Yurdu' published a letter from Abdürreşid İbrahim, who
was then in Germany providing religious guidance to
Moslem POWs from the Russian army being held in
Germany.
According to his biography, Abdürreşid Ibrahim, who was
himself born in Russia's Siberia and who had an amazing
career as a global Moslem statesman, went to the POW
camps in Germany to recruit Russian Moslems to fight for
the Ottoman-German alliance. Thanks to his efforts, the
"Asia Battalion" comprised of former Russian Moslem
POWs went to fight the English in Iraq with the Ottoman
army.//
limited bio click here for Abdürreşid Ibrahim's partial bio
in English, covering his life up to about 1902.
more thorough bio in Turkish click here for a complete
bio in Turkish.
Abdürreşid İbrahim
Everyone knows that among the hundreds of thousands of prisoners
taken by the Germans from the Russian army, there are many of our
co-religionists and contemporaries of our generation. A portion of
them have for some time been coming to Istanbul in droves because
they want to live in the Ottoman state.
The German government has separated its Moslem prisoners from the
non-Moslem prisoners taken from the Russians, English and French
armies and settled them in separate "ordugâhlar" encampments that
they call "hilâl ordugâhları" (crescent encampments). In order for
the Moslems in these crescent encampments to be able to live within
the tenets of their religion, great efforts have been made to provide
the necessary conditions.
There are two mosques and a number of imams and teachers in these
crescent encampments so the Moslems can pray five times a day.
Great care has been taken for Friday prayers and especially 'bayram'
(Moslem religious holiday) prayers to be conducted with great
splendor. Each encampment has a school where the Kuran and Moslem
catechism are taught, along with Turkish and German and handcrafts.
With regard to food, meals are prepared by cooks chosen from among
the Moslem prisoners and in accordance with the precepts of Islam.
We have received a letter from our colleague Abdürreşid İbrahim who
has been serving as an imam and teacher in the encampment of the
Northern Turk (Russian) prisoners in Germany. In his letter, he
related how the recent Kurban Bayramı (Moslem feast of sacrifice)
passed in the crescent encampment. Herewith we present some
portions of the letter that dealt with events and thoughts important
for the ideas and life of the Turkish world:
"On a Saturday in October of the European calendar, preparations
were made at the prisoners' encampment for Kurban Bayramı. Both
the Ottoman and the German flags were waving from the camp's clock
tower. Guests began to arrive after 10 o'clock and they included:
Ottoman Ambassador İbrahim Hakkı Paşa
Foreign Minister Halil Bey Efendi
Deputy Chief Ethem Bey
Two German generals
Many German and Ottoman officers and students
Military Attaché Şükrü Bey
Consul Lûtfi Bey
Abdülaziz Çavuş Efendi
Ottoman Prince Osman Fuad in Tripoli, Libya, in 1911.
I should also take particular note of the attendance of a member of
the Ottoman royal family Prince Osman Fuad and Şerefüddin Efendi
and Abbas Halim Efendi, as well. Some two thousand of our Arab
brothers from the Arab encampment came, too.
After Embassy İmam Hafız Şükrü read the Bayram prayer, Abdülaziz
Çavuş Efendi gave a speech in Arabic about the history of butchering
the sacrifice and Alimcan Efendi translated the speech into Northern
Turkish.
//END of PART ONE//
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