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State Building (Part 2)

The Ottoman Empire: once an integrated economic unit

Was parceled into fragments.

Each new Arab state had
its own tariff and customs regulations,
its own currency, and
its own form of economic ties with its European overlord.

What forces of political loyalty and cultural identity could replace it?

Faysal’s Syrian kingdom with its Pan-Arab orientation.

New identities: Iraqis, Syrians, and Palestinians.

1919

The Ottoman state: an attempt to reassert the central government’s claim of legitimacy.

Mustafa Kemal Paşa

Assigned to reorganize what remained of the Ottoman military units and to improve internal security on April 30, 1919.

He and his staff left Istanbul.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1920-1945)

The Turkish War of Independence (May 19, 1919 to July 24, 1923)

A war waged by Turkish nationalists against the Allies, after the country was partitioned following the Ottoman Empire's defeat in WW I.

December 1919

Elections for the Ottoman parliament.

Another attempt to reassert the central government’s claim to legitimacy.

National Pact or National Oath

Six provisions passed by the (last) Ottoman Parliament.

Parliament met on 28 January 1920 and made its decisions public on 12 February 1920.

National Pact: Provisions 1 and 6

1. The future of the territories inhabited by an Arab majority at the time of the signing of the Armistice of Mudros will be determined by a referendum. On the other hand, the territories not occupied at that time and inhabited by a Turkish majority are the homeland of the Turkish nation.

6.In order to develop in every field, the country should be independent and free; all restrictions on political, judicial and financial development will be removed.

The response:

The Treaty of Sevre.

The Occupation of Constantinople by the British, French and Italian troops on 16 March 1920.

Ottoman officials

Concealed from the occupying authorities details of the developing independence movement spreading throughout Anatolia.

Munitions initially seized by the Allies were secretly smuggled out of Istanbul into Central Anatolia.

The British

The Ottoman government not doing what it could to suppress the nationalists.

March 1920

Turkish revolutionaries announced that the Turkish nation was establishing its own Parliament in Ankara under the name Grand National Assembly (GNA).

On April 23, the new Assembly summoned for the first time, making Mustafa Kemal its first president and Ismet Inonu chief of the General Staff.

Turkish nationalism

Kemal had set up a National Assembly in Ankara, in open defiance of the government in Istanbul,

Assembled forces capable of checking Greek advances, which had occupied more and more of western Anatolia.

Anatolia:

From being partitioned and occupied in 1920 (Treaty of Sevres), it emerged three years later as the internationally recognized independent nation-state of Turkey (Treaty of Lausanne);

Free of restrictions on its domestic policies, on its finances, and on its jurisdiction over foreign nationals.

The Treaty of Lausanne (July 1923)

Turkish sovereignty was recognized over all areas claimed by the 1920 National Pact with the exception of Mosul (northern Iraq).

Ataturk (1923-1945)

Shifted away from Islam as the foundation of the state,

Committed to modernization and Turkish nationalism to create the ideological underpinnings of the state.

Endorsed rationality and science.

Ataturk (1923-1945) cont.

Rather than seeing modernization as an import from abroad, he saw the Ottoman Turkish core as being essential in promoting it.

Since Turkism, in his view, was the very source of modern civilization, becoming modern meant regaining identity that the Turks have actually already had.

Molding Turkish national identity:

Elevated Turkish identity as a touchstone of the new state.

Ataturk sought to distance the Turkish identity from that of the Arabs by claiming the superiority of Turkish over Arabic.

Claimed that being Turk was superior to being of any other nationality.

Distancing from Arabic:

Attaturk commissioned a translation of the Quran into Turkish and had it read publicly in 1932.

In 1932, legislation made obligatory the issuing of the call to prayer in Turkish instead of Arabic.

The successor Turkish Republic

Turkish cultural heritage as distinct from the Ottoman one and as making crucial contribution to the successes of the empire,

Turkish ethnicity substituted for Islam.

Legitimacy by claiming to represent a coherent national group, namely the Turks.

Turkey: November 1, 1922

The assembly passed a resolution that:

separated the caliphate from the sultanate and
eliminated the sultanate.

Molding Turkish political identity

The capital of the country was transferred from Istanbul to Ankara in 1923.

In 1924, a new constitution was passed in which the principles of republicanism and popular sovereignty were reaffirmed.

Ataturk’s secularism and official institutions:

The grand national assembly voted in March 1924 to abolish the caliphate, and to banish from Turkey all members of the Ottoman royal family.

Abolished:
the office of shaykh al-Islam,
the religious schools, and
the Ministry of Religious Endowments.

Ataturk’s secularism and the religious practices

The Sufi orders were dissolved, and worship at tombs and shrines was prohibited by law.

In November 1925, the assembly endorsed the president’s practice and passed a law that made it a criminal offense to wear a fez.

The Turkish assembly:

In 1926, formally abolished the Mejelle and the shari’ah and adopted a Swiss civil code that forbade polygamy and broadened even further the grounds by which wives could seek divorce.

It also adopted a penal and commercial codes modeled on Italian and German examples respectively.

The Turkish government

effectively took over control over religious affairs by setting up the Ministry of Religious Affairs that became involved in making key appointments in the religious establishment.

This radical secular doctrine:

based on the belief that there is no need for religion in public affairs;

it allowed religion to exist only as a source of personal faith wholly subordinated to the state and

made the military the guarantor of this new political order.

Kemalist secularism

Adopted in the cities by modernized descendants of the Ottoman elite bureaucrats, officers, and professionals.

Rejected by the rural and small-town majority.

Reza Shah (1926-1941):

Borrowed many of his programs from Ataturk: centralization of state power; secularization of state institutions (legal and judicial sphere).

In 1928 the Majlis voted to adopt a new civil code modeled on that of France.

In 1928 a law was passed that required males to dress in the European manner, and in 1935 the wearing of a hat became compulsory.

Reza Shah (1926-1941):

Deployed the army to establish state authority over the tribal leaders.

His power was based on coercion rather than consensus.

Reza Shah (1926-1941):

The religious schools were not abolished as they were in Turkey.

The Arabian Peninsula (at the end of WW1)

Britain the dominant European power along the shores.

Britain cared little about the interior so long as its shifting tribal confederations did not threaten the stability of the rulers along the coast (shaykdoms: Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the Aden Protectorate).

Sharif Husayn

Emerged from the war as king of Hijaz.

Sharif Husayn

(Much) less than he hoped for.

After Turkey abolished the caliphate in 1924, he claimed the title for himself (unilaterally).

His shortcoming made him unpopular (being blamed for weakening the Ottoman Empire).

Enters Abd al-Aziz ibn Sa’ud (1881-1953)

The political revival of Wahhabism began in 1902; Ibn Sa’ud seized Riyadh.
Between 1902 and the end of WWI brought most tribes of Najd under his authority.

From tribal to religious commitment.
Built mosques to communities, sent ulama into them to disseminate the Wahhabi doctrine.

1924:

Ibn Sa’ud led his Ikwan warriors into the Hijaz.
Seized Mecca and Medina.
Drove Sharif Husayn into exile.

Arabia had a ruler: the head of the house of Sa’ud and the head of the Wahhabi religious order.

The Treaty of Jiddah (1927):

Britain recognized Ibn Sa’ud as the king of the Hijaz and sultan of Najd and its dependencies.

Ibn Sa’ud acknowledged Britain’s special relationships with the coastal rulers.

Of the ten core Middle Eastern states

Only Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen exercised full sovereignty during the interwar era.

Saudi Arabia and Yemen were allowed independence solely because they were isolated and because Britain and France regarded them as relatively unimportant.

The mandate system:

Provided Britain and France with an opportunity to secure their strategic interests in the Middle East while paying lip service to the principle o self-determination.

Different from prewar imperialism in that the mandatory power was bound to terminate its control at some unspecified time.

What kind of political systems developed in the ME after WWI?

A model of a nation-state:

Separation of powers;
Secularized legal, judiciary, and educational systems;
Expansion of state power;
Cultural uniformity; and
Diminished role of religion.

The new protectorates were expected to develop into modern states:

Social engineering (by Europeans):

The limitation and ordering of government in a constitutional state.

Constitutions that set rules establishing the relationship between government and citizens.

Specifying the institutions and processes through which political power would be exercised.

Adaptability was the very essence of the Ottoman system:

It governed directly the areas that could be efficiently controlled and allowed a certain degree of latitude to chieftains and feudal emirs in more remote locations.

Even in areas of direct control (as in Greater Syria), the Ottoman governors exercised their authority in association with the local Arab notables.

The Ottoman rule also

tolerated a rich diversity of religious and cultural practices throughout the Arab province.

The government of the postwar successor states:

First under European control and later under independent Arab regimes, would not be accommodating.

Strict central controls over rural tribes and urban dwellers in order to instill in all their citizens a measure of cultural uniformity.

Installed rulers (Iraq, Jordan, Syria)

Obtained their legitimacy in an authoritarian manner.

They would build a security apparatus - strong security states.

Some parliamentarianism:

Egypt,
Iraq,
Syria,
and Lebanon.

Generally: a very strong executive power supported by weaker legislative and judicial branches of government.

The British

Granted Egypt and Iraq a limited form of “independence” to conduct domestic political affairs as they saw fit.

But required the two states to allow the presence of British military bases on their soil and to adopt a foreign policy that was acceptable to Britain.

Egypt’s “independence”:

1922: The British government unilaterally ended its protectorate over Egypt and granted it nominal independence with the exception of four "reserved" areas:
foreign relations,
communications,
the military
and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.

Egypt’s experiment with democracy:

Constitution in 1923 (political pluralism, regular elections to a two-chamber legislature, full male suffrage, and a fee press).

Awarded extensive powers to the king, including the right to appoint the primer minister and dissolve parliament (an institutionally weak legislature).

Egypt: weak political party system

First parliamentary election in January 1924.

The Wafd Party won 90 percent of the seats.

Neither the Wafd nor any of the smaller parties adopted the principles of compromise and respect for the opposition.

Anglo-Egyptian treaty of alliance that recognized Egypt’s independence

1936: Britain agreed to renegotiate the 1922 declaration.

It also provided for a British military presence in the Suez Canal zone and reaffirmed Britain’s right to defend Egypt in case of attack.

Iraq:

The British officials who delineated the Iraqi frontiers restricted the new state’s access to the Persian Gulf.

Only 36 miles of coastline and no deep water port.

The border between Iraq and Kuwait became a frequent source of friction from the 1930s onward.

Faysal brought to the country in 1921

There were no systems of
government,
education,
national defense,
or any of the institutions by

which a nation is defined.

Iraq:

The British attempt to replace the decentralized Ottoman system with centralized government structures.

Uprising in June 1920 (among the tribes of the Euphrates);

The army founded in 1921.

Iraq: the 1925 Organic Law

Iraq defined as a hereditary constitutional monarchy;
An elected bicameral legislature;
Establishment of a public school system.

Islam was the state religion;
The shari’ah courts retained jurisdiction over personal status and waqfs;

Oil concessions:

The Iraqis conceded to British pressures and in 1925 signed a seventy-five-year concession with the firm that became the Iraq Petroleum Company.

Provided Iraq with modest royalties but excluded Iraq from having ownership in the company.

The 1930 treaty:

Iraq was to gain full independence within two years,
In 1932 Iraq received formal independence and was admitted to the League of Nations.

British military and security privileges retained: the right to maintain two air bases in the country.

After 1933:

In the absence of leadership from the palace, the government came to be dominated by a narrow clique of individuals without previous experience in civilian administration.

The government’s failure to secure unqualified independence.

Transjordan:

No previous existence as a political community.

During the Ottoman period, it was a neglected portion of the province of Syria (a desert inhabited by Bedouin tribes).

The 1928 agreements with the British: indirect British rule; reserved to the British resident the final word in foreign relations, the armed forces, the budget, etc.

France:

The self-proclaimed protector of the Christian communities in the Levant (especially of the Catholic Maronites of Mount Lebanon).

It professed a moral duty to continue its religious and educational activities in the region.

The French mandate in Syria:

Carved out a series of separate political units, the existence of which was designed to hinder the development of Syrian national identity.

The French mandate in Syria

France

Encouraged the existing religious, ethnic, and regional differences

Isolated the Druze and the Alawites from national politics and ensured that Syrian politics would be dominated by a propertied and conservative class of urban Sunni Muslims.

The French method of governing Syria:

Discouraged the acquisition of political responsibility and administrative experience by the local population.

The top bureaucratic positions in the high commissioner’s office were reserved for French staff.

NO independent decisionmaking authority for local Syrian governors and district commissioners.

The 1936 treaty: An alliance between France and Syria

Granted France the right to defend Syrian sovereignty and to maintain air bases and military garrisons on Syrian soil.

Syria’s admission to the League of Nations.

Still, in 1939 the high commissioner suspended the Syrian constitution, dissolved parliament.

The creation of Greater Lebanon (1920)

France removed the fertile Biqa Valley from Syrian jurisdiction and placed it within the frontiers of the expanded Lebanese state.

The Maronite Christians: the single largest religious community within the new Lebanon.

With the exception of Beirut, the areas added to Lebanon contained a predominantly Muslim population who objected to being placed within a Christian-dominated polity.

Sunni Muslims demanded unity with Syria.

Lebanon:

The constitution provided for a single chamber of deputies that was elected on the basis of religious representation and for a president who was elected by the chamber.

The president was granted extensive authority, including the right to appoint the prime minister and the cabinet.

The French mandate in Lebanon

France retained control of Lebanese foreign relations and military affairs.

The high commissioner, who had the right to dissolve parliaments and suspend the constitution, did so in 1932-1934, and again in 1939.

The presence of French advisers within each ministry.

Political systems comparatively:

Europeans created the (sharp) separation between the state and its people.

Europeans also encouraged:

Adaptations to Western culture (literature, music, attire).

But Westernization was not simply imposed:

Egyptian (liberal) leaders endorsed the belief that European civilization (with its rational foundation) was supposedly superior to the devinely ordained Islamic order.

Prominent Egyptian writers of the interwar era downplayed Arab heritage by emphasizing the country’s Greek and pharaonic past.

Women’s rights

The Egyptian Feminist Union;

1925: primary education compulsory for girls as well as boys;

Women admitted to the national university.

Islam and the new states:

superficially injected Islamic provisions into constitutions requiring

that the head of state be a Muslim or
that Islamic law be recognized as a (rather than “the”) source o law.

Two issues came up:

the extent to which the Shari`a would play a role in the legal and judicial systems;

the extent to which the Shari`a would play a role in the system of governance.

In sum:

Western-based legal systems replaced the shari’a.

Western-educated secular professionals replaced the jurist experts in Shari’a.

The domination of the state over religious institutions.

Side effect: Politicized religion

A struggle of power between the state and religious institutions in the political arena.

Example: conflict between westernized elites (who wanted to impose from above) and the ulama (the defenders of true Islam, the interpreters) when it came to the family law.

In some cases:

the secularization process consisted of the domination of the state over religious institutions (bureaucratization of religious scholars in Egypt and Turkey) of religious schools and property.

In other cases…

Secularization pushed religion out of the public sphere where it was not regulated or controlled by the state (Iran, Iraq).

In the private arena, religion over time became a potential source of support for political opposition to the state and its ideology.

In both cases

Islam remained relatively important (domestically!) despite the ongoing process of secularization.