Editing Arab Revolt (section)

== Underlying causes ==

=== Sharif Hussein of Mecca ===
[[File:Sharif Husayn.jpg|thumb|right|[[Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz|Hussein bin Ali]], the [[Sharif of Mecca|Sharif and Emir of Mecca]] from 1908 to 1924 and [[King of the Hejaz]] from 1916 to 1924.<ref name="Kayali 2023">{{cite book |last=Kayali |first=Hasan |year=2023 |origyear=1997 |title=Arabs and Young Turks: Ottomanism, Arabism, and Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, 1908–1918 |chapter=A Case Study in Centralization: The Hijaz under Young Turk Rule, 1908–1914 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LOnQEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA147 |location=[[Berkeley, California|Berkeley]] and [[Los Angeles]] |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |pages=147–173 |isbn=9780520204461}}</ref>]]

[[Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz|Hussein bin Ali]], the [[Sharif of Mecca|Sharif and Emir of Mecca]] from 1908,<ref name="Kayali 2023"/> enthroned himself as [[King of the Hejaz]] after proclaiming the Great Arab Revolt against the [[Ottoman Empire]],<ref name="Roshwald 2013">{{cite book |author-last=Roshwald |author-first=Aviel |year=2013 |chapter=Part II. The Emergence of Nationalism: Politics and Power – Nationalism in the Middle East, 1876–1945 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IlNoAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA220 |editor-last=Breuilly |editor-first=John |title=The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism |location=[[Oxford]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=220–241 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199209194.013.0011 |isbn=9780191750304}}</ref> and continued to hold both of the offices of Sharif and King from 1916 to 1924.<ref name="Kayali 2023"/> At the end of his reign he also briefly laid claim to the office of [[Sharifian Caliphate|Sharifian Caliph]]; he was a [[Hashemites#Family tree|37th-generation direct descendant]] of [[Muhammad]], as he belongs to the [[Hashemite]] family.<ref name="Kayali 2023"/> A member of the Dhawu Awn clan ([[Banu Hashim]]) from the [[Qatadid]] emirs of Mecca, he was perceived to have rebellious inclinations and in 1893 was summoned to [[Istanbul]], where he was kept on the Council of State.<ref name="Kayali 2023"/> In 1908, in the aftermath of the [[Young Turk Revolution]], he was appointed Emir of Mecca by the [[List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire|Ottoman sultan]] [[Abdul Hamid II]].<ref name="Kayali 2023"/> In 1916, with the promise of British support for Arab independence, he proclaimed the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire, accusing the [[Committee of Union and Progress]] (CUP) of violating tenets of Islam and limiting the power of the sultan-caliph. Shortly after the outbreak of the revolt, Hussein declared himself "King of the Arab Countries". However, his [[Pan-Arabism|pan-Arab aspirations]] were not accepted by the [[Allies of World War I|Allies]], who recognized him only as King of the Hejaz.

In the [[aftermath of World War I]], Hussein refused to ratify the [[Treaty of Versailles]], in protest at the [[Balfour Declaration]] and the establishment of British and French [[League of Nations mandate|mandates]] in [[Mandatory Syria|Syria]], [[Mandatory Iraq|Iraq]], and [[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine]]. He later refused to sign the Anglo-Hashemite Treaty and thus deprived himself of British support when his kingdom was attacked by [[Ibn Saud]]. After the Kingdom of Hejaz was invaded by the [[House of Saud|Al Saud]]-[[Wahhabism|Wahhabi]] armies of the [[Ikhwan]], on 23 December 1925 King Hussein bin Ali surrendered to the Saudis, bringing both the Kingdom of Hejaz and the Sharifate of Mecca to an end.<ref name="Peters 1994">{{cite book |last=Peters |first=Francis E. |year=2017 |origyear=1994 |title=Mecca: A Literary History of the Muslim Holy Land |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tdb6F1qVDhkC&pg=PA397 |location=[[Princeton, New Jersey]] and [[Woodstock, Oxfordshire]] |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |series=Princeton Legacy Library |page=397 |isbn=9781400887361 |oclc=468351969}}</ref>

According to [[Efraim Karsh]] of [[Bar-Ilan University]], Sharif Hussein of Mecca was "a man with grandiose ambitions" who had first started to fall out with his masters in Istanbul when the dictatorship, a triumvirate known as the [[Three Pashas]], General [[Enver Pasha]], [[Talaat Pasha]], and [[Cemal Pasha]], which represented the radical [[Turkish nationalism|Turkish nationalist]] wing of the [[Committee of Union and Progress]] (CUP), seized power in a coup d'état in January 1913 and began to pursue a policy of [[Turkification]], which gradually angered non-Turkish subjects.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ülker|first=Erol|date=2005|title=Contextualising 'Turkification': nation-building in the late Ottoman Empire, 1908–18*|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1469-8129.2005.00222.x|journal=Nations and Nationalism|language=en|volume=11|issue=4|pages=613–636|doi=10.1111/j.1469-8129.2005.00222.x|issn=1469-8129|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Hussein started to embrace the language of [[Arab nationalism]] only after the [[Young Turk Revolution]] against the Ottoman sultan [[Abdul Hamid II]] in July 1908.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Young Turks and The Armenians: From Revolution to Genocide|url=https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/video/young-turks-and-armenians-revolution-genocide|access-date=12 April 2021|website=Facing History and Ourselves|date=31 March 2015 }}</ref> The fighting force of the revolt was mostly combined from Ottoman defectors and Arabian tribes loyal to the Sharif.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=The Arab Revolt, 1916–18 – The Ottoman Empire {{!}} NZHistory, New Zealand history online|url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/ottoman-empire/arab-revolt|access-date=12 April 2021|website=nzhistory.govt.nz}}</ref>

=== Religious justification ===
Though the Sharifian revolt was described in retrospect as rooted in a secular Arab nationalist sentiment,{{sfn|Khalidi|1991}}<ref>Gelvin, James L. (2015). ''The Modern Middle East: A History'' (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-021886-7}}.</ref> the Sharif did not present it in those terms. Rather, he accused the [[Young Turks]] of violating the sacred tenets of [[Islam]] by pursuing the policy of [[Turkification]] and discriminating against its non-Turkish population, and called [[Arab Muslims]] to sacred rebellion against the Ottoman government.<ref>Sean McMeekin (2012) ''The Berlin–Baghdad Express''. Belknap Press. {{ISBN|0674064321}}. pp. 288, 297</ref> The Turks answered by accusing the rebelling tribes of betraying the [[Ottoman Caliphate]] during a campaign against imperialist powers attempting to divide and govern Muslim lands.<ref>Mustafa Bostancı (2014) [http://gazi.edu.tr/posts/download?id=115391 Birinci Dünya Savaşı'nda Osmanlı Devleti'nin Hicaz'da Hâkimiyet Mücadelesi] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150216073709/http://gazi.edu.tr/posts/download?id=115391 |date=16 February 2015 }} (The Struggle of Ottomans in Hijaz Region During the World War I). ''Akademik Bakış''</ref> The Turks said the revolting Arabs gained nothing after the revolt; rather, the Middle East was carved up by the British and French.

=== Ethnic tensions ===
[[File:Flage of the Great Arab Revolt.JPG|thumb|The [[Aqaba Flagpole]] holding the flag of the Arab Revolt, commemorating the site of the [[Battle of Aqaba]].]]

This early [[Arab nationalism]] came about when the majority of the Arabs living in the [[Ottoman Empire]] were loyal primarily to their own families, clans, and tribes<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |journal= Nations and Nationalism |volume=11 |issue=14 |date=2005 |doi=10.1111/j.1469-8129.2005.00222.x |first1=Erol |last1=Ülker |title=Contextualising 'Turkification': nation-building in the late Ottoman Empire, 1908–18*|pages=613–636 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229480579|access-date=12 April 2021|via=ResearchGate|language=en |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220807081749/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229480579_Contextualising_%27Turkification%27_nation-building_in_the_late_Ottoman_Empire_1908-18 |archive-date= Aug 7, 2022 }}</ref> despite efforts of the Turkish ruling class, who pursued a policy of [[Turkification]] through the [[Tanzimat reforms]] and hoped to create a feeling of "[[Ottomanism]]" among the different ethnicities under the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman rule]]. Liberal reforms brought about by the Tanzimat also transformed the [[Ottoman Caliphate]] into a secular empire, which weakened the Islamic concept of [[Ummah]] that tied the different races together.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kawtharani|first=Wajih|date=2013|title=The Ottoman Tanzimat and the Constitution|journal=Tabayyun|publisher=Arab Center for Research & Policy Studies|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep12682 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240411010456/https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/resrep12682.pdf |archive-date= Apr 11, 2024 }}</ref> The rise of the [[Committee of Union and Progress]] (CUP) to power and the creation of a [[one-party state]] in 1913 which mandated [[Turkish nationalism]] as a state ideology, worsened the relationship between the Ottoman state and its non-Turkish subjects.<ref name=":0" />

In the [[United States]], Arabs and Hebrews who immigrated from [[Ottoman Turkey]] petitioned the [[U.S. Department of State]] to not be classified as "Turkish", but as "Arab" or "Hebrew".<ref>{{cite news |title=Ask Recognition of Arabs and Hebrews |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SDI19180108.2.38& |access-date=5 December 2024 |publisher=Stockton Independent |date=January 8, 1918 |page=2 |quote=The petition also asks that the federal authorities 'permit Ottoman Arabs and Hebrews in America to suppress from the state registers in which their declarations as foreigners have been made their status as Turkish subjects.'}}</ref>