Winning a Cause: World War StoriesThompson, John G. (John Gilbert)
History
Winning a Cause: World War Stories
Thompson, John G. (John Gilbert)
Readers -- History; Readers -- World War, 1914-1918
Why did the Kaiser love the Sultan and Kalif so greatly? Perhaps
because they were kindred spirits. It certainly could not be because
of Abdul Hamid's knowledge and intellectual power, for he was very
ignorant, and not at all the type of mind that would impress a German.
He was very superstitious and suspicious, always fearing attempts upon
his life. A lot of books on chemistry, imported by an American
missionary, were seized by the Turkish customs officers because they
claimed they were intended to injure the Sultan. When the missionary
asked for an explanation, the officer opened one of the books and
pointed to the expression H[subscript 2]O, which occurred very
frequently in it. Now H[subscript 2]O is the chemical symbol for water
and means that two atoms of hydrogen unite with one atom of oxygen to
form one molecule of water. However, Abdul Hamid, or his officers,
believed that H stood for Hamid, 2 for II, and O for nothing, and that
H[subscript 2]O was a secret way of saying to the Christians in Turkey,
"Abdul Hamid II is nothing."
It is also said that Constantinople was lighted only by gas long after
electric lights were used in other large cities, because "the red
Sultan," as he was also often called on account of his bloody deeds,
would allow neither dynamite nor dynamos to be brought into the city
where he lived. He knew of the destructive power of dynamite and could
never be made to believe that a dynamo was not equally to be feared!
The German Kaiser was not charmed by the brilliancy and the
intelligence of the "Great Assassin." He may have admired his deeds
but he probably loved him for what he thought he could get out of him
and his country. It seems clear now that even in 1889, at the
beginning of his reign, William II began to plan a Greater Germany and
possibly World Domination. Certainly he soon dreamed of a German
Middle Europe reaching from the North Sea to the Persian Gulf and
crossed from Berlin to Bagdad by a German controlled railroad. It
seems too that he realized he must have Turkey as an ally and that to
accomplish his ends, he might possibly be obliged to bring about a Holy
War with all the Mohammedan world fighting the Christian. The
Mohammedans considered the Kaiser one of themselves and referred to him
as "His Islamic Majesty." In the World War he attempted to cause this
Holy War but failed because the Mohammedans in Arabia did not recognize
the Sultan of Turkey as Kalif. The two holy cities of the Mohammedans
in Arabia are Mecca where the prophet, Mohammed, was born and Medina
where he died. Whoever rules over these cities is the Mohammedan
Kalif. When the Kaiser attempted to bring on a Holy War, the Arabians
joined the Allies, founded the independent kingdom of Hedjaz, and
recognized its king as the Kalif.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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