Notes
1. Feroz Ahmad, The Young Turks: The Committee of Union and Progress in Turkish Politics, 1908–1914 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), 15–18.
2. Tanin, 29 August 1908; Ali Cevat, İkinci Meşrutiyetin İlanı ve Otuz Bir Mart Hadisesi, ed. Faik Reşit Unat (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi, 1960), 167.
3. Sabine Prätor, Der arabische Faktor in der jungtürkischen Politik: Eine Studie zum osmanischen Parlament der II. Konstitution (1908–1918) (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1993), 206. In the early months of the revolution the freedom of the press was unabridged. Even after the enactment of a press law the following year opposition newspapers found ways of circumventing the restrictions. Tanin itself was closed and reopened several times under different names in 1912, when the CUP fell from power.
4. Orhan Koloğlu, “Osmanlı Basını: İçeriği ve Rejimi,” TCTA, 1:90.
5. Kedourie, “Impact,” 142.
6. Ergin, 4:1280.
7. Ahmad, Young Turks, 15–20.
8. Tanin, 14 August 1908.
9. The date corresponded to 31 March 1325 in the official Ottoman calendar.
10. Ahmad, Young Turks, 47–57.
11. In the provincial administration of the Hijaz, for instance, the number of government employees went up from 14 to 100 during his reign. Karal, 332–33.
12. According to Sina Akşin, from the First Army Corps alone 1,400 officers were laid off following the revolution. 100 Soruda Jön, 120.
13. Tanin, 14 August 1908. While Hüseyin Cahid’s suggestion points to the desperation that the CUP felt at this juncture, it also shows that the Committee was favorably disposed toward cooperation with Europe.
14. Tanin, 1 August 1908. He was referred to as Arap İzzet (İzzet the Arab) in the İstanbul press. Upon receiving pleas from Arabs of the empire, who regretted this usage, Tanin announced on August 4 that he would henceforth be referred to as “İzzet.”
15. Ali Birinci, Hürriyet ve İtilâf Fırkası (İstanbul: Dergah, 1990), 222.
16. Taj el-Sir Ahmad Harran, “Syrian Relations in the Ottoman Constitutional Period, 1908–1914” (Ph.D. diss., University of London, 1969), 52–59.
17. Tanin, 25 September 1908.
18. Both the centralists and the decentralists advocated tevsi’-i mezuniyet (extension of discretion). For the different interpretations of this principle, see Yıldızhan Yayla, Anayasalarımızda Yönetim İlkeleri: Tevsi-i Mezuniyet ve Tefrik-i Vezaif (İstanbul: İstanbul Üniversitesi Siyasal Bilgiler Fakültesi, 1984), 84–94.
19. Tanin, 4 September 1908.
20. Tanin, 19 September 1908.
21. For example, on the situation in Yemen, see Tanin, 16 September 1908.
22. Some officials even managed to arrange to reside at locations where conditions were better than the district of their assignment. Faiz Demiroğlu, Abdülhamid’e Verilen Jurnaller (İstanbul: İstanbul Matbaası, 1955), 97.
23. Ratib Pasha had served as governor of the Hijaz since 1893 and had amassed a fortune, mostly through illegal practices, when in office. See also chapter 5.
24. On his dismissal, see Tanin, 6 August 1908. See chapter 5 for a detailed account of the political changes in the Hijaz at this time.
25. Takvim-i Vekai, 30 January 1909.
26. BBA. BEO 264060. The Grand Vizierate to Osman Pasha (25 March 1909).
27. BBA. BEO 264548. Minister of War to [the Grand Vizierate] (30 March 1909).
28. BBA. BEO 264548. The Grand Vizierate to Hadi Pasha (4 April 1909).
29. PRO. FO 195/2320. Acting Consul Richardson to Lowther, no. 81 (Jidda, 18 July 1909) and no. 92 (30 August 1909).
30. Donald Quataert, “A Provisional Report Concerning the Impact of European Capital on Ottoman Port and Railway Workers, 1888–1909,” in Bacqué-Grammont and Dumont.
31. Takvim-i Vekai, 1 October 1908.
32. Harran, “Syrian Relations,” 42.
33. For example, in December 1909 certain villages near Medina applied to the authorities, pleading to submit their taxes to the government rather than to oppressive tax collectors of Ibn Rashid, who ruled over the Najd. The request was not found feasible. BBA. BEO 276300. The Ministry of the Interior to the Grand Vizierate (22 December 1909).
34. Stephen Hemsley Longrigg, Iraq, 1900 to 1950 (London: Oxford University Press, 1953), 49.
35. BBA. BEO 265626 (266358). Müşir Osman Fevzi Pasha to the Ministry of War ([Damascus], 15 July 1909). For an account of similar conflicts between the governor of Damascus and commander of the Fifth Army in the Hamidian period, see Akarlı, “Abdülhamid II’s Attempt,” 82–83.
36. For an account of the repercussions of the revolution in the Arab provinces based on British and American consular sources, see Kedourie, “Impact.”
37. Harran, “Syrian Relations,” 39.
38. PRO. FO 195/2286. Acting Consul Husain to Lowther (Jidda, 25 August 1908).
39. Khalidi, British Policy, 210.
40. HHS. PA 38/341. Zepharovich to Aehrenthal (Jerusalem, 14 August 1908). Ekrem was the son of Namık Kemal, the renowned poet and Young Ottoman activist. According to Zepharovich, he ingratiated himself to Abdülhamid in order to build a career for himself. Ekrem immediately initiated a campaign with an eye to assure the election of anti-CUP candidates in the elections that the new charter called for.
In Benghazi, as in Jerusalem, the CUP leadership consisted of administrative officials and not officers. PRO. FO/371/760/325. Consul Raphael A. Fontana to Sir Edward Grey, no. 13 (Benghazi, 21 December 1908).
41. Reeva S. Simon, “The Education of an Iraqi Ottoman Army Officer,” in Origins of Arab Nationalism, ed. Khalidi et al., 161.
42. Tanin, 19 September 1908.
43. Kedourie approaches these demonstrations with skepticism. See his “Impact,” 134–35.
44. PRO. FO 371/560/36123. Major J. Ramsay to Government of India, no. 93 (Baghdad, 14 September 1908). Enclosure in Lowther to Grey, no. 62 (Therapia, 19 October 1909).
45. MAE. Turquie, N.S. 6. Bertrand to [Ministère des Affaires Etrangères] (Jidda, 24 August 1908).
46. PRO. FO 195/2286. Acting Consul Husain to Lowther (Jidda, 25 August 1908). The report makes particular mention of a local money changer by the name of Ahmed Hazzazi among the leaders of this mob of extraordinary size for a town like Jidda.
47. BBA. DH-SYS 122/5–1. Cemal Bey (?) to the Ministry of the Interior (2 June 1909).
48. PRO. FO 371/560/37930. Devey to Lowther (Damascus, 1 October 1908). Enclosed in Lowther to Grey, no. 697 (Constantinople, 24 October 1908).
49. Tanin, 27 August 1908.
50. PRO. FO 371/560/36123. See note 44.
51. In January 1909, in a speech in Parliament, Kamil Pasha repeated that when he became grand vizier organizations imitating the CUP emerged in the provinces. These organizations, according to Kamil, were devoid of patriotism: they expelled officials and freed criminal prisoners along with political ones. Takvim-i Vekai, 15 January 1909.
52. İsmail Hakkı wrote that the CUP realizes the dangers of constituting a government within a government. See Tanin, 27 August 1908.
53. PRO. FO 195/2286. See note 38.
54. Danişmend, İzahlı, 365.
55. Kamal S. Salibi, “Beirut under the Young Turks: As Depicted in the Political Memoirs of Salim Ali Salam (1868–1938),” in Berque and Chevallier, eds., Les Arabes par leurs archives (Paris: CNRS, 1976), 200. President of the Beirut CUP at the time was Rida al-Maqdisi.
56. On delegation to Beirut, see PRO. FO 371/560/37689. Lowther to Grey, no. 705 (Therapia, 24 October 1908); on Benghazi, PRO. FO 371/760/325 (see note 40); on Damascus, see PRO. FO 618/3. Devey to Lowther, no. 1 (Damascus, 2 January 1909).
57. PRO. FO 371/560/37689. See note 56.
58. PRO. FO 618/3. Devey to Lowther, no. 1 (Damascus, 2 January 1909).
59. Takvim-i Vekai, 1 November 1908.
60. PRO. FO 371/760/325. See note 40.
61. PRO. FO 371/560/37953. Lieutenant-Colonel Ramsay to the Government of India (Baghdad, 19 October 1908). Enclosed in Lowther to Grey, no. 796 (Constantinople, 23 November 1908).
62. BBA. BEO. Vilayet Defterleri 304: “Hicaz gelen,” no. 78; PRO. FO 195/2286. Monahan to Lowther (Jidda, 18 November 1908).
63. MAE. N.S. 6, no. 376. Valdrôme to [Quai d’Orsay ?] (Cairo, 25 November 1908).
64. PRO. FO 618/3. Devey to Lowther, no. 50 (Damascus, 4 October 1909).
65. Kayalı, “Elections,” 268–73.
66. For a contemporary appraisal of the evolution of parties, see Lütfi Fikri, Selanikte Bir Konferans: Bizde Furuk-ı Siyasiye, Hal-i Hazırı, İstikbali (İstanbul, 1326 [1910]). Fikri mentions the CUP’s position in 1908 on p. 35.
67. “Osmanlı İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti’nin 1908 (1324) Senesinde Kabul Edilen Siyasal Programı,” in Tunaya, Türkiye’de Siyasal Partiler, vol. 1, İkinci Meşrutiyet Dönemi (İstanbul: Hürriyet Vakfı Yayınları, 1988), 65.
68. Halil Menteşe, Osmanlı Mebusan Meclisi Reisi Halil Menteşe’nin Anıları, ed. İsmail Arar (İstanbul: Hürriyet Yayınları, 1986), 11.
69. Tanin, 10 September 1908.
70. Tanin, 24 September 1908.
71. Suleiman Mousa, Al-haraka al-‘arabiyya (Beirut: Dar al-nahar, 1970), 26; Tawfiq ‘Ali Burru, Al-‘arab wa al-turk fi al-‘ahd al-dusturi al-‘uthmani, 1908–1914 (Cairo: Jami‘a al-Duwal al-‘Arabiyya, 1960), 109; Antonius, 104. The merits of the methods of calculation and of the substance of the charges will be discussed in the next chapter.
72. The CUP took measures in İstanbul to assure proportional representation to Muslims because the Christian communities, and especially the Greeks, were better organized to secure disproportionately large numbers of deputies for their own communities. See Feroz Ahmad, “Unionist Relations with the Greek, Armenian, and Jewish Communities of the Ottoman Empire, 1908–1914,” in Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire, ed. Benjamin Braude and Bernard Lewis (New York: Holmes and Meier Publishers, 1982), 1:407; Akşin, 106.
73. Prätor, 20.
74. Takvim-i Vekai, 10 February 1909.
75. Reşat Ekrem Koçu, “Türkiye’de Seçimin Tarihi, 1877–1950,” Tarih Dünyası 1 (1950): 181–82.
76. PRO. FO 195/2286. Monahan to Lowther, no. 123 (Jidda, 18 December 1908).
77. Takvim-i Vekai, 21 December 1908.
78. Takvim-i Vekai, 23 December 1908.
79. Demiroğlu, 24; Prätor, 283.
80. Prätor, 278.
81. MMZC, I/1/3 (first term [December 1908–January 1912], first legislative year [December 1908–August 1909], third sitting), 24 December 1908. For al-Mu’ayyad, see also I/1/6, 29 December 1908; Prätor, 52–54; Harran, “Syrian Relations,” 134–35.
82. MMZC, I/1/4, 25 December 1908.
83. The title of the leader of an Arab town’s families that claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammad.
84. He was described by Rashid Rida as a reactionary and a supporter of absolute rule and denounced for his complicity with unlawful elements against the state. Al-manar 11:865 (6 January 1909).
85. Yeni Tasvir-i Efkar, 13 July 1909.
86. Prätor, 54, 258. Cami had served eight to ten years in Libya before becoming kaymakam. Prätor observes that the resignation of the deputy-elect led to reelection in Fezzan but not in Karak.
87. Hüseyin Hatemi, “Tanzimat ve Meşrutiyet Dönemlerinde Derneklerin Gelişimi,” TCTA 1:202.
88. Harran, “Syrian Relations,” 136.
89. Eliezer Tauber, The Emergence of the Arab Movements (London: Frank Cass, 1993), 61.
90. Kedourie, “Political Parties in the Arab World,” in Memoirs, 41.
91. See Taj el-Sir Ahmad Harran, “The Young Turks and the Arabs: The Role of Arab Societies in the Turkish-Arab Relations in the Period 1908–1914,” in Türk-Arap İlişkileri: (Ankara: Hacettepe Üniversitesi Türkiye ve Orta Doğu Araştırma Enstitüsü, [1980]), 182–85.
92. HHS. PA 12/197, fol. 97, “Le Comité Syrien,” 25 December 1908.
93. Burru cites his article (p. 92) in Correspondance d’Orient, 15 January 1909.
94. Due to cultural and political interests in Syria, France was likely to have supported the Syrian Committee. It seems, however, that the Committee was not simply an organ of the French government. In April 1909 the Syrian Committee engaged in pro-autonomy propaganda in Iraq and alarmed the French consulate in Baghdad, which viewed the possible outcome of such propaganda not as autonomy but independence under a British protectorate. (MAE. Turquie, N.S. 6. Rouet to [İstanbul ?], no. 17 (Baghdad, 1 April 1909).
95. Takvim-i Vekai, 18 January 1909.
96. PRO. FO 618/3. Devey to Lowther, no. 7, “Rashid B. Moutran’s proposal for the independence of Syria,” (Damascus, 21 January 1909).
97. Takvim-i Vekai, 20 January 1909.
98. Takvim-i Vekai, 18 and 19 January 1909 (MMZC, I/1/13, 14 and 16 January 1909).
99. Takvim-i Vekai, 18 January 1909.
100. The name occurs as Hasan Rushdi in the parliamentary proceedings. This appears to be a mistake, as there was no Beiruti deputy by this name. It is evident, however, that the remarks do belong to one of the Beiruti deputies, and in all likelihood, to Rushdi al-Sham‘a. Takvim-i Vekai, 19 January 1909.
101. He spoke with specific reference to a telegram by Ahmad al-Sham‘a, a member of the Damascus administrative council, who implicated the entire Mutran family.
102. Prätor, 210, 278.
103. Burru, 93.
104. Harran, “Syrian Relations,” 145.
105. Prätor, 41–42.
106. Ibid., 41.
107. Takvim-i Vekai, 26 January 1909 (MMZC, I/1/16, 21 January 1909).
108. Takvim-i Vekai, 16 February 1909 (MMZC, I/1/25, 9 February 1909).
109. Takvim-i Vekai, 18 January 1909 (MMZC, I/1/13, 14 January 1909).
110. Takvim-i Vekai, 17 and 18 January 1908 (MMZC, I/1/13, 14 January 1909); Prätor, 104.
111. The matter was shelved until the interpellation of the minister of education and does not seem to have been taken up again. Takvim-i Vekai, 17 February 1909 (MMZC, I/1/26, 11 February 1909).
112. See also Prätor, 162.
113. See Akşin, 124–30; Ahmad, Young Turks, 40–47. There are different interpretations of this incident. Ahmad and Akşin assign the responsibility largely to the Liberal opposition supported by the British Embassy in İstanbul. Danişmend sees it as a scheme of the CUP designed to discredit the old regime and enhance its own powers (31 Mart Vakası [İstanbul: İstanbul Kitabevi, 1986], 109–10), as does a contemporary observer Mehmed Selahaddin in İttihad ve Terakki’nin Kuruluşu ve Osmanlı Devleti’nin Yıkılışı Hakkında Bildiklerim (İstanbul: İnkilab, 1989), 30. A less than scholarly treatment of the event presents it as a CUP-Jewish-dönme conspiracy. Cevat Rıfat Atılhan, Bütün Çıplaklığıyla 31 Mart Faciası (İstanbul: Aykurt, 1959).
114. BBA. BEO 266358 (265626). The Grand Vizierate to the Ministries of War and Finance (19 May 1909).
115. PRO. FO 195/2320. Monahan to Lowther, no. 47 (Jidda, 8 May 1909).
116. BBA. BEO 266818. [Governor ?] to the Grand Vizierate (Baghdad, 15 April 1909).
117. Khalidi, British Policy, 211; Commins, “Religious Reformers,” 416–17.
118. BBA. BEO 265948. Governor Nazım [to the Grand Vizierate] (10 May 1909). Reproduced in Birinci, 251.
119. BBA. BEO 266303. Grand Vizier to the Ministry of War (15 May 1909).
120. His brother Hikmat Sulayman served as prime minister of Iraq in the 1930s.
121. Feroz Ahmad, Young Turks, 49, 66.
122. Ibid., 52–53. Talat was a self-made statesman who came from a lower-middle-class, provincial background (a postal employee in Edirne) and rose to become grand vizier during World War I. He had a less flamboyant personality than other prominent CUP leaders like Enver and Cemal, but emerged as the Committee’s strongman in the capital, thanks to his political skills. Cavid was the son of a Salonika family also of modest means, but he was able to build on a career in the Mülkiye (where he later taught) to emerge as the indispensable economic virtuoso of the CUP.
123. Carter V. Findley, Bureaucratic Reform in the Ottoman Empire (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980), 294–95.
124. AA. Türkei 142/Bd. 31–32. Marschall to Bülow, no. 196 (Therapia, 3 September 1908).
125. Birinci, 25; Hatemi, 207; Tunaya, Türkiye’de Siyasal Partiler, vol. 1, İkinci Meşrutiyet Dönemi, 206–7.
126. BBA. BEO 262881 (262357, 264987). Governor to the Minister of the Interior (31 January 1909).
127. BBA. BEO 263720 (262357). Governor to the Minister of the Interior (9 February 1909).
128. BBA. BEO 262881 (262357). Grand Vizierate to the Presidency of the Council of State (30 March 1909).
129. Khalidi, British Policy, 204.
130. “1908 (1324) Kongresi Kararları,” in Tunaya, Türkiye’de Siyasal Partiler, 1:65.
131. Ergin, 4:1274.
132. Tanin, 25 October 1909.
133. Tanin, 8 November 1909.
134. Tanin, 26 March 1910.
135. Takvim-i Vekai, 14 January 1909. All provincial government employees earning a salary of 300 kuruş or above were encouraged to subscribe to the official paper of the province to support its publication.
136. BBA. BEO 258601. Minister of the Interior to the Grand Vizierate, no. 4392 (10 February 1909).
137. Rushdi al-Sham‘a (Damascus) proposed the appointment of itinerant teachers for the tribes in this area. Takvim-i Vekai, 17 February 1909 (MMZC, I/1/26, 11 February 1909). Also of interest is Rushdi Bey’s suggestion that the salaries of five preachers who had been sent to the region but had proved useless should be paid instead to teachers to be appointed. See also Prätor, 174.
138. BBA. BEO 269189 (258601). Ministry of the Interior [to the Grand Vizier] (4 July 1909).
139. Tanin, 16 October 1909.
140. Tanin, 25 October 1909.
141. Tanin, 4 September 1908.
142. Danişmend, İzahlı, 368.
143. Yeni Tasvir-i Efkar, 29 June 1909.
144. Tasvir-i Efkar, 13 June 1909.
145. During a discussion of disturbances in Hawran, a motion by the sancak’s only deputy, Sa‘d al-Din al-Khalil, was dismissed because those on the floor were unable to understand his imperfect Turkish. Takvim-i Vekai, 30 January 1909 (MMZC, I/1/17, 23 January 1909) and 31 January 1909 (MMZC, I/1/18, 26 January 1909).