1914 Ottoman jihad proclamation

Declaration of holy war during WW1 by Sultan/caliph Mehmed V
Original document in Ottoman Turkish.

On 11 November 1914, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed V proclaimed holy war against the Entente powers and appealed for support from Muslims in Entente-controlled countries. The declaration, which called for Muslims to support the Ottomans in Entente-controlled areas and for jihad against "all enemies of the Ottoman Empire, except the Central Powers",[1] was initially drafted on 11 November and first publicly read out in front of a large crowd on 14 November.[2][page needed] That same day, a fatwa (Islamic religious decree) to the same effect was declared by the Fetva Emini ("fatwa consultant", the Ottoman official in charge of dictating tafsir on behalf of the Shaykh al-Islām).[1]

Farish A. Noor points to the 1915 Singapore Mutiny, arguing that the call did have a considerable impact on Muslims around the world.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b Lüdke 2018.
  2. ^ Aksakal 2011.
  3. ^ A. Noor, Farish (2011). "Racial Profiling' Revisited: The 1915 Indian Sepoy Mutiny in Singapore and the Impact of Profiling on Religious and Ethnic Minorities". Politics, Religion & Ideology. 1 (12): 89–100. doi:10.1080/21567689.2011.564404. S2CID 144958370.

Sources

  • Aksakal, Mustafa (2011). "'Holy War Made in Germany'? Ottoman Origins of the 1914 Jihad". War in History. 18 (2): 184–199. doi:10.1177/0968344510393596. S2CID 159652479.
  • Gaunt, David (2006). Massacres, Resistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia During World War I. Gorgias Press. pp. 62–64. ISBN 978-1-59333-301-0.
  • Slight, John (2019-01-30). "Reactions to the Ottoman jihad fatwa in the British Empire, 1914–18". The Great War in the Middle East. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-315-18904-8.
  • Zürcher, Erik Jan, ed. (2016). Jihad and Islam in World War I. Leiden University Press. doi:10.26530/OAPEN_605452. ISBN 978-94-006-0234-2.
  • Lüdke, Tilman (17 December 2018). "Jihad, Holy War (Ottoman Empire)". International Encyclopedia of the First World War (WW1). Retrieved 19 June 2021.