Collapse

Barrett: The Collapse of Iraq and Syria
agreement as a tactical arrangement to protect Ottoman interests in the
Gulf and reiterating that he would abide by his agreements with the Porte. 19
The negotiations with Hussein ibn Ali al-Hashimi (1854-1931), the Grand
Sharif of Mecca, were even more vexing for the British. There was a large
Ottoman garrison in Medina, and Sharif Hussein had even more reason to be
cautious about his secret negotiations with the British. In addition, between
1914 and 1916, the war in general and particularly in the Middle East was
not going well for the British. The Ottoman system in the Greater Levant
was proving more durable than anyone had anticipated. The Sunni Arabs
of Mesopotamia and the Levant had remained for the most part loyal to the
Porte and had accounted well for themselves particularly in defensive battles.
The Gallipoli campaign began in April 1915 against Istanbul ended in a
humiliating disaster for the Allies in January 1916. What the British believed
would be a lightning Mesopotamian
campaign aimed at Baghdad
was a study in incompetence. Their
1916 attempt to capture Baghdad
met with disaster. In April, the
The Ottoman system in the Greater
Levant was proving more durable
than anyone had anticipated.
invasion force surrounded by Turkish troops at Kut al-Amara was forced
to surrender—most of the prisoners either died in a death march north or
in captivity. Given the stalemate on the Western Front and missteps in the
Middle East, it was unclear whether the British would win. From the point
of view of the Arabs in the Levant and Mesopotamia, the lines of starving
British prisoners streaming north up the Tigris valley put an exclamation
point on the risks of revolting against the Turks.
Then there was the other war—the bureaucratic war being fought between
the Arab Bureau in Cairo supporting the Hashemites and the Viceroy of
India and his advisors, including Sir Percy Cox and Major Shakespeare, who
believed that the Sauds were a far stronger candidate to upend the Turks
and their supporters in the region. Officials in India believed that between
the jihad declared by the Ottomans in Istanbul against the British and the
prickly demands by Sharif Hussein for a new Hashemite Caliphate, a Muslim
movement could be created that would threaten the British position in India.
Fromkin summed it up succinctly:
As the war progressed, British officials who ruled India increasingly
came to believe that their most dangerous adversaries were
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