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File 756/1917 Pt 1 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 1 to 65’ [‎492r] (988/1240)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (616 folios). It was created in 1916-1917. 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. .

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191 —

ARABIA.
The 1 Next Caliphate.
It is agreed chat neither the nomination nor the establish
ment ot‘ a Caliph is^ any business of a Christian Power ; but we
are virtually committed, by a message sent through the Emir
of Mecca to the Arab people (August 30, 1915), to "approve”
:m Arab Caliphate, whenever established by Arabs in common.
VChen that message was framed, it was, perhaps, not realized
that diplomatic, or any official, u approval ” of a Caliph as such
by a Christian Power would be a novelty. Has any Ottoman
Sultan been addressed by a British Chancery as Caliph ”
or u Prince of the Faithful ” or other such title ? Elizabeth,
or her ministers, styled Sultan Suleiman, Defensor Fidei,”
when his help was being solicited against Philip of Spain ; but, if
the Protestant faith was not intended, the title was probably
inserted merely as a convention appropriate in addressing so
great a sovereign.
Our official acknowledgement of Caliphs as such has never
gone much beyond the negative attitude adopted by the
Government of India, which does not interfere with the practice
of praying for the Ottoman Sultan in the Khutba , even when a
state of war exists between him and ourselves. Nor, in the
assurances given to the Sultan of Egypt, at the time of the
establishment of our Protectorate, did we really make any new
departure, though, in a letter from Sir Milne Cheetham to the
Sultan, allusion was made to the Ottoman Caliphate as not
affected by our action in a country no longer politically con
nected with Constantinople.
We are, however, almost certainly destined to be asked sooner
or later to signify our approval” by some official action more posi
tive than we have ever taken hitherto in regard to the Caliphate.
If formally approached by a new Caliph, we could hardly, for
example, be at one and the same time “approving” his Caliphate
and continuing to suffer Indian Moslems to pray publicly for an
Ottoman Caliph. Yet that such a dilemma may arise is not out
of the question. There has often been more than one Caliph
(there are, at least, two at present), and, even in sadly reduced
circumstances, the Ottoman Sultan may continue to commend
himself to many Moslems by force of tradition and habit, more
than a new Caliph not particularly powerful and suspected
of dependence on Christendom.
The only possible justification of that negative attitude
of ours in India and elsewhere resides in our official pre
tence that the Caliphate is only a spiritual headship, no longer
implying temporal dominion over Moslems in general. This
view lies obscurely behind the reference in Sir Milne Cheetham’s
letter quoted above, and is not inconsistent with any of the
subsequent references to the Caliphate which occurred in
official communications from Lord Kitchener and Sir Henry

About this item

Content

The volume consists of individual copies of the Arab Bulletin numbers 1-65 produced by the Arab Bureau at the Savoy Hotel, Cairo. They deal with economic, military, and political matters in Turkey, the Middle East, Arabia, and elsewhere, which – in the opinion of British officials – affect the ‘Arab movement’; the bulletins cover a wide range of topics and key personalities.

Tables of content can be found at the front of each issue. A small amount of content is in French.

Extent and format
1 volume (616 folios)
Arrangement

The bulletins are arranged in numerical order from the front to the back of the file. An exception being that No 1 is located after No 6. An index to Nos 1-35 can be found at the front: folios 4-15.

The subject 759 (Arab Bulletins) consists of two volumes. IOR/L/PS/10/657-658.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 618; 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. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.

Written in
English and French in Latin script
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File 756/1917 Pt 1 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 1 to 65’ [‎492r] (988/1240), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/657, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100048503666.0x0000bd> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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