[Ottoman AH] - How integral were the Arab provinces?

See above. With the prestige exception of holding down the 3 Holy Cities, did the Ottomans benefit much from having the Arab portions of their empire around? They were some of the most lightly populated regions of the empire historically, had a lot of tribal issues and rebellions and weren't particularly wealthy as far as I can tell. If the Ottomans had lost Libya, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Hejaz and Yemen far earlier than IRL, would they have really been stymied all that much in WW1?
 

CaliGuy

Banned
See above. With the prestige exception of holding down the 3 Holy Cities, did the Ottomans benefit much from having the Arab portions of their empire around? They were some of the most lightly populated regions of the empire historically, had a lot of tribal issues and rebellions and weren't particularly wealthy as far as I can tell. If the Ottomans had lost Libya, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Hejaz and Yemen far earlier than IRL, would they have really been stymied all that much in WW1?
They would have almost certainly had less manpower to fight with; thus, at least in that regard, Yes, they would have been stymied.
 
They would have almost certainly had less manpower to fight with; thus, at least in that regard, Yes, they would have been stymied.
I mean, I know that as much as 30% of the World War I Ottoman junior officer corps hailed from Arab regions, and that supposedly the same percentage extended to the Ottoman military of the time (which numbered 3 million during the war and therefore made the Arab contingent roughly 900,000 men). That said, the Ottoman army was conscription based and I find it hard to believe that Caucasian, Crimean, Kurdish or Turkish Muslims wouldn't have made up the percentage.
 

CaliGuy

Banned
and I find it hard to believe that Caucasian, Crimean, Kurdish or Turkish Muslims wouldn't have made up the percentage.
Out of those four categories, though, only #3 and #4 were actually under Turkish rule and thus capable of being enlisted into the Ottoman Army.

Also, even if the Ottoman Army would have been able to get the same numbers through more thorough conscription, it would have also had a smaller manpower reserve pool in the event that things would have gone bad.
 
Out of those four categories, though, only #3 and #4 were actually under Turkish rule and thus capable of being enlisted into the Ottoman Army.
I know, but the Ottoman Empire accepted a large number of migrations from those regions during the Ottoman-Russian wars. Most of those peoples were settled in what are now Arab countries due to their lower population density. For example, Amman (the capital of Jordan) was reestablished by Circassian migrants, and Jordan has the largest Chechen community outside of Chechnya.
 
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