TNT History Archives: 'Jihad', As Seen by a Turkistani Youth (WWI)/Part II

//Ed. note:  Hacı Kadir Ali, a Turkistani youth, continues 
his description of 'jihad' fever he witnessed in Afghanistan 
in the Spring of 1915.//


Afghan Emir Habibullah. He was assassinated
in 1919 by a British agent, Indian Mustafa Saghir, who
was also accused of trying to assassinate Mustafa 
Kemal Atatürk in Ankara in 1921 or 1922.  Herewith
a related link: Assassin

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"When I came to Afghanistan I thought that the declaration of 'jihad'
had not yet been made (by the Ottoman Caliph-Sultan).  Nevertheless,
all the Afghans expected 'jihad' would be declared.  When I was in
Mazar-ı Şerif, on the way to Kabul, a traveler from Meshed (in
northeastern Iran) related that "In Istanbul the Great Caliph, Sultan
Mehmed Reşâd Khan, has announced 'jihad' in Istanbul and all
Moslems are summoned to Holy War.  The Caliph's 'ferman' (order)
has reached the Afghan Emir, as well."

The news couldn't be confirmed but, in any case, the people of Mazar-ı
Şerif were quite excited and certain that the declaration had been made.
There were rumors of 'jihad' in Taşkurgan and Kunduz, too,  and by the
time I reached Kabul all of Afghanistan was aflame with 'jihad' fever.
Still, though, there was had been no official confirmation.

At the end of May 1915, news of 'jihad' gained momentum once again.
Some Afghans in the British Army in India who fled to Afghanistan
brought certain news that the 'jihad' declaration had been announced
by the Caliph in Istanbul.  Very quickly, this confirmation spread
throughout Afghanistan, prompting talk of immediate mobilization of
the army, distribution of new weapons and even reports that the Caliph
had sent weapons.   The people congratulated one another and joy and
good feelings abounded.


The 'fetva' (order) of the Caliph-Sultan Mehmed Reşâd 
announcing 'jihad' and issued 14 November 1914 in Istanbul
by the Şeyhülislâm, the senior Ottoman religious official.

Unfortunately, the Afghan Emir said nothing.  This sparked whispers
against the Emir, with some even saying that the Emir sided with the
British and there were calls for a revolt against him, as well.  The Emir
subsequently confirmed that the Caliph had sent him the 'jihad ferman'
and this served to calm the populace somewhat.  Among the tribes
emotions were running high but the imams urged the faithful to await
the Emir's command for 'jihad' to start.

Meanwhile, rumors spread that in India all the Moslem newspapers
had been closed down by the British because they wrote that the Caliph
had declared 'jihad' and journalists had been jailed in this regard.  This
news served to fan the flames anew and the tribes on the border with
India sent this threat to the British governor in Peshawar: "Leave
Peshawar immediately.  Otherwise, we will drive you out with armed
force.  Because Peshawar is a Moslem place and since you are treating
our Moslem brothers there badly your time in our country is over.""

//END of PART II//

'Ugly American' Dumps Fish into Konya Lake

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Konya Gazetesi website, 29 April 2020)


              Juall shown here abandoning his best friends.

American Chester Juall (60) has been hit with a 10,000 TL (about
$1,450) for putting fish into Altınapa Dam Lake in Konya.  Juall, who
was given a 7.5-year prison sentence in 2015 for sexual assault in
Istanbul (!), was staying at a hotel in Konya when he had a taxi driver
take him to Beyşehir so he could go fishing. 

However (!), on the way to Beyşehir Juall changed his mind and told
the taxi driver to stop along the shore of Altınapa Dam Lake. Getting
out of the taxi, Juall took a plastic bag with red fish of an unidentified
species out of his backpack (!) and put the fish into the lake. 

In the meantime, the taxi driver recorded Juall's activities and posted
the video live on social media.  A fisherman friend saw the video and
informed the Eurasia Amateur and Sports Line-fishing Federation. In
turn, the federation related the incident to the Konya Provincial
Agriculture and Forestry Directorate's Fishing and Sea Products
Office. 


     Istanbul memories. Just can't seem to stay outta trouble...

Concerned that a foreigner might be engaged in some sort of biological
activity or was introducing a virus or some other microbe into the lake's
water, officials ran a check on Juall's background.  They found that
Juall had a lengthy criminal record (!) so police accompanied the
officials to Juall's hotel, where the American was fined 10,000 TL for
putting the fish into the lake.

It turned out that in 2015 Juall had come to Istanbul with 15 suitcases
and was caught with bomb-making materials (!) in the hotel where he
was staying.  Juall also sexually assaulted a hotel employee and was
given a jail sentence of 7 years 6 months.  He was barred from leaving
Turkey and a month ago he came to Konya, living in a hotel near the
Mevlana Tomb.  Juall was taken into custody at that time after hotel
workers reported that he was insulting and cursing Turks.

TNT History Archives: 'Jihad', As Seen by a Turkistani Youth (WWI)/Part I

//Ed. note: In August-September 1918, the Moslem 
statesman Abdürreşid İbrahim published, in an Istanbul 
newspaper, an interview he had with a young man from 
Turkistan who had come to Istanbul during the years of 
World War I via Afghanistan, India and the Hicaz in 
Arabia.

Along the way, the big news in early 1915 was whether 
or not the Ottoman Caliph-Sultan had declared 'jihad' 
(holy war).  He had on 14 November 1914, with German
urging, but confirmation took a while to reach 
Afghanistan.//

Abdürreşid İbrahim click here for a TNT report about 
a part of his remarkable life.


Sultan Mehmed Reşâd, right front, with German Kaiser
Wilhelm II.  The Sultan was also the Caliph of the Islamic
world.


German-Turkish Mission to Afghanistan click here for 
info on the Niedermayer-Hentig expedition to Kabul that
sought to  prod the Afghan Emir into attacking British 
India.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jihad and the Islamic World

A journey to Istanbul by way of Turkistan, Bukhara, Afghanistan, 

India and the Hicaz during the World War. 

A few weeks ago, I met a young fellow from Turkistan named Hacı 

Kadir Ali, the son of Kutluğyar, who had come to Istanbul.  At the 

start of the World War he left Turkistan and then spent quite a bit of 

time in Afghanistan, India and, subsequently, in the Hicaz. I asked

him about the things he had seen along the way and he provided

some very interesting information:

"In December 1914 I left Namangan (in today's far eastern Uzbekistan)

in the province of Fergana, in order to go to the Hicaz via Afghanistan

and India.  I first arrived at Bukhara and met with some friends who

were discussing the entry into the World War by the Caliph (Ottoman

Sultan Mehmed Reşâd).  The consensus was that it was every Moslem's

duty to answer the call to 'jihad' (holy war), if the Caliph declared it.

I thought that for us Moslems in Turkistan, living under the Russian 

yoke, it was impossible to take up arms but the elder at the meeting 

insisted that we must learn how to use weapons for jihad, Russians or 

not.  We could not look to the Tatars for guidance since they had long 

since joined the Russian army and were currently at war (against 

Turkey and Germany).    

 

The next day I left Bukhara and took the train to Charjew (in today's 

eastern Turkmenistan and renamed 'Turkmenabat').  From there I went

with great difficulty, by foot and by donkey, to Kabul in 32 days. All 

along the way the populace was talking about the Caliph joining the

War with the Germans.  Even without mail and telegraphs, the news

had reached every village.  

I stayed in Kabul for 9 months.  By the second week I was there,

confirmation had still not come about the Caliph declaring 'jihad' 

but everyone was sure he would.  The populace became very excited

and took up arms, only settling down when a member of the Moslem

clergy announced that everyone would have to wait for the Caliph's

decision.  

Both men and women in Kabul were armed, and the women were no

less capable than the men, many times surpassing the men in weapons

training exercises.  I was astonished to see this expertise with guns 

because we men in Turkestan have no familiarity with them.  

Consequently, I felt ashamed and saddened.  I blamed the Russian

occupation of Turkistan to ease my conscience but I was tormented, 

nonetheless."

Namangan is in the Fergana Valley in extreme eastern

Uzbekistan.  Bukhara and Charjew are close to each 

other in the center of the map, on either side of the 

Uzbek-Turkmen border.

//END of PART I//

TNT Coronavirus Edition: 'Donkey Style' Antisocialism in Ankara

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 29 April 2020)


                                          Mule Train

On Sunday evening in Mamak district of Ankara, a few hours before
the weekend lock-down was scheduled to end, a group of 10 youths
gathered in Astsubay Erhan Yıldırım Park.  The youths had no masks
and, thumbing their noses as 'social distancing' norms, they played a
game called 'uzun eşek' (long donkey).


                        Inspiration from El Salvador.

Onlookers notified the police and the group of about 10 youths fled
when they arrived.  However (!),  when the local populace complained
the police tracked down the 10 youths and fined them a total of
31,500 TL (about $2,500), in accordance with provisions of the Public
Health Law.


                                  "Is it retirement yet?"

TNT History Mini-Series: Across the Libyan Desert (1923)/Part III/FINAL

//Ed. note: Happily, TNT has stumbled upon the original
National Geographic article about Hüsnü (actually
'Hassanein') Bey's trans-Libyan desert trek.  So, TNT 
will defer to the original, which is much more thorough
and contains Hassanein Bey's photographs.

It should be noted that the expedition occurred in the first 
6 months of 1923, rather than in the year 1925, which 
TNT wrongly deduced from the reference to "last year" 
in the 1926 Istanbul newspaper's article. Mea culpa mea
culpa mea maxi meculpa.//

http://www.saharasafaris.org/hassaneinbey/ngs1924article.htm

Vol. XLVI, No. 3         WASHINGTON         September, 1924
The National Geographic Magazine 
CROSSING THE UNTRAVERSED LIBYAN DESERT 
The Record of a 2,200-Mile Journey of Exploration which Resulted in
the Discovery of Two Oases of Strategic Importance on the Southwestern 
Frontier of Egypt

By A. M. Hassanein Bey 
With Illustrations from Photographs by the Author



Follow the dotted line for the path of Hüsnü (Hassanein) Bey's
caravan from Sollum on the Mediterranean coast to El Obeid
in Sudan.


"Sometimes, after having battled the ferocious weather for hours,
suddenly towards sunset the wind dies down, as if by the magical
command of a secret hand.  Then, for an hour or so fine sand falls like
a summer fog.  Next, under the mysterious light of the rising moon
the desert takes on a bewitching form, making one wonder weather
there had even been a sand storm at all.  Memories are erased.  How
could it be that this silent, peaceful setting, the stuff of poetry, could
have, hours earlier, been so cruel?"

Upon reaching Jalo, the main oasis of the Libyan desert, provisions
are replenished.  This place is important both because of its geographic
location and its dates.  In other words, it is a transit point through
which caravans pass en route to Benghazi and Egypt, carrying ivory
and ostrich feathers. The trade is under the control of the Majabra tribe.
In fact, every member of the tribe takes pride in the fact that his father
died in the camel saddle, much like warriers who fall in battle.

Hüsnü Bey's caravan is comprised of 15 people, 37 camels, a horse
named Baraka and colt named Bibu.  As for equipment, there are 4
tents, four cameras, a cinematograph 'prezdevu' machine, a
chronometer and 'tudevlit'.  Of course, the pictures he takes cannot be
developed, for lack of water.

With regard to the paucity of water in the desert, Hüsnü Bey had this
to say:

"All the way from Sellum to El-Ubeyd, we never had even one cup of
clear water to quench our thirst.  The water in the tarcloth and sheepskin
pouches we carried absorbed some of the tar, hairs and other foreign
matter from the pouches.  There has been a lot of misinformation up to
now about the amount of water desert travelers consume.  In winter,
a cup of water in the morning and the evening is sufficient.  If we walk
in the sunlight, then a third cup is required but drinking extra water is
ridiculed as a "woman's weakness". 

"When the hot weather returns, we rest during the day and travel at
night to conserve water.  But my horse needs a third of the water pouch.
A desert traveler's food is made up of  rice, flour and dates.  To these
ingrediants the Bedouins add sheeps milk to make a meal that is quite
bitter, so melted butter must be added to it. 

One of the Bedouins' refreshments is tea: a handful of sugar and a
handful of tea are added to half a liter of water, which is boiled to
produce a tea that is both bitter and sweet.  One drinks it in small cups
and two of these are enough to revive even the most weary traveler. 
As for food, it is boiled rice and bread, which is tasteless and hard to
digest, and more like 'peksimet' (hard biscuit).  'Peksimet' and other
snacks are indispensible for desert travel."

//END of PART III/FINAL//

TNT Coronavirus Edition: Early Prison Release & Belated Vengence

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 27 April 2020)


       COVID-19's collateral damage - Mustafa Bey, right.

Yesterday in Pamukkale district of Denizli province, people noticed
smoke rising from a neighborhood house.  Firefighters were called
and put out the fire, but they also found the burned body of Mustafa
K. (47).

It turned out that Mustafa's father Eşref K. (66), who was released
from prison 10 days ago as part on an effort to ease overcrowding in
Turkey's jails because of the coronavirus outbreak, had bludgeoned
his son to death with a hammer while Mustafa slept.

Eşref K.explained to police that "Eleven years ago I killed the man
who kidnapped my daughter.  But it was my son's duty to kill him.
So I spent 11 years in jail and my anger swelled.  I killed my son
with a hammer while he slept and set the house on fire."

Eşref K. was re-arrested and sent back to jail.