Fevzi) was one of the founders of the İttihat ve Terakki
Cemiyeti (Committee of Union and Progress) that
came to rule Turkey after Sultan Abdülhamid II was
dethroned in 1909.
While in exile in Cairo in the early 1900s, Mağmumi
wrote a newspaper column called "Düşündüm ki..."
(I'm Thinking That…). TNT has transcribed/
translated some of these columns. Herewith the first
- an idea in 1903 about how to make the Hejaz Railway
more productive and beneficial for the world's
Moslem pilgrims.//
Hejaz Railway background click here for more info.
An Ottoman Adventure in the Hejaz click here for a
TNT report about an Ottoman official who brought
a German ship's crew through the desert to the
Hejaz Railway in 1915.
Mağmumi's 1903 idea never came to fruition
in Ottoman times.
"I’m Thinking
That…" – “Türk” newspaper:
19 November 1903, Cairo, Egypt
by Şerefeddin Mağmumi
The Hecaz
railway, of which a 300-kilometer portion was built in
3 years, is more of a
great work of Islam than of the Ottoman
Empire.
Everyone agrees with this. But as
far as I’m concerned it
should be entirely dedicated to all Moslems because
Ottomans,
Egyptians, Moroccans, Indians and Javans all opened their wallets
to
participate in the railway’s construction.
Consequently, the railway should have begun at Jeddah. All of the
pilgrims coming from the south
would benefit from a Jeddah-Mecca
link and from there a link to Medina. Otherwise, pilgrims coming
from India, Java
and China cannot avail themselves of the link from
Damascus to Medina. Secondly, the Jeddah-Mecca link would be
100
kilometers and if a short-cut for the route could be found this
distance could be
reduced. In other words, this could be
done in
a year.
Mağmumi's idea was to build a rail line from
Jeddah to Mecca and then connect to the main
line from Damascus at Medina. Pilgrims from
the 'south' refers to those coming by ship to
Jeddah from India and the Far East.
Could this happen? The
already-built Damascus line has begun to
show a profit. Every year between 100,000 and 200,000
pilgrims
take this line and continuing it on to Mecca makes commercial
sense. An extension from the Damascus
line to Mecca could be
done in seven or eight years, if construction is done
with alacrity,
but without such an extension the line is not worthwhile for
Ottoman, Iranian and Russian pilgrims who reach Medina, only
to have to proceed
on to Mecca on the back of a camel in 8-10
days, which they are loath to
do.
In other words, this rail line
should be completely constructed,
after which all concerned could benefit from
the transportation.
All pilgrims coming
from the north and the south could be
transported via a Jeddah – Mecca – Medina line and this would
be very
profitable. So it is not just desired
but, rather, essential
that this link from Jeddah be done to both motivate pilgrims who
want to come
from the south and to create significant and
constant revenue on the original
main line from Damascus.
In fact, according to information we have
obtained, when the
Moslems of Hyderabad, India, deliver the 62 million kuruş
they
have collected for the rail line to the Ottoman government they
will make
a request for the Jeddah link. And they
will be very
justified in making such a request. Here in Egypt, based on
what we are hearing
from the populace, everyone wants to know
when the Jeddah link will be
built. In the event that they hear that
it has begun, then contributions from Egypt will begin, as well.
Some people say that the Ottoman government
is stalling about
the Jeddah link because of concerns about protecting it from
the
Bedouins. Let us not give that any
credence. The more-than-1,000-
kilometer rail line from Damascus is
well-protected by the Ottoman
government, so guarding a 100-kilometer Jeddah link
from the
Bedouins would be easy. Others
put forth the excuse that bringing
the necessary equipment to Jeddah through the
Suez Canal would be
too expensive. This
ought to be calculated but it really makes no
difference because the amount of
money it would cost for a 100-
kilometer link would be recouped in one year
after the line begins
operation.
In
short, the Ottoman government felt the
urgent need to build the
Haifa-Dera extension line within two or three years of
starting the
line from Damascus. We hope
that now our observations will be
thoroughly considered and a decision made to
build the Jeddah –
Mecca rail line.
Şerefeddin Mağmumi
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder