatwa, and a number of other religious officials.]
[edit] References
The Islamic Quarterly, Volume XIX, Jul-Dec 1975
