File 756/1917 Pt 1 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 1 to 65’ [‎492v] (989/1240)

1 V nf Mecca. A pretence, in<iee<l, it is—a
McMahon to the him - affect facts, but only our
sturdy consciou.fict.ou It does.^ ()f , ht th
imperial rektioii «> ■ • , e , B pi r itual headship o{
Imamate, uot the Cagate, a was both tempera
[slam i.that the Cahphate^ ^ , livorced from temporal
and spiritual, and I a- - a j- j himself 'or by s<,me great
dom nion held e.the '.y ^e ^ ^ im<) that it is
Moslem sovereign not on l y w ith temporal dominion
still associated by , but with a right and an aspiration
actually enjoyed h.) ^ M in the fulness of time,
to temporal dom , , 0I) Mamie history, law and
maitict'^r Christian Snouck-Hurgronje, Professor of Arabic at
practic , re8 i(lent in Mecca for several months, wrote last
Leiden, <iin 1 one ; ' , u A W
year ’^nXrity of a Khalif over its Mohammedan
^tt^st'AUuthority.of a pope of the Moslem
Church but in simple ignorance is feeding political programmes,
which ’however vL^always. have the power, of stirring
Mohammedan masses to confusion and excitement.
The problem that will he set before us, if an Arab Caliphate
is established, is how to “approve” an institution which implies
a claim inconsistent with our sovereignty, without admitting
that claim. It can only lie solved by persevering wdh the
sturdy official pretence already mentioned. By bating
explicitly as our official view, in our terms of 1 approval, we
shall, in a sense, remove it from the region of pretence to that
of relative reality. Though Moslems as a whole do not regard a
Caliph as analogous to a Pope, it is perfectly reasonable lor us
to say that we, for our part, do so regard him ; i.e., m his
relation to our Moslem subjects and those of our Allies and.
indeed, everywhere outside his own realm, he has, qua Caliph, a
spiritual position only. Even Moslems have proposed that such
should be his position. One of the earliest items m the O.t.r.
programme was the divorce of Church fiom State, y t e
detachment of the Caliphate from the Sultanate^ and its
committal to some Sherif (Ali Haidar, the present v> Pretender
to the Emirate of Mecca, was suggested), who would live in a
small guaranteed Vatican reservation, 1 perhaps near Damascus.
The idea, therefore, is not quite unknown, ^ nor necessarily
inacceptable, by Moslems. [See below, p. 193, for an indication
that this idea has not been forgotten by the C.U.P.] To adopt
it hardily and openly as our vieyv of the Caliphate to-day seems
the only course, which will enable us to make good our under
takings, and at the same time maintain common consistency and
self-respect.
The general consent of the Arabs, however, will not easily
he accorded to any new Caliph unless and until he has proved
himself conspicuously powerful without Christian help ; an ‘)''
should an Ottoman Sultan survive, non-Arab Moslems will be
slow to transfer their allegiance, except to some prince deemed