probably in early 1916. The situation in wartime
Jiddah was dire, with hunger and starving people,
along with corpses, evident around the port.//
Map of the Afghan-Indian border area in 1915. Kabul
is at left-center. The battle between Afghan tribes and
British Indian forces in the Fall of 1915 is described
here, from the British perspective: Khyber Pass
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"At that time, rumors spread that the Caliph-Sultan in Istanbul had sent
Enver Paşa to the border of Afghanistan via Iran. This news spread
quickly, prompting the Afridi tribe to join the Afghan army and
thousands of men to flee India for Afghanistan. In fact, many Indian
youths at the British 'Delhi' school fled. I saw all this with my own
eyes and spoke with some of these youths.
In any event, in the aftermath of the hostilities, it seems to me that the
English thought it would be pointless to continue fighting with the
tribes so a few members of the clergy in India were sent to Kohistan
to make peace with the tribes, with abundant money as an incentive.
When I left Afghanistan I went to Peshawar, intending to have my
passport stamped for travel within India before I made the pilgrimage
to Mecca. However, the official there said in no uncertain terms that
touring India during wartime was out of the question. He told me to
go directly to Bombay (Mumbai) and board a ship for Jiddah.
After waiting for 3 weeks in Bombay, our ship departed with a small
number of pilgrims - 40 or 50 Turkistanis like me and a few hundred
Indians. We were all quite contented until news came the next day
that the German fleet was in Indian waters and might attack our ship.
In hopes of avoiding such a fate, our ship flew a green flag to indicate
that the ship carried pilgrims and no commercial or military materials.
//Ed. note: A German warship, the 'Emden', wreaked
havoc on British and Indian shipping in the Indian
Ocean in late 1914. Coincidentally, after an Australian
warship sunk the 'Emden' in the far southeast of the
ocean, and amazingly, a portion of its crew made it to
Arabia and were shepherded through the Hicaz by an
Ottoman official named Sami Çölgeçen in the first
half of 1915. See this TNT report for the details:
Arabian adventure //
Three days later we reached Aden safely. There, the Arab who
brought water for the ship told us that the Ottoman Caliph-Sultan's
soldiers had scored great victories in Iraq, killing many Englishmen
and taking ten thousand of them as POWs.
Upon arrival in Jiddah we found the place to be in quite a sad state.
There was no food or drink available. They were crushing dates to
make a kind of flour for a baking a bread-like food. There were many
starving people and the bodies of those who had died from hunger
along the shore. Nevertheless, they asked nothing of us pilgrims
but we shared what we had with them anyway. In return, they treated
us very well."
//Ed. note: Evidently, after making the pilgrimage to
Mecca, Hacı Kadir Ali made his way to Istanbul.
And although he did not mention anything about
his ship from Mumbai being quarantined at
Kamaran Island before reaching Jiddah, that was
the Ottoman practice in those days. Click here
for the first of a 4-part TNT series in this regard:
mecca quarantine
//END of PART III/FINAL//
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