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State Building (Part 2)
The Ottoman Empire: once an integrated
economic unit
 Was parceled into fragments.
 Each new Arab state had
 its own tariff and customs regulations,
 its own currency, and
 its own form of economic ties with its European overlord.
What forces of political loyalty and
cultural identity could replace it?
 Faysal’s Syrian kingdom with its Pan-Arab
orientation.
 New identities: Iraqis, Syrians, and Palestinians.
1919
 The Ottoman state: an attempt to reassert the
central government’s claim of legitimacy.
Mustafa Kemal Paşa
 Assigned to reorganize what remained of the Ottoman
military units and to improve internal security on April 30,
1919.
 He and his staff left Istanbul.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1920-1945)
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The Turkish War of Independence (May
19, 1919 to July 24, 1923)
 A war waged by Turkish nationalists against the
Allies, after the country was partitioned following
the Ottoman Empire's defeat in WW I.
December 1919
 Elections for the Ottoman parliament.
 Another attempt to reassert the central government’s
claim to legitimacy.
National Pact or National Oath
 Six provisions passed by the (last) Ottoman
Parliament.
 Parliament met on 28 January 1920 and made its
decisions public on 12 February 1920.
National Pact: Provisions 1 and 6
 1. The future of the territories inhabited by an Arab majority at the
time of the signing of the Armistice of Mudros will be determined
by a referendum. On the other hand, the territories not occupied
at that time and inhabited by a Turkish majority are the homeland
of the Turkish nation.
 6.In order to develop in every field, the country should be
independent and free; all restrictions on political, judicial and
financial development will be removed.
The response:
 The Treaty of Sevre.
 The Occupation of Constantinople by the British,
French and Italian troops on 16 March 1920.
Ottoman officials
 Concealed from the occupying authorities details of
the developing independence movement
spreading throughout Anatolia.
 Munitions initially seized by the Allies were secretly
smuggled out of Istanbul into Central Anatolia.
The British
 The Ottoman government not doing what it could to
suppress the nationalists.
March 1920
 Turkish revolutionaries announced that the Turkish
nation was establishing its own Parliament in Ankara
under the name Grand National Assembly (GNA).
 On April 23, the new Assembly summoned for the first time,
making Mustafa Kemal its first president and Ismet Inonu
chief of the General Staff.
Turkish nationalism
 Kemal had set up a National Assembly in Ankara, in
open defiance of the government in Istanbul,
 Assembled forces capable of checking Greek
advances, which had occupied more and more of
western Anatolia.
Anatolia:
 From being partitioned and occupied in 1920 (Treaty of
Sevres), it emerged three years later as the
internationally recognized independent nation-state
of Turkey (Treaty of Lausanne);
 Free of restrictions on its domestic policies, on its
finances, and on its jurisdiction over foreign nationals.
The Treaty of Lausanne (July 1923)
 Turkish sovereignty was recognized over all areas
claimed by the 1920 National Pact with the exception of
Mosul (northern Iraq).
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Ataturk (1923-1945)
 Shifted away from Islam as the foundation of the
state,
 Committed to modernization and Turkish nationalism to
create the ideological underpinnings of the state.
 Endorsed rationality and science.
Ataturk (1923-1945) cont.
 Rather than seeing modernization as an import from
abroad, he saw the Ottoman Turkish core as being essential
in promoting it.
 Since Turkism, in his view, was the very source of
modern civilization, becoming modern meant regaining
identity that the Turks have actually already had.
Molding Turkish national identity:
 Elevated Turkish identity as a touchstone of the new
state.
 Ataturk sought to distance the Turkish identity from that
of the Arabs by claiming the superiority of Turkish
over Arabic.
 Claimed that being Turk was superior to being of any
other nationality.
Distancing from Arabic:
 Attaturk commissioned a translation of the Quran
into Turkish and had it read publicly in 1932.
 In 1932, legislation made obligatory the issuing of
the call to prayer in Turkish instead of Arabic.
The successor Turkish Republic
 Turkish cultural heritage as distinct from the
Ottoman one and as making crucial contribution to the
successes of the empire,
 Turkish ethnicity substituted for Islam.
 Legitimacy by claiming to represent a coherent national
group, namely the Turks.
Turkey: November 1, 1922
 The assembly passed a resolution that:
 separated the caliphate from the sultanate and
 eliminated the sultanate.
Molding Turkish political identity
 The capital of the country was transferred from
Istanbul to Ankara in 1923.
 In 1924, a new constitution was passed in which the
principles of republicanism and popular
sovereignty were reaffirmed.
Ataturk’s secularism and official
institutions:
 The grand national assembly voted in March 1924 to abolish the
caliphate, and to banish from Turkey all members of the Ottoman
royal family.
 Abolished:
 the office of shaykh al-Islam,
 the religious schools, and
 the Ministry of Religious Endowments.
Ataturk’s secularism and the religious
practices
 The Sufi orders were dissolved, and worship at
tombs and shrines was prohibited by law.
 In November 1925, the assembly endorsed the
president’s practice and passed a law that made it a
criminal offense to wear a fez.
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The Turkish assembly:
 In 1926, formally abolished the Mejelle and the shari’ah and
adopted a Swiss civil code that forbade polygamy and
broadened even further the grounds by which wives could
seek divorce.
 It also adopted a penal and commercial codes modeled on
Italian and German examples respectively.
The Turkish government
 effectively took over control over religious affairs by
setting up the Ministry of Religious Affairs that
became involved in making key appointments in the
religious establishment.
This radical secular doctrine:
 based on the belief that there is no need for religion in
public affairs;
 it allowed religion to exist only as a source of personal
faith wholly subordinated to the state and
 made the military the guarantor of this new political
order.
Kemalist secularism
 Adopted in the cities by modernized descendants of the
Ottoman elite bureaucrats, officers, and professionals.
 Rejected by the rural and small-town majority.
Reza Shah (1926-1941):
 Borrowed many of his programs from Ataturk: centralization of
state power; secularization of state institutions (legal and judicial
sphere).
 In 1928 the Majlis voted to adopt a new civil code modeled on that
of France.
 In 1928 a law was passed that required males to dress in the
European manner, and in 1935 the wearing of a hat became
compulsory.
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Reza Shah (1926-1941):
 Deployed the army to establish state authority over the
tribal leaders.
 His power was based on coercion rather than
consensus.
Reza Shah (1926-1941):
 The religious schools were not abolished as they
were in Turkey.
The Arabian Peninsula (at the end of WW1)
 Britain the dominant European power along the shores.
 Britain cared little about the interior so long as its shifting
tribal confederations did not threaten the stability of the
rulers along the coast (shaykdoms: Kuwait, Bahrain,
Qatar, Oman and the Aden Protectorate).
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Sharif Husayn
 Emerged from the war as king of Hijaz.
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Sharif Husayn
 (Much) less than he hoped for.
 After Turkey abolished the caliphate in 1924, he claimed
the title for himself (unilaterally).
 His shortcoming made him unpopular (being blamed for
weakening the Ottoman Empire).
Enters Abd al-Aziz ibn Sa’ud (1881-1953)
 The political revival of Wahhabism began in 1902;
Ibn Sa’ud seized Riyadh.
 Between 1902 and the end of WWI brought most
tribes of Najd under his authority.
 From tribal to religious commitment.
 Built mosques to communities, sent ulama into them
to disseminate the Wahhabi doctrine.
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1924:
 Ibn Sa’ud led his Ikwan warriors into the Hijaz.
 Seized Mecca and Medina.
 Drove Sharif Husayn into exile.
 Arabia had a ruler: the head of the house of Sa’ud
and the head of the Wahhabi religious order.
The Treaty of Jiddah (1927):
 Britain recognized Ibn Sa’ud as the king of the Hijaz
and sultan of Najd and its dependencies.
 Ibn Sa’ud acknowledged Britain’s special
relationships with the coastal rulers.
Of the ten core Middle Eastern states
 Only Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen
exercised full sovereignty during the interwar era.
 Saudi Arabia and Yemen were allowed
independence solely because they were isolated and
because Britain and France regarded them as
relatively unimportant.
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The mandate system:
 Provided Britain and France with an opportunity to secure
their strategic interests in the Middle East while paying lip
service to the principle o self-determination.
 Different from prewar imperialism in that the mandatory
power was bound to terminate its control at some
unspecified time.
What kind of political systems developed
in the ME after WWI?
 A model of a nation-state:
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Separation of powers;
Secularized legal, judiciary, and educational systems;
Expansion of state power;
Cultural uniformity; and
Diminished role of religion.
The new protectorates were expected to
develop into modern states:
 Social engineering (by Europeans):
 The limitation and ordering of government in a
constitutional state.
 Constitutions that set rules establishing the
relationship between government and citizens.
 Specifying the institutions and processes through
which political power would be exercised.
Adaptability was the very essence of the
Ottoman system:
 It governed directly the areas that could be efficiently
controlled and allowed a certain degree of latitude to
chieftains and feudal emirs in more remote locations.
 Even in areas of direct control (as in Greater Syria), the
Ottoman governors exercised their authority in
association with the local Arab notables.
The Ottoman rule also
 tolerated a rich diversity of religious and cultural
practices throughout the Arab province.
The government of the postwar
successor states:
 First under European control and later under
independent Arab regimes, would not be
accommodating.
 Strict central controls over rural tribes and urban
dwellers in order to instill in all their citizens a measure
of cultural uniformity.
Installed rulers (Iraq, Jordan, Syria)
 Obtained their legitimacy in an authoritarian manner.
 They would build a security apparatus - strong
security states.
Some parliamentarianism:
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Egypt,
Iraq,
Syria,
and Lebanon.
 Generally: a very strong executive power supported by weaker
legislative and judicial branches of government.
The British
 Granted Egypt and Iraq a limited form of “independence”
to conduct domestic political affairs as they saw fit.
 But required the two states to allow the presence of
British military bases on their soil and to adopt a foreign
policy that was acceptable to Britain.
Egypt’s “independence”:
 1922: The British government unilaterally ended its protectorate
over Egypt and granted it nominal independence with the
exception of four "reserved" areas:
 foreign relations,
 communications,
 the military
 and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.
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Egypt’s experiment with democracy:
 Constitution in 1923 (political pluralism, regular elections
to a two-chamber legislature, full male suffrage, and a
fee press).
 Awarded extensive powers to the king, including the
right to appoint the primer minister and dissolve
parliament (an institutionally weak legislature).
Egypt: weak political party system
 First parliamentary election in January 1924.
 The Wafd Party won 90 percent of the seats.
 Neither the Wafd nor any of the smaller parties adopted
the principles of compromise and respect for the
opposition.
Anglo-Egyptian treaty of alliance that
recognized Egypt’s independence
 1936: Britain agreed to renegotiate the 1922 declaration.
 It also provided for a British military presence in the
Suez Canal zone and reaffirmed Britain’s right to defend
Egypt in case of attack.
Iraq:
 The British officials who delineated the Iraqi frontiers
restricted the new state’s access to the Persian Gulf.
 Only 36 miles of coastline and no deep water port.
 The border between Iraq and Kuwait became a frequent
source of friction from the 1930s onward.
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Faysal brought to the country in 1921
 There were no systems of
 government,
 education,
 national defense,
 or any of the institutions by
which a nation is defined.
Iraq:
 The British attempt to replace the decentralized Ottoman
system with centralized government structures.
 Uprising in June 1920 (among the tribes of the
Euphrates);
 The army founded in 1921.
Iraq: the 1925 Organic Law
 Iraq defined as a hereditary constitutional monarchy;
 An elected bicameral legislature;
 Establishment of a public school system.
 Islam was the state religion;
 The shari’ah courts retained jurisdiction over personal
status and waqfs;
Oil concessions:
 The Iraqis conceded to British pressures and in 1925
signed a seventy-five-year concession with the firm
that became the Iraq Petroleum Company.
 Provided Iraq with modest royalties but excluded Iraq
from having ownership in the company.
The 1930 treaty:
 Iraq was to gain full independence within two years,
 In 1932 Iraq received formal independence and was
admitted to the League of Nations.
 British military and security privileges retained: the
right to maintain two air bases in the country.
After 1933:
 In the absence of leadership from the palace, the
government came to be dominated by a narrow clique of
individuals without previous experience in civilian
administration.
 The government’s failure to secure unqualified
independence.
Transjordan:
 No previous existence as a political community.
 During the Ottoman period, it was a neglected portion of
the province of Syria (a desert inhabited by Bedouin
tribes).
 The 1928 agreements with the British: indirect British
rule; reserved to the British resident the final word in
foreign relations, the armed forces, the budget, etc.
France:
 The self-proclaimed protector of the Christian
communities in the Levant (especially of the Catholic
Maronites of Mount Lebanon).
 It professed a moral duty to continue its religious and
educational activities in the region.
The French mandate in Syria:
 Carved out a series of separate political units, the
existence of which was designed to hinder the
development of Syrian national identity.
The French mandate in Syria
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France
 Encouraged the existing religious, ethnic, and regional
differences
 Isolated the Druze and the Alawites from national
politics and ensured that Syrian politics would be
dominated by a propertied and conservative class of
urban Sunni Muslims.
The French method of governing Syria:
 Discouraged the acquisition of political responsibility and
administrative experience by the local population.
 The top bureaucratic positions in the high commissioner’s
office were reserved for French staff.
 NO independent decisionmaking authority for local Syrian
governors and district commissioners.
The 1936 treaty: An alliance between France
and Syria
 Granted France the right to defend Syrian sovereignty
and to maintain air bases and military garrisons on
Syrian soil.
 Syria’s admission to the League of Nations.
 Still, in 1939 the high commissioner suspended the
Syrian constitution, dissolved parliament.
The creation of Greater Lebanon (1920)
 France removed the fertile Biqa Valley from Syrian jurisdiction and
placed it within the frontiers of the expanded Lebanese state.
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The Maronite Christians: the single largest
religious community within the new Lebanon.
 With the exception of Beirut, the areas added to
Lebanon contained a predominantly Muslim population
who objected to being placed within a Christiandominated polity.
 Sunni Muslims demanded unity with Syria.
Lebanon:
 The constitution provided for a single chamber of
deputies that was elected on the basis of religious
representation and for a president who was elected by
the chamber.
 The president was granted extensive authority, including
the right to appoint the prime minister and the cabinet.
The French mandate in Lebanon
 France retained control of Lebanese foreign relations and
military affairs.
 The high commissioner, who had the right to dissolve
parliaments and suspend the constitution, did so in 19321934, and again in 1939.
 The presence of French advisers within each ministry.
Political systems comparatively:
 Europeans created the (sharp) separation between
the state and its people.
Europeans also encouraged:
 Adaptations to Western culture (literature, music,
attire).
But Westernization was not simply
imposed:
 Egyptian (liberal) leaders endorsed the belief that
European civilization (with its rational foundation) was
supposedly superior to the devinely ordained Islamic
order.
 Prominent Egyptian writers of the interwar era
downplayed Arab heritage by emphasizing the country’s
Greek and pharaonic past.
Women’s rights
 The Egyptian Feminist Union;
 1925: primary education compulsory for girls as
well as boys;
 Women admitted to the national university.
Islam and the new states:
 superficially injected Islamic provisions into
constitutions requiring
 that the head of state be a Muslim or
 that Islamic law be recognized as a (rather than “the”)
source o law.
Two issues came up:
 the extent to which the Shari`a would play a role in
the legal and judicial systems;
 the extent to which the Shari`a would play a role in
the system of governance.
In sum:
 Western-based legal systems replaced the shari’a.
 Western-educated secular professionals replaced
the jurist experts in Shari’a.
 The domination of the state over religious
institutions.
Side effect: Politicized religion
 A struggle of power between the state and religious
institutions in the political arena.
 Example: conflict between westernized elites (who
wanted to impose from above) and the ulama (the
defenders of true Islam, the interpreters) when it
came to the family law.
In some cases:
 the secularization process consisted of the
domination of the state over religious institutions
(bureaucratization of religious scholars in Egypt and
Turkey) of religious schools and property.
In other cases…
 Secularization pushed religion out of the public
sphere where it was not regulated or controlled
by the state (Iran, Iraq).
 In the private arena, religion over time became a
potential source of support for political opposition to
the state and its ideology.
In both cases
 Islam remained relatively important (domestically!)
despite the ongoing process of secularization.