Difference between revisions of "Shakib Arslan"
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Until the abolition of the Caliphate by Mustafa Kemal (1881-1938), Arslan lingered in Europe and Turkey hoping for the restoration of the Ottoman Empire. After it became apparent that this goal was unattainable, he refocused his activism to a more pressing matter, namely the French and the British domination and partition of the Arab world. Arslan however, was greatly ostracized from the ranks of the Arab nationalists he had formerly opposed. His transition into the ranks of the nationalists was made possible through the good offices of his close friend Rashid Rida, the renowned publisher of al-Manar. Rida was aware of his friend’s talents and thus brought him into the fold of the Arab cause. Arslan was quite successful in his new post as the head of the permanent delegation of the Syrian-Palestinian Congress to the League of Nations in Geneva. Through this delegation, Arslan and his companions were able to lobby for the demands of the so-called Arab Nation, such issues as the Great Syrian Revolt, and more importantly the question of Palestine. It was through the delegation’s publication Le Nation Arabe that Arslan bombarded European policy-makers as well as the general public with the demands of his political camp. While Arslan tried to be as diverse as possible in the articles he published in his journal and other prominent publications such as al-Manar, the Palestinian issue occupied a major share of his writings. This was mainly due to the fact that Arslan was a close ally of the Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin al-Husayni (1895-1974); indeed, many believed that Arslan was in fact the Mufti’s main advisor. | Until the abolition of the Caliphate by Mustafa Kemal (1881-1938), Arslan lingered in Europe and Turkey hoping for the restoration of the Ottoman Empire. After it became apparent that this goal was unattainable, he refocused his activism to a more pressing matter, namely the French and the British domination and partition of the Arab world. Arslan however, was greatly ostracized from the ranks of the Arab nationalists he had formerly opposed. His transition into the ranks of the nationalists was made possible through the good offices of his close friend Rashid Rida, the renowned publisher of al-Manar. Rida was aware of his friend’s talents and thus brought him into the fold of the Arab cause. Arslan was quite successful in his new post as the head of the permanent delegation of the Syrian-Palestinian Congress to the League of Nations in Geneva. Through this delegation, Arslan and his companions were able to lobby for the demands of the so-called Arab Nation, such issues as the Great Syrian Revolt, and more importantly the question of Palestine. It was through the delegation’s publication Le Nation Arabe that Arslan bombarded European policy-makers as well as the general public with the demands of his political camp. While Arslan tried to be as diverse as possible in the articles he published in his journal and other prominent publications such as al-Manar, the Palestinian issue occupied a major share of his writings. This was mainly due to the fact that Arslan was a close ally of the Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin al-Husayni (1895-1974); indeed, many believed that Arslan was in fact the Mufti’s main advisor. | ||
| − | <ref>M. Rabbah, [https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/arslan_shakib_amir Arslān, Shakīb, Amīr], Apr 10, 2018.</ref>}} | + | <ref name=rabbah-2018>M. Rabbah, [https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/arslan_shakib_amir Arslān, Shakīb, Amīr], Apr 10, 2018.</ref>}} |
In Switzerland since September 1925.<ref>Provence, Michael. The Last Ottoman Generation and the Making of the Modern Middle East. India: Cambridge University Press, 2017. 172.<br><i> | In Switzerland since September 1925.<ref>Provence, Michael. The Last Ottoman Generation and the Making of the Modern Middle East. India: Cambridge University Press, 2017. 172.<br><i> | ||
Revision as of 16:48, December 14, 2022
Shakib Arslan (Arabic: شكيب أرسلان,Turkish: Şekîb b. Hammûd b. Hasen el-Arslânî, 25 December 1869 – 9 December 1946) (Abou Ghaleb) was a former Druse notable, prince (amir) in Lebanon, who left his community and clung to fascism,[1] allied,[2] propagated for Hitler, tight with the Mufti Mohammed Amin Al-Husseini, Jamal Husseini and other ieaders in Arab Mandatory Palestine. He was a who was known as Amir al-Bayān (Arabic for "Prince of Eloquence") because in addition to being a politician, he was also an influential pan-Arabist, pan-Islamist writer, poet and historian an author, he penned some 20 books and 2,000 articles.
One of the Druze families who converted to Islam, Arslan was one of the pillars of the all-Arab and all-Muslim movement in Syria. He provoked anger from Christians.[3] Explains a writer who met him:
| “ | He excited the believers to envy the zeal of Islam and provoked the anger of the Christians. In his many articles and speeches, the emir proved that the Arabs are loyal to the Turkish caliph dynasty and honor them over the Umms, the Abbasids and the Fatimids. He wasn't just all talk. At the head of a Druze battalion, the Emir marched to Egypt at the beginning of the First War to conquer the Suez and return the Nile Valley to the Sultan of Kushta.
Shakib Arslan then miraculously lifted Syria's loyalty to the Ottoman crown. The Arabs welcomed Sharif Feisal Bin Hussein and all his plans in favor of the rebellion (in Turkey) found no echo in Damascus or in Aram Tzoba (Aleppo). The Arabs remained loyal to Kalif until the last moment... Shakib Arslan, who sat in Geneva in those days and conducted his propaganda in favor of the Arabs, is the one who rained fire and brimstone on the Zionists and England. He claimed that neither the former nor the latter have rights over Palestine. The Druze forgot the peace treaty, made between the tribesmen of his tribe and the Jews of Metula, in his position and influence. And it wasn't in that alliance that the Israelis' rights in their homeland were already recognized...[3] |
” |
Overview:[1]
At that time, the Arab movement leaned towards the fascist forces in Europe, which became very strong when the Nazis seized power in Germany. The main fascist-Nazi Arab agent was the Druze emir Shakib Arslan, who left his narrow religious sect and joined the pan-Arab Syrian "Istiqlal" movement in 1919/20, and since then his close relations with Arab leaders in the Land of Israel and especially with the Husseinis have persisted.
He was one of the key figures of Arab nationalist thought and pan-Arab and - Muslim activism in the interwar period. [4] Or "arguably one of the most prominent all-regional Islamic-Arab public opinion shapers in the interwar period."[5]
In April 1935, around the time of Arslan's pro Fascist Italy propaganda among the Arabs, Rumors close to the truth tell of Nazi cells existing among the Arabs, which are currently working to expand the anti-Jewish and even anti-English action, and perhaps also against the interests of other powers.[6]
Arslan was involved in the Arabic translation of Mein Kampf in 1938.[7][8]
After heading a Syrian nationalist propaganda service in Geneva for a few years, and after refusing at first, finally in October 1939, it was reported that Hitler granted Arslan a so-called "honorary aryan" status.[9]
He dwelled (at least early on) around the delusional story that the Arabs preceded Christopher Columbus, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and discovered America. [10]
Pan Islamist: from pro-Ottoman to Pan-Arabism
Shakib Arslan: an Ottoman parliamentarian and later Arab nationalist who was close to Cemal Pasha during the war.[11]
"He seems to be more Moslem than the Caliph." Christians voiced referring to Arslan's piece published on Aug 14, 1914.[12]
An ardent pan-Islamist wanted to bring together in an alliance. [13]
During World War I, the Spanish zone in Northern Morocco was utilized to foment hostilities against the French forces. In addition, the Teskilat-i Mahsusa (Ottoman Empire) TM formed volunteer units such as the Druze Voluntary Detachment led by Amir Shakib Arslan (1869-1946) with 110 men recruited from Mount Lebanon who were attached to the Hejaz Campaign Force.[14] A "die-hard Ottoman loyalist, the Druze Emir Shakib Arslan, raised a small force of Druze warriors at his own expense."[15][16][3]
While always an ardent pan-Islamist throughout, post--World War I, he changed his pro Ottoman activism to that of a Champion of Pan-Arabism.
| “ | Post--World War I: A Champion of Pan-Arabism
Until the abolition of the Caliphate by Mustafa Kemal (1881-1938), Arslan lingered in Europe and Turkey hoping for the restoration of the Ottoman Empire. After it became apparent that this goal was unattainable, he refocused his activism to a more pressing matter, namely the French and the British domination and partition of the Arab world. Arslan however, was greatly ostracized from the ranks of the Arab nationalists he had formerly opposed. His transition into the ranks of the nationalists was made possible through the good offices of his close friend Rashid Rida, the renowned publisher of al-Manar. Rida was aware of his friend’s talents and thus brought him into the fold of the Arab cause. Arslan was quite successful in his new post as the head of the permanent delegation of the Syrian-Palestinian Congress to the League of Nations in Geneva. Through this delegation, Arslan and his companions were able to lobby for the demands of the so-called Arab Nation, such issues as the Great Syrian Revolt, and more importantly the question of Palestine. It was through the delegation’s publication Le Nation Arabe that Arslan bombarded European policy-makers as well as the general public with the demands of his political camp. While Arslan tried to be as diverse as possible in the articles he published in his journal and other prominent publications such as al-Manar, the Palestinian issue occupied a major share of his writings. This was mainly due to the fact that Arslan was a close ally of the Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin al-Husayni (1895-1974); indeed, many believed that Arslan was in fact the Mufti’s main advisor. [17] |
” |
In Switzerland since September 1925.[18]
Barid Al Sharq
Barid Al Sharq ([بريد الشرق]: Orient Post) was an Arabic Nazi propaganda publication published in Berlin, in the period 1939–1944. It was distributed in the Arab countries and Mandatory Palestine. "Articles in Barid al-Sharq, dominated by the usual anti-British, anti-Communist, and anti-Jewish agitation, also drew on religious themes... Contributors included the Lebanese pan-Islamist Shakib Arslan and Abdurreshid Ibrahim, who, after his service for Germany during the First World War, had now become imam of the Tokyo Mosque, giving the paper a further pan-Islamic tinge."[19]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Asaf, Michael. The history of the awakening of the Arabs in Palestine and their escape [תולדות התעוררות הערבים בארץ־ישראל ובריחתם]. Israel: Publisher Culture and Education: in collaboration with Davar Publishing House, 1967. p. 129.
בתקופה ההיא נטתה התנועה הערבית אל הכוחות הפאשיסטיים באירופה, שהתחזקו מאוד עם תפוס הנאצים את השלטון בגרמניה. הסוכן הערבי הפאשיסטי-נאצי הראשי היה האמיר הדרוזי שכיב ארסלאן, שעזב את עדתו הדתית הצרה והצטרף ב־1919/ 20 לתנועת ה"איסתיקלאל" הסורית הפאן-ערבית, ומאז התמידו יחסיו ההדוקים עם מנהיגים ערבים בארץ-ישראל וביחוד עם החוסיינים.
- ↑ Elst, Koenraad. Indigenous Indians: Agastya to Ambedkar. India: Voice of India, 1993. p. 353.
Young Fidel Castro would imitate Mussolini in front of the mirror. The secularist Baath Party in Syria and Iraq was modelled on Mussolini's Fascist Party. The Iranian Shah Reza Pahlevi was an open admirer of Hitler (for which he was forced by the British to abdicate in favour of his son)... The Muslims in particular were enthusiastic... Muslim nations rallied to ally with Hitler: the Bosnian Muslims, the Kalmuks, the Chechen and Ingosh, the Balkans, the Meshkets, and the Krim Tatars. In West Asia, prominant leaders like the Druze leader Shakib Arslan (Walid Jumblatt's father) and the Mufti of Jerusalem allied themselves with Hitler.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Hed HaMizrah - הד המזרח, 1 April 1949, p. 11.
בית אהרונסון והדרוזים
מאת ד"ר י. הרוזן
(שנה למותו של המפקד :אלכסנדר אהרונסון ז"ל)
האמיר שכיב ארסלן, שנמנה על משפחות הדרוזים שנתאסלמו, היה גם אחד מעמודי התווך של התנועה הכל־ערבית והכל מוסלמית בסוריה. הוא הלהיב את המאמינים לקנא את קנאת האיסלאם ועורר את חמת הנוצרים. במאמריו ובנאומיו הרבים, הוכיח האמיר, כי , הערבים הם נאמנים לשושלת הכליפים התורכים ומבכרים אותם על פני האומים, העבאסים והפטימים (ר' מאמרו בOrient- של 5 באוקטובר .(197והאציל הדרוזי לא נשאר רק נאה דורש. בראש גדוד דרוזי , צעד האמיר למצרים בראשית המלחמה הראשונה כדי לכבוש את הסואץ ולהחזיר את עמק הנילוס לסולטן בקושטא.
שכיב ארסלן הרים אז על נס את נאמנותה של סוריה לכתר עותמן. ערביה השיבו ריקם את פני השריף פיצל בן חוסיין וכל תכניותיו לטובת המרד )בתורכיה) לא מצאו הד בדמשק או בארם צובא. הערבים נשארו נאמנים לכליף עד הרגע האחרון...
שכיב ארסלן, שישב בימים ההם בג'ניבה ונהל את תעמולתו לטובת הערבים, הוא המטיר אש וגפרית על הציונים ועל אנגליה. הוא טען כי לא לראשונים ולא לאחרונים אין זכויות על פלשטינה. שכח הדרוזי את ברית השלום, שנכרתה בין בני שבטו ובין יהודי מטולה, במעמדו ובהשפעתו. והלא באותה ברית כבר הוכרו זכויות הישראלים במולדתם...
Emir Shakib Arslan, who was one of the Druze families who converted to Islam, was also one of the pillars of the all-Arab and all-Muslim movement in Syria. He excited the believers to envy the zeal of Islam and provoked the anger of the Christians. In his many articles and speeches, the emir proved that the Arabs are loyal to the Turkish caliph dynasty and honor them over the Umms, the Abbasids and the Fatimids (cf. his article in the Orient..) He wasn't just all talk. At the head of a Druze battalion, the Emir marched to Egypt at the beginning of the First War to conquer the Suez and return the Nile Valley to the Sultan of Kushta.
Shakib Arslan then miraculously lifted Syria's loyalty to the Ottoman crown. The Arabs welcomed Sharif Feisal Bin Hussein and all his plans in favor of the rebellion (in Turkey) found no echo in Damascus or in Aram Tzoba (Aleppo). The Arabs remained loyal to Kalif until the last moment...
Shakib Arslan, who sat in Geneva in those days and conducted his propaganda in favor of the Arabs, is the one who rained fire and brimstone on the Zionists and England. He claimed that neither the former nor the latter have rights over Palestine. The Druze forgot the peace treaty, made between the tribesmen of his tribe and the Jews of Metula, in his position and influence. And it wasn't in that alliance that the Israelis' rights in their homeland were already recognized...
- ↑ Wien, Peter. Arab Nationalism: The Politics of History and Culture in the Modern Middle East. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, 2017.
p. 63.
As seen, Shakib Arslan, one of the key figures of Arab nationalist thought and pan-Arab and -Muslim activism in the interwar period, published his book al-Hulal al-sundusiyya only a few years later and dedicated it to "paradise lost."
- ↑ Erlikh, Hagai. The Cross and the River: Ethiopia, Egypt, and the Nile. United Kingdom: L. Rienner, 2002. 28. arguably one of the most prominent all-regional Islamic-Arab public opinion shapers in the interwar period...
- ↑ Ha-Yarden - הירדן, 25 April 1935.
התעמולה הפרו־איטלקית בין הערבים על מכתבו של האמיר שאקיב ארסלאן מאת א. אבידן שמועות הקרובות לאמת מספרות על תאים נאצים הקימים בין הערבים, הפועלים כיום לשם הרחבת הפעולה האנטי יהודית ואף האנטי אנגלית, ואולי גם נגד האינטרסים של מעצמות אחרות. The pro-Italian propaganda among the Arabs On the letter of Emir Shakib Arslan By A. Avidan
Rumors close to the truth tell of Nazi cells existing among the Arabs, which are currently working to expand the anti-Jewish and even anti-English action, and perhaps also against the interests of other powers.
- ↑ Hagay Hacohen, Arabic translation of ‘Mein Kampf’ sold in Israel, JPost, Oct 22, 2019.
The history of how the German publication ended up in Arabic is a fascinating one. After several false starts that contained mistakes such as Hitler stating he "became a socialist" and not a nationalist, the job fell to Shakib Arslan who used a French translation.
- ↑ Borders, Boundaries and Belonging in Post-Ottoman Space in the Interwar Period. Netherlands: Brill, 2022. p. 143.
In 1938, the Arab nationalist and Nazi interlocutor Shakib Arslan, at the time in exile in Geneva, recommended al-'Urabi to the foreign office's Middle East division and the propaganda ministry as a possible translator...
- ↑ The Palestine Post, 16 October 1939.
EMIR SHAKIB ARSLAN AN "HONORARY GERMAN "
BEIRUT . — A full account has now appeared in the local of press of the visit paid to Germany by the Emir Shakib Arslan, who for the past few years has headed a Syrian nationalist propaganda service in Geneva. The visit was described by the German broadcasting stations as evidence of Arab sympathy for Germany.
According to reliable Swiss newspaper reports quoted in the local presa the Emir met only some of the minor Nazi leaders. It is reported that Hitler at first refused to authorise the grant to him of the honorary German citzenship on the grounds that he was a Semite. In Berlin, the Emir met another honorary aryan the notorious Baron von Oppenheim who managed the German espionage service in Arab countries during the World War.
Local comment is highly newspaper is unflattering to Shakib Arslan who is thought to have traded in what remains of his political integrity for a cash grant calculated to make it easier for him to maintain an expensive establishment in Geneva, where sympathizers have lately been few and far between.
- ↑ Menashe Shaul, The past belongs to the past, News1, 02/02/2014.
Following Mahmoud Hamdi's new book Zakzouk (Zagzoog) [زقزوق] - directs his criticism mainly to the clerics who deal with the midrash and do not dare to break free from the shackles of conservatism, fanaticism and commitment to the past...
Zakzouk mentions a story from the beginning of the 20th century about the Islamic thinker Shakib Arslan who met with the religious preacher
Jamal al-Din al-Afghani. The conversation between them revolved around the delusional story that the Arabs preceded Christopher Columbus, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and discovered America. Alafjani said: "When the Arabs try to cover up their omissions and backwardness these days, they claim that their ancestors did this and that. And this is the problem. Instead of doing something to fulfill their ambitions, they cling to their past."
- ↑ Environmental Histories of the First World War. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2018. 179.
- ↑ The Moslem World. United Kingdom: Nile Mission Press, 1915. p.418.
- ↑ Bogosian, Eric. Operation Nemesis: The Assassination Plot that Avenged the Armenian Genocide. United States: Little, Brown, 2015. [1].
- ↑ Safi, The Ottoman Special Organization 2012, p. 204. ctd in Odile Moreau Teskilat-i Mahsusa (Ottoman Empire), Nov 23, 2018.
- ↑ The Ottoman Twilight in the Arab Lands: Turkish Memoirs and Testimonies of the Great War. United States: Academic Studies Press, 2019.
https://books.google.com/books?id=X_qdDwAAQBAJ&pg=P2015.
Only the die-hard Ottoman loyalist, the Druze Emir Shakib Arslan, raised a small force of Druze warriors at his own expense. They were never deployed.
- ↑ Kayalı, Arabs and Young Turks , 189.
Beşikçi, Mehmet. The Ottoman Mobilization of Manpower in the First World War: Between Voluntarism and Resistance. Netherlands: Brill, 2012. [178].
Shakib Arslan's volunteers from the Druze. - ↑ M. Rabbah, Arslān, Shakīb, Amīr, Apr 10, 2018.
- ↑ Provence, Michael. The Last Ottoman Generation and the Making of the Modern Middle East. India: Cambridge University Press, 2017. 172.
In September 1925, Shakib Arslan left his unhappy exile in Mersin and moved to Switzerland permanently. - ↑ Motadel, David. Islam and Nazi Germany’s War. United Kingdom: Harvard University Press, 2014. p. 88.
Articles in Barid al-Sharq, dominated by the usual anti-British, anti-Communist, and anti-Jewish agitation, also drew on religious themes... Contributors included the Lebanese pan-Islamist Shakib Arslan and Abdurreshid Ibrahim, who, after his service for Germany during the First World War, had now become imam of the Tokyo Mosque, giving the paper a further pan-Islamic tinge.