Citation

Aksakal M. War Hist. 2011; 18(2): 184-199.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0968344510393596

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

From the beginning the 1914 Ottoman jihad proclamation was portrayed by the Allies as the linchpin of a German scheme to revolutionize Muslim populations in the territories of Berlin's enemies: in British Egypt and India, in French North Africa, and in the Russian Caucasus and Central Asia. This article questions the cliché of the German jihad by situating the 1914 declaration in its deeper Ottoman historical context. Did the Ottomans need Berlin's blandishments to convince them of the advantages of issuing a jihad (jihād) declaration in 1914?