File 2100/1916 Pt 4 'German War: Arab revolt; Muslim feeling etc' [‎16v] (28/390)

74
S e ey e fulfiUed m all tpco~d,pnSo^ ^ ^ere obedient*to
Prophet (prayers be upon him) perfectly, liiereloie i y
them at all times.
For a token of this remember bow in 1327 I with my Arabs helped them
against the Arabs, to save Ebhah from those who were besieging it, and to
•preserve the name of the Government in honour: and remember how again m
the next year I helped them with my armies, which I entrusted to one of my
sons* for indeed, we were one with the Government, until the Committee of
Union and Progress rose up, and strengthened itself, and laid its hands on
Power Consider how since then ruin has overtaken the State, and its pos-
sessions have been torn from it, and its place in the world has been lost: - until
now it has been drawn into this last and most fatal war.
All this they have done, being led away by shameful appetites which are
not for me to set forth, but which are open and a cause for sorrow to the
Moslems of the whole world, who have seen this greatest and most noble
Moslem Power broken in pieces, and led down to ruin and utter destruction.
Our lament is also for so many of its subjects. Moslems and others alike,
whose lives have been sacrificed without fault on their part. Some have been
treacherously put to death, others cruelly driven from their homes as though
the calamities of war were not enough. Of these calamities the greatest share
has fallen upon the Holy Land. The poor and even the families of substance
have been made to sell their doors and windows, yea, even the wooden frames
of their houses, for bread, after they had lost their furniture and all their goods.
Not even so was the lust of the Union and Progress fulfilled. They laid bare
all the measure of their design, and broke the only bond that endured between
them and the true followers of Islam. They departed from their obedience to
the precepts of the Book.
With the countenance of the Grand Visier of the Ottoman Empire, the
Sheikh - el- Islam, the Ulema, the Ministers and the Notables, one of their
papers called the “ Ijtihad ”, published in Constantinople things unworthy of the
Prophet (the Prayer and Peace of God be upon him) and spoke evil of him
(God forbid!). Then the Union and Progress rejected God’s word c< A man
shall have twice a woman’s share” and made them equal. They went
further, and removed one of the five corner stones of the Eaith, even the
fast in Ramadhan, by causing the soldiers in garrison in Mecca, Medina and
^Damascus to break their fast for new and foolish reasons, taking no account
of the ordinance of God saying “ Those of you who are sick or on a journey,
* * * Yea, they went further. They made weak the person of the
Sultan ; and robbed from him his honour, forbidding him to choose for him
self the chief of his personal cabinet. Other like things they did to sap the
foundation of the Khalifate.
r
Therefore it had been clearly our part and our necessary duty to separate
ourselves from them, and renounce them and their obedience. Yet we would
not believe their wickedness, and tried to think that they were the imagin
ings of evil-doers to make a division between us and the Government. We
bore with them until it was open to all men that the rulers in Turkey were
Enver Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , Jemal Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. and Tallat Bey, who were doing whatsoever they
pleased. They made their guilt manifest when they wrote to the Judge of
the Sacred Court in Mecca, traducing the verses in the Cow, and laying
upon him to reject the evidence of believers outside the Court, and to consider
only the deeds and contracts engrossed within the Court. They made
manifest their guilt when they hanged in one day twenty one of the most
honourable*and most enlightened of the Moslems, among them Emir Omar el
Jezair, Emir Arif el Shehabi, Shefik Bey Moayad, Shukri Bey el Asli, Abdel
Wahab, Tewfik el Bassat, Abd el Hamid el Zahrawi, Abd el Ghani el Areisi,
and their learned companions. To destroy so many, even of cattle at one time,
would be hard for men void of all natural affection or mercy. And if we
suppose they had some excuse foi* this evil deed—by what right did they carry