Why did the Ottoman empire proclaim Jihad in November 1914 and
who was the proclamation’s genuine author? Did the impetus come from
Kaiser Wilhelm ii, the German emperor, whose faith in Jihad stemmed
from the desire to undermine Berlin’s rival empires, Britain, France,
and Russia, who all ruled over large Muslim populations? Or did the
proclamation originate with the Ottomans themselves and, perhaps more
specifically, with the leaders of the Committee of Union and Progress, the
men who ruled the empire during World War i? In truth, the proclamation
had both German and Ottoman origins. In this chapter, I focus on the
latter, to examine Ottoman uses of Jihad both before and after November
1914.
