Turkey in Asia - Handbooks Prepared under the Direction of the Historical Section of the Foreign Office - No. 58

The declassified second edition with a new Editorial Note by G.W. Prothero dated January 1920. Original printed green wraps with green cloth spine 14x21cm. (4), 18pp. Fine, faded at the edges of the upper wrap. This reproduces the text of the confidential first edition, prepared for the British Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. No authors are indicated, but it was a collective effort, with the series edited by Prothero, formerly Director of the Historical Section, which had been established purposely by the Foreign Office. This opens with a timeline from the zenith of the Seljuk Empire in 1072 up to Ibn Saud's expulsion of the Turks from Hasa and Eastern Arabia in 1913. The authors define Turkey in Asia as the northwestern third ("the only part which is generally Turkish in feeling") and the southern half ("almost entirely Arab, identifies itself very imperfectly with Osmanli tradition and hope"). In this context, they cover the origin and development of the Ottoman Empire; relations between Provinces and the Porte distinguishing independent states and the growing power of Dere Beys (local families or "valley lords"); and centralisation of government in Anatolia, and in Syria and Arabia under Mehemet Ali and Ibrahim. A discussion of Abdul Hamid's Asiatic policy covers Arabia from 1841, Iraq, the Bedouin and Kurds. The section on Arabia features Ibn Saud, events around the Holy Cities and the Hejaz Railway, Najd, Yemen, Kuwait, and Qatar. The section on Iraq and its borderlands examines why the Ottomans were unable to exert the same level of control they did over Syria. The Bedouin and Kurdish problems relate to regions to the north and south of the Mesopotamian steppe, and Abdul Hamid's success in dealing with them. Another section looks at the origins of anti-Ottoman nationalism which developed in Syria, Beirut, Basrah and Baghdad facilitated by the Young Turks. The authors conclude: "The Bedouin element does not desire any government; the Shiahs do not desire a Sunni government, no one except perhaps some Kurds wants to be ruled by the Turks; but all desire to be ruled by Moslems". A final section looks at impacts and likely responses of other groups including Christian communities, Jews, and flags the impact of the establishment of a Zionist home in Palestine. …