Aziz Ali al-Misri

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ʿAziz ʿAli al-Misri (3rd from right) among political and religious figures at a reception in 1947.

Abd al-ʿAziz ʿAli al-Misri , known as Aziz Ali al-Misri ( Arabic عزيز علي المصري, DMG ʿAziz ʿAli al-Miṣri ; * 1879 in Cairo ; † June 15, 1965 in Cairo), was an officer in the Ottoman and Egyptian armies and was one of the leading moderate activists of the Arab nationalist movement before and during the First World War . He was a co-founder of the secret societies al-Qahtaniyya and al-Ahd .

Origin and family

Abd al-Aziz Ali al-Misri was born in Cairo in 1879. It got its name in honor of the Ottoman sultan Abdülaziz . During his training at the military academy, he shortened his name to Aziz Ali . Aziz Ali's family was of Arab- Circassian origin. His great-grandfather was a merchant from Basra who settled in the Caucasus and married a Circassian. Aziz Ali's father, Sheikh Ali, left the Caucasus after the Russo-Ottoman War (1877–1878) and then lived in Istanbul and later in Cairo , where he was nicknamed al-Misri (Arabic for 'the Egyptian').

Life

Early years

Aziz Ali's parents died early and so he grew up with his older sister. After graduating from high school, he began studying law. A year later, he applied to the military academy in Cairo, where he was rejected because he was too short. In 1898 he was enrolled in the Ottoman Military Academy in Istanbul. There he received his degree in 1901 and then attended the Ottoman Staff Academy until 1904 .

Officer in the Ottoman Army

After completing his military training, he became a staff officer in the 3rd Army in Macedonia and was involved in the fight against brigands . During this time he joined the Committee on Unity and Progress . In 1906 he was arrested for publicly insulting his commander, Tatar Osman Pasha . He supported the Young Turkish Revolution in 1908 as commander of the Üsküp region . After the revolution he was stationed in Smyrna , but was soon transferred to the Balkans because of his brutal approach to counter revolts. He was involved in the suppression of the anti-Young Turk revolt in Istanbul in April 1909 (known as the March 31st Incident ).

Aziz Ali complained in vain to the leadership of the Committee for Unity and Progress about the appointment of his former superior, who has now been promoted to Marshal, Osman Pasha as commander of the 5th Army in Damascus , to whom he attributed anti-Arab resentment. His persistent behavior led to the fact that he was now under the surveillance of the Ottoman security service.

Out of disappointment with the Young Turkish leadership, he founded the secret society al-Qahtaniyya (named after Qahtan , the legendary ancestor of the Arabs) in Istanbul at the end of 1909, together with Salim al-Jazairi , Khalil Hamada and Abd al-Hamid al-Zahrawi , which campaigned for the Equality between Arabs and Turks in the Ottoman Empire began. Most of its members were Arab officers in the Ottoman army. The company's activity peaked in 1910, after which it disintegrated without being formally dissolved.

From 1910 to 1911 Aziz Ali was chief of staff of the Ottoman expedition army of Izzet Pasha , which fought the uprising of Imam Yahya in Yemen. The uprising was ended by the Treaty of Daan on October 9, 1911. Aziz Ali played a key role in the conclusion of the contract.

Aziz Ali volunteered in the Italo-Turkish War and was Commander-in-Chief of the Benghazi region . Due to the looming war in the Balkans , the Ottoman Empire was forced to make peace with Italy and, in the Treaty of Lausanne of October 18, 1912, undertook to withdraw all Ottoman troops and officials from the Libyan provinces. The commander-in-chief of the Ottoman forces in Cyrenaica , Enver Bey , decided to continue the resistance against Italy, but left Libya in late 1912 and transferred the command to Aziz Ali. In June 1913 Aziz Ali left Libya with part of his army on his own initiative, which resulted in a skirmish with the Allied Order of Senussi , which accused him of allowing himself to be bribed by the Italians. The incident was examined benevolently by the Ottoman Minister of War and his former superior Izzet Pasha and was not followed up.

After returning from Libya, Aziz Ali and other Arab officers from the Ottoman army, such as Yasin al-Haschimi , Taha al-Haschimi and Nuri as-Saʿid , founded the secret society al-Ahd ('the Federation'). The purpose of the organization was to transform the Ottoman Empire into a dual state consisting of a Turkish and an Arab sub-state.

Aziz Ali's activities at al-Ahd were known to the Ottoman security service. Aziz Ali left the Ottoman Army in January 1914 after the Minister of War Ismail Enver wanted to transfer him to Ankara to remove him from the capital. On February 9, 1914, he was arrested and placed under arrest. Refusing to publicly admit that there was an anti-Young Turkish organization made up of Ottoman officers, Aziz Ali was tried in a military tribunal on March 25 on suspicion of criminal activity during his service in Cyrenaica and sentenced to death in mid-April . Due to his successes in Yemen and Libya, Aziz Ali had a good reputation in the Arab world. There were numerous protests by Arab dignitaries - especially from Egypt - and Arab officers of the Ottoman army against his arrest and conviction, which continued when the sentence was changed by the Ottoman sultan to 15 years imprisonment. Following intervention by the British government, Aziz Ali was given an amnesty on April 21 and deported to Egypt.

First World War

At the beginning of the First World War , Aziz Ali contacted the British officials in Egypt and unsuccessfully suggested that they organize an Arab revolt in Iraq and Syria under his leadership.

With British support, the Emir of Mecca , Hussein bin Ali , revolted against Ottoman rule (→ Arab revolt ) in the Hejaz in June 1916 . Apart from his bodyguards, Hussein only had untrained warriors available, whom he recruited from the surrounding tribes. In order to be able to hold their own against the Ottoman armed forces, the British urged Hussein to entrust Aziz Ali with the organization of a regular army. Hussein did not agree with the plan to set up a regular army, nor did he consider Aziz Ali trustworthy because of his Young Turkish past. Aziz Ali, who campaigned for the autonomy of the Arabs within the Ottoman Empire, but disagreed with Hussein's efforts to separate himself, had reservations. Under British pressure, Hussein appointed Aziz Ali as Chief of Staff of the Arab Army in October 1916. Aziz Ali began to organize a regular army, later, due to the lack of volunteers, planned to set up a small, mobile armed force consisting of light camel riders to carry out guerrilla actions. This plan was rejected by Hussein and his sons, but was later taken up by TE Lawrence . Due to a lack of support, Aziz Ali threatened to leave for Egypt in mid-November 1916. Ronald Storrs convinced Hussein to give Aziz Ali the necessary powers, so that on December 14, 1916 he was appointed Minister of War of the Kingdom of Hejaz . During the attack on the Ottoman-occupied city of Medina on January 21, 1917, an incident occurred that led to the removal of Aziz Ali. There are different versions of the details. He is said to have intended to overflow with his troop contingent to the Ottomans during the attack, which is why the attack was canceled by Ali, Hussein's eldest son. In another depiction, Aziz Ali is said to have called off the attack when the Arab army was on the verge of defeating the Ottomans. Even before the official announcement of his deposition, he left the Hejaz for Egypt on February 21, 1917.

Aziz Ali intended to leave Egypt and offer his services to the German Empire . However, the British prevented him from leaving for Switzerland, from where he wanted to travel on to Germany. Instead, he traveled to Madrid in January 1918 . In April 1918 he contacted the German secret service and the German diplomatic mission abroad. His wishes to be employed in the German General Staff or to take over a command post were not granted. Aziz Ali received monthly subsidies , but remained without a function in Spain until the end of the First World War .

Post-war years

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Information about the years 1918-1927 is completely missing, at the time after that until his death there are no details or documents.
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From 1927 to 1936 he was director of the police school in Cairo. In 1938 he became General Inspector and in 1939 Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Army. Because of his sympathy for the Axis powers , the British obtained his discharge from the military in 1940. He was caught and interned when attempting to defection to the Axis powers in Libya in 1941, but released the following year. He supported the Free Officers Movement in their preparation for the 1952 revolution. From 1953 to 1954 he was ambassador to Moscow.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Tauber, Eliezer: The Emergence of the Arab Movements. London 1993. p. 215
  2. ^ Tauber, Eliezer: The Emergence of the Arab Movements. London 1993. pp. 215-216
  3. ^ Tauber, Eliezer: The Emergence of the Arab Movements. London 1993. p. 217
  4. ^ Tauber, Eliezer: The Emergence of the Arab Movements. London 1993. pp. 98-99.
  5. ^ Tauber, Eliezer: The Emergence of the Arab Movements. London 1993. p. 213
  6. ^ Tauber, Eliezer: The Emergence of the Arab Movements. London 1993. p. 100
  7. ^ Tauber, Eliezer: The Emergence of the Arab Movements. London 1993. p. 217
  8. ↑ Farah, Caesar E .: The Sultan's Yemen. Nineteenth-Century Challenges to Ottoman Rule. London 2002. p. 271.
  9. ↑ Simon, Rachel: Libya between Ottomanism and Nationalism. The Ottoman Involvement in Libya during the War with Italy (1911-1919). Berlin 1987. p. 149.
  10. ↑ Simon, Rachel: Libya between Ottomanism and Nationalism. The Ottoman Involvement in Libya during the War with Italy (1911-1919). Berlin 1987. p. 120.
  11. ↑ Simon, Rachel: Libya between Ottomanism and Nationalism. The Ottoman Involvement in Libya during the War with Italy (1911-1919). Berlin 1987. p. 153.
  12. ^ Tauber, Eliezer: The Arab Movements in World War I. London 1993. pp. 7-8.
  13. ^ Tauber, Eliezer: The Emergence of the Arab Movements. London 1993. p. 224
  14. ^ Tauber, Eliezer: The Emergence of the Arab Movements. London 1993. pp. 226-231
  15. ^ Tauber, Eliezer: The Arab Movements in World War I. London 1993. pp. 83-87.
  16. ^ Tauber, Eliezer: The Arab Movements in World War I. London 1993. pp. 91-92.
  17. ^ Tauber, Eliezer: The Arab Movements in World War I. London 1993. P. 94.
  18. ^ Tauber, Eliezer: The Arab Movements in World War I. London 1993. pp. 95-96.
  19. ^ Tauber, Eliezer: The Arab Movements in World War I. London 1993. pp. 97-98.
  20. ^ Tauber, Eliezer: The Arab Movements in World War I. London 1993. P. 98.
  21. ^ Tauber, Eliezer: The Arab Movements in World War I. London 1993. pp. 99-100.
personal data
SURNAME Misri, Aziz Ali al-
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Misri, Abd al-Aziz Ali al- (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Officer in the Ottoman and Egyptian armies
DATE OF BIRTH 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Cairo
DATE OF DEATH June 15, 1965
Place of death Cairo