The First World War and the new borders (1914-1923)

Part oneThe Young Turks and the road to war

In 1908 a group of officers and officials, the Young Turks of the Committee of Union and Progress, forced Sultan Abdulhamid II to restore the constitution. A year later he was deposed. The new rulers faced disaster after disaster. Italy took Libya in 1911. In the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 the empire lost almost all its lands in Europe, and hundreds of thousands of Balkan Muslims were driven from their homes.

Power passed to three men, Enver, Talat and Cemal Pasha. In 1914 they took the empire into the First World War on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary, hoping to win back lost lands. The sultan, as caliph, declared a jihad against the Allied powers, but few Muslims under British, French or Russian rule answered it.

Part twoGallipoli, the Arab Revolt and the secret deals

The war went badly for the Ottomans on most fronts. Enver's winter offensive in the Caucasus in 1914 and 1915 ended in disaster. In 1915 the Ottomans threw back a great British and French landing at Gallipoli, where a young colonel named Mustafa Kemal made his name. During the war the government deported the Armenians of Anatolia, and very many of them died, among other Christian and Muslim peoples who also suffered greatly in those years. In Syria, Cemal Pasha's harsh rule and a terrible famine turned many Arabs against Istanbul, and in May 1916 he had a number of Arab intellectuals publicly executed in Beirut and Damascus.

Meanwhile Sharif Hussein, the ruler of Makkah, had been writing in secret to the British. He understood that if he rose against the Ottomans, Britain would support an independent Arab kingdom. In June 1916 he launched the Arab Revolt. Arab forces under his son Faisal, with British help, took Aqaba and moved north, while British armies took Baghdad in 1917 and Jerusalem in December of that year. In October 1918 Faisal entered Damascus. Days later the Ottomans signed an armistice.

The Arabs then learned what had been agreed behind their backs. In the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, Britain and France had divided the Arab provinces between them. In the Balfour Declaration of 1917, Britain had promised to support a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.

Part threeNew lines on the map

In 1920 Faisal was declared king of Syria in Damascus. A few months later a French army defeated his small force at Maysalun and entered the city. The League of Nations gave Britain and France "mandates" to rule the former Ottoman Arab lands. France took Syria and Lebanon. Britain took Iraq, Transjordan and Palestine. Faisal was made king of Iraq under British control, and his brother Abdullah was made emir of Transjordan. In Arabia, Ibn Saud took the Hijaz from Sharif Hussein in 1924 and 1925.

In Anatolia the victors planned to divide even the Turkish heartland. Mustafa Kemal led a national movement from Ankara, defeated the Greek, French and Armenian armies, and won the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, which recognised the Republic of Turkey. The Ottoman sultanate was abolished in 1922, and the caliphate in 1924.

The borders drawn in these years still shape the Middle East. Many of them cut across peoples, tribes and trade routes, and the conflicts they left behind have lasted for a century.

From the hadith

Narrated Thawban:

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: The people will soon summon one another to attack you as people when eating invite others to share their dish. Someone asked: Will that be because of our small numbers at that time? He replied: No, you will be numerous at that time: but you will be scum and rubbish like that carried down by a torrent, and Allah will take fear of you from the breasts of your enemy and last enervation into your hearts. Someone asked: What is wahn (enervation). Messenger of Allah (ﷺ): He replied: Love of the world and dislike of death.

The borders drawn in these few years still shape the Middle East a century later.

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The mapWhere it happened

• Istanbul
• Ankara
• Gallipoli
• Makkah
• Aqaba
• Damascus
• Maysalun
• Beirut
• Jerusalem
• Baghdad
• Amman

This map is a simple sketch to help you picture where events took place. Positions, distances and borders are approximate, so please use it for reference only, not as an accurate map.

SourcesSources for this chapter