TURNING POINT OF TURKISH-ARAB RELATIONS: A CASE STUDY ON THE HIJAZ REVOLT

Abstract

This article aims at providing an historical analysis of the Hijaz Revolt (1916) which was led by the Emir of Mecca Sharif Husayn against the Ottoman Empire and which can be considered the turning point of Turkish-Arab relations in the 20 th century. The main argument of this article is that although it opened a new phase in the course of Turkish-Arab relations and was marked as a traumatic moment in the social memory of the Turkish people, the Hijaz Revolt does not represent an overvvhelming expression of an Arab or Islamic sentiment against the Ottoman Empire. It was rather a local reaction which took advantage of the general state of the Great War and the imperialist designs of the British in the Middle East, and which used the religion as an instrument to legitimise itself in the eyes of the Islamic world. KEYVVORDS Hijaz Revolt, Turkish-Arab relations, World War I, the Ottoman Empire, British imperialism in the Middle East. 98 THE TURKISH YEARBOOK [VOL. XXXVII