Pan-Islamism in the Reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II

 

BY Mirshad K

Pan-Islamism has been the subject of a vast number of studies, especially in the West, over the last one hundred years. In theory, Islam recognizes no geographical boundaries or ethnicities among its followers. As a result, Pan-Islamism in the sense of a union of all Muslims is as old as Islam itself, with roots in Qur'anic passages and Prophetic traditions. This may be true in theory, but the circumstances surrounding Islam's fast spread did not allow for the creation of cultural unity, let alone political unity. Historians have frequently maintained that Pan-Islamism, as a religio-political ideology, is a new phenomenon that evolved only in the second half of the nineteenth century, despite the fact that Islam transcends nationalism

There are contradiction in literature of its emergence but as a political ideological movement it emerged in the late 1870’s onwards and put into practice by Abdul Hamid II (1876— 1908). It seems that the main defect of such an approach is that the majority of those scholars who have written on Pan-Islamism, confined their studies to the reign of Abdul Hamid and therefore concluded that it was started by him.

The origin of pan-Islamism

The popularity of "pan-Slavism" in the 1870s may have served as inspiration for the coining of the phrase "pan-Islamism". The term "pan-Islamism" was first used in a German text written by Franz von Warner and published in 1877. This implies that before the notion was wellknown "pan-Islamism" gained widespread recognition, there may have been a tendency in that direction. During Sultan Abdul-Majid's rule in Turkey, Armenius Vambery saw clear indications of these actions (1839-61). Vambery was present at a conference held at 'Ali Pasha's palace following the Crimean War, where delegates from around the globe discussed the idea of militant pan-Islamism.

The nineteenth century was of unstable events seen in the history of the Islamic world. expansion of the Russian Empire in Central Asia, the British and French colonialization in the very center of Islam, and embarrassing defeats of the most powerful Islamic state in the world, the Ottoman Empire. Suppression and persecution in its ultimate brutality in the colonized areas and large scale Muslim migration to the Ottoman Empire, made things more badly than before. The second half of the century was of a continuous of Muslim uprisings in various parts of the world: in the Caucasus in the 1850s and 1860s, the Yunan province of China in the 1860s, Egypt (1881) and the Sudan (1884). Muslims all around the world became aware of their institutions' weakness and powerlessness in the face of European aggression as a result of their eventual failure.

It was believed that the only way to put an end to misfortunes of Islam was to return to the old tradition and values of Islam. Under the leadership of the Sultan of Turkey, who received the title of the "commander of the faithful", a new notion of Muslim solidarity and togetherness emerged as a result of all these circumstances coming together. This notion led to the movement which is known as pan-Islamism or the pan-Islamic movement.

Approach of Islamic scholars

Scholars find it difficult to frame a definition of pan-Islamism because its equivalent does not exist in any of the Islamic languages. Conflicting opinions and theories have been made to the definition, scape, and nature of pan-Islamism. There are others maintain that the idea of panIslamism, the feeling of solidarity among all true believers, is inherent in Islam itself. They believe that in fact Hajj, one of the five commandments of Islam, was introduced for the purpose of demonstrating and continuing this solidarity.

Muslim scholars tend to look upon it as an essentially progressive movement, a perception of the increasing dangers to Islam through European penetration, a movement aimed at uniting all Muslims in order to ensure free development of their intellectual and moral faculties. Muslim scholars, therefore, view pan-Islamism as the awakening of Islamic conscience, urging the Muslims to aim at liberty and progress. According to these scholars, the aggressive image of pan-Islamism was invented in Europe to justify increasing European intervention in Islamic countries.

Perspective of Anti-Islamic, European scholars

Some of them believe that pan-Islamism is in fact fantasy created and magnified by the European imagination". They approach this way because of the Muslims have never been united after the death of the Prophet ,so a movement based on their unity and solidarity is beyond the scope of possibility. According to such scholars, pan-Islamism could at best be described as the unity of sentiments, and any attempt to conceive it into a practical form is bound to end in disaster. Most of the European scholars and statesmen, especially British, considered it to be a reactionary movement, a revival of Islamic fanaticism, a combination of Muslims under the leadership of Turkey, ranged aggressively against the European powers. The British interpretation of it pan - Islamism as an attempt to revive Muslim religious fanaticism and extremism is in order to form an aggressive association of Muslims against Europe is unsound in theory and unsupported by facts.

Jamal al-Din al Afghani

Jamal al-Din was born in Persia, and received a traditional Shiite education in Qazvin and the Ottoman city of Najaf. He had to style himself Afghani in order to hide his Persian Shiite origins and make it easier to reside in Sunni-majority lands. Sayed Jamal al-din Afghani's contribution to pan-Islamism is also worthy of mentioning, especially because some scholars said he is the one who proposed this ideology and originator of the movement. His career was approximately full of house arrests, exiles and flying away from one country to another. He was described by his early biographers as a learned divine, a reformist, a revolutionary and an apostle of pan-Islamism. And is said to have inspired political and intellectual awakening among the Muslims in various parts of the world.

Questioning Afghani’s intentions

Modern scholars, however, are somewhat skeptical. They stress the contradictions in his preaching and practice, and conclude that he was not so much concerned about Islam as about his personal achievements. There are multiple evidences to the effect that the pan-Islamic idea came from the Muslim world, as a reaction to the contemporary situation, and the movement does not owe its origin to Afghani. His writings in India (1878-80) shows the fact that contrary to pan-Islamism he, at that time, in fact encouraged local nationalist sentiments and anti-British feeling among the Indians. He started writing about pan- Islamism after 1881 and by that time the idea got hype in Islamic world

After 1881 Afghani seems to be genuinely concerned about the pan-Islamic movement, as we can see from his letter to Sultan Abdul-Hamid II (r. 1876-1909) in 1885. Whatever was his interior motive, the letter shows Afghani's concern for Islam. He proposes to 'Abdul-Hamid an offer. He also suggests a holy war under the leadership of the Sultan to liberate Muslim lands. Afghani had, however, already aroused the suspicion of the Sultan due to his association with Wilfred Blunt and his scheme of an Arabian Caliphate, and therefore his proposal was not seriously considered by the Ottoman Government.

For the next seven years, Afghani wandered in different countries in search of a funder and patron for his schemes. In 1892, he again wrote a letter to Abdul-Hamid, offering his services to organize an alliance of Turkey, Afghanistan, and Persia against the European powers. In response to this letter, the Sultan invited him to Constantinople but it was not to use his talent for organizing the proposed offer, but to keep his activities in support of the Arab Caliphate under control. His death in 1897 is reported and mentioned as heart broken and depressed Islamic ideologist.

William Henry Abdullah Quilliam (1856-1932)

He was a late nineteenth-century British convert to Islam who led the Liverpool Muslim Institute (LMI; 1887-1908) – at once mosque, charity, a center for propagating Islam and educating Muslims, and publishing house. A journalist and lawyer by profession, Henry, a Christian, became Abdullah after returning from Morocco in 1887.

The eyes of Abdul Hamid II, the 34th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, fell on Abdullah. Recognizing his efforts to promote Islam, the Sultan granted Quilliam the title of "Sheikh al-Islam" of Great Britain, a title reflecting his leadership in the Muslim community. As spokesman and propagator he helped in creation of a remarkable community of Muslims in Victorian Liverpool, including around 600 converts in Britain. In September 1887, he established the Liverpool Muslim Institute, the first Islamic center in Britain.

From 1893 until 1908, the Liverpool Muslim Institute published weekly newspaper and monthly journal, The Crescent, which was distributed to more than 80 countries. With donations from Muslim "well-wishers" in India and Malaysia, Quilliam used a printing press at Brougham Terrace that was created in 1893 to publish a weekly newspaper and a monthly periodical called The Islamic World. He also authored a booklet titled "Faith of Islam," which has been translated into thirteen different languages. Through his writings, he fought against European colonialism and slavery, supported the rights of the city's impoverished, and upheld the Ottoman Caliphate and sovereign Muslim states.

Notable events of sultan’s pan-Islamic relation and policies;

1) Hijaz railway

Under Abdul Hamid’s rule the Hejaz railway, perhaps the most important project of Abdul Hamid’s reign, was built. Reportedly, Abdul Hamid himself always spoke of it as "my greatest dream." If we remember that by the turn of the 20th century the railway politics was somewhat reminiscent of today's oil politics, we can grasp the importance the Hijaz railway construction for Muslims all over the world. Half of its funds came from private donations by Muslims; the contribution of Indian Muslims was particularly significant. The Hijaz railway (Damascus to Medina line) came to be regarded as a symbol of capability of Muslims to resist European superiority showing what the united efforts of the Muslims could achieve.

Hijaz Railway began in 1900, though some conspiracies to stop the construction were made by false emphasize on the aim of the connecting the Arab world is for the militant activities. The aims and objectives of close jurisdiction of territories were of consideration, as every political entities use it, but the core benefit was dedicated to the pilgrimage route.

2) Indian Ocean relations

The outbreak of the Crimean war in 1853,58 in which the Ottomans fought against the Russians in alliances with the British and French, was the first event during which Indo-Muslim sympathy and concern for the Ottomans was evidently demonstrated through various means. The attack on the Ottomans came to be looked upon with-a good deal of excitement by the Indian Muslims. For the mutiny they sought help from ottoman but they had to come back empty handed, whereas the British not only obtained permission from the Porte for the passage of their troops to India through Egypt and Suez, but also secured a proclamation from the Sultan, as Caliph, advising the Indian Muslims not to fight against them. This proclamation was circulated and read in the mosques of India. Similarly, Islam remained a unifying point around the Indian Ocean coastline and areas away from cost, in East Africa, Arabia, Persia, India, and South-East Asia.

Anjuman-i Khuddām-i Kaʿba was the most significant of the organizations and activities begun by Indian Muslims to support the Ottoman empire as, in the years before the First World War by Abdul Bari Firangi Mahalli.

3)Expansion of consulates

Before Abdul Hamid’s enthronement, Ottoman consulates had already existed in four important cities in Britain‘s Indian Ocean possessions, namely Bombay, Calcutta, Cape Town and Singapore. To these, Abdul Hamid added several others, in India, South-East Asia, and South Africa. Though Indian Muslims had strong feeling of ummah, the consulates worked to share pan-Islamic ideas to the Britain’s colonial subjects. in the case of the Ottoman Empire, pan-Islamism abroad as a foreign policy was intended to generate unrest among Muslims under French, British, Russian, and eventually Italian control, who might then rebel against their occupiers who were threatening Ottoman interests.

In fact the actual propagator and facilitator of the pan- Islamism was sultan Abdul Hamid II himself. The specific incidents of negation of help and be siding with Britain was in the early times, but later, as featured about Afghani, Abdul Hamid II stood against the British empire realizing their self-beneficial, dividing, and religious missionary intentions and tried to help and keep all the Muslim territories as well as he kept the Quds Jerusalem till the last moment of his reign. He strictly watched the Muslim majority countries and act accordingly to safeguard of his subjects under the world caliphate.