That would make sense. If you are commiting heinous actions in pursuit of your perceived interest, some sort of religious legitimacy to such actions comes handy and welcome (Islamic religious war laws would not, in general, condone the actions in question in the pursuit of military Jihad: civilians in warfare are legally protected - but this is immaterial from that perspective).
Why was the Sultan's Jihad not heeded?
- Thread starter Qhapaq Inka
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That would make sense. If you are commiting heinous actions in pursuit of your perceived interest, some sort of religious legitimacy to such actions comes handy and welcome (Islamic religious war laws would not, in general, condone the actions in question in the pursuit of military Jihad: civilians in warfare are legally protected - but this is immaterial from that perspective).
The idea was quite daft (as proven by the fact that its biggest supporter was Wilhelm II), and could not be implemented with any hope of success just by issuing a firman out of the blue: it should have been prepared over a number of years, if not decades, and primed with very significant amount of money and preachers. The Germans made some efforts to disseminate the news of the call to jiadh, and they were more or less active in Persia and Afghanistan, as well as in Sudan and in a minor way in Egypt too. It was an operation carried out on a string budget and with very few operatives: the results were pretty scarce.
Even in the Caucasus (which was an historical area for the Ottomans to send preachers) the jihad never got much traction.
The three main Arab tribal groups (in Syria, Hejaz and Najd) were more interested in getting subsidies in money and arms from both the Ottomans and the British than in participating in a jiadh. The biggest bonanza for the Bedouins of Hejaz came when the Ottomans started to buy camels to support their badly planned attack against the Suez canal, and at the same time the British were paying subsidies to them.
By comparison in 1914 the king of England ruled on the largest number of Muslims in the world, and two mainstays of English policy was to ensure safety of navigation in the Red sea as well as adequate supply of foodstuff to Jeddah for the needs of the Haji (and in a lesser way to support Shi'a Indians who went in pilgrimage to the sanctuaries in Basra province and very often sent their dead there for burial).
Even in the Caucasus (which was an historical area for the Ottomans to send preachers) the jihad never got much traction.
The three main Arab tribal groups (in Syria, Hejaz and Najd) were more interested in getting subsidies in money and arms from both the Ottomans and the British than in participating in a jiadh. The biggest bonanza for the Bedouins of Hejaz came when the Ottomans started to buy camels to support their badly planned attack against the Suez canal, and at the same time the British were paying subsidies to them.
By comparison in 1914 the king of England ruled on the largest number of Muslims in the world, and two mainstays of English policy was to ensure safety of navigation in the Red sea as well as adequate supply of foodstuff to Jeddah for the needs of the Haji (and in a lesser way to support Shi'a Indians who went in pilgrimage to the sanctuaries in Basra province and very often sent their dead there for burial).
Back in the early 20th-century, as with today, the majority of the world's Muslim population lived in Southeast Asia and the Indian Subcontinent. The Russian Empire, for its part, had more Muslims under its rule than the Ottoman Empire itself on the eve of WWI. So the majority of the world's Muslims actually lived under colonial empires or more traditional multinational empires like the Russian Empire (which it should be noted was fairly accommodating to its Muslim subjects), not in the Sublime Porte which was reduced to a fraction of its former territory on the eve of the Great War.
It did, however, occupy the supremely important and prestigious Two Holy Mosques of Makkah and Madinah (Mecca and Medina in the Anglicized form) as well as Jerusalem and the lesser-mentioned but intensely important city of Karbala, which is a tremendously important city to adherents of the Twelver Shi'a sect of Islam.
That said, the whole Caliphate thing, as others have mentioned, was not always taken terribly seriously. The House of Osman's claim was mostly on the basis of controlling the Two Holy Mosques, beyond that, unless I'm mistaken, they didn't really have any really valid argument based on succession to the Prophet or descent from Muhammad's family.
Interestingly enough, Wilhelm II thought that the Tsar of Russia can legally declare a Jihad because he, too, is the Emperor of millions of Muslims. Back when Germany and Russia were still semi-friendly, he hoped that Tsar Nicholas II might be persuaded to launch a Jihad against British rule in India (in case the Ottoman Sultan doesn't want to). Which really says more about Wilhelm II than about the hypothetical Romanov Caliphate or whatever, but still...
There did seem to be a certain degree of fondness in Europe for Islam at the time and it got even moreso after WWI.
Kind of kooky when you think about it compared to Europe today.
It was bullshit of course. As you point out, it says more about Willy than anything.