In Search of Arab Unity: 1930-1945

385 Pages·2014·7.706 MB·English

by  Yehoshua Porath

IN SEARCH OF ARAB UNITY
by the same author
The Emergence of the Palestinian Arab National
Movement Vol. I 1918-1929
The Palestinian Arab National Movement: From Riots
to Rebellion Vol. II 1929-1939
IN SEARCH OF
A R A B U N IT Y
1930-1945
YEHOSHUA PORATH
| J Routledge
Taylor &. Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 1986 by
FRANK CASS AND COMPANY LIMITED
Published 2013 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon 0X14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY, 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
Copyright © 1986 Y. Porath
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Porath, Yehoshua
In search of Arab unity 1930-1945.
1. Arab countries—Politics and government
I. Title
320.917’4927 JQ1850.A3
ISBN 13: 978-0-714-63264-3 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-714-64051-8 (pbk)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Typeset by Williams Graphics, Abergele, North Wales
CONTENTS
Foreword vii
1 Hashemite Attempts at Fertile Crescent Unity l
FaysaPs Syrian initiatives 4
‘Abdallah’s Greater Syria project 22
Nuri al-Sa‘id’s initiative 39
2 The Ever-Present Panacea - Arab Federation as a
Solution to the Palestine Question 58
Jewish proposals 58
Arab initiatives 69
Unofficial British demarches 72
The Philby Scheme, or the proposed Saudi-led federation 80
Official British thinking 106
3 The Rise of Political Pan-Arabism 149
Pan-Arabism in Egypt 149
Pan-Arabism in the Fertile Crescent 159
The effect of the Palestine Arab Rebellion 162
The growth of cultural co-operation 175
Improvement of inter-Arab relations 179
The effects of the early years of the Second World War 185
4 British Policy Regarding Pan-Arabism 197
British reaction to FaysaPs initiative 197
Britain and ‘Abdallah’s Greater Syria project 203
British reaction to Nuri al-Sa‘id’s initiative 216
British attitude to Pan-Arabism 223
5 The Formation of the Arab League 257
The impact of Eden’s February 1943 statement: the inter-Arab
consultations 257
From the consultations to the Preparatory Committee 267
The formation of the Arab League 284
British attitude: the final stage 290
British policy in the Middle East: image versus reality;
London versus ‘the men on the spot’ 303
Conclusions 312
Notes 320
Bibliography 361
Index 366
IN MEMORY OF
YOSSEF LUNTZ,
A GREAT MAN
FOREWORD
The aim of this book is to analyse the interaction among three factors: Arab
attempts, whether dynastical, political or ideological-cultural, to promote
their unity; various endeavours to find a solution to the Palestine problem
within a framework of Arab unity; and British policy regarding the two
factors. The analysis covers the Arab countries of Asia, Palestine and Egypt,
where the political and ideological developments analysed in the book took
place. It is by no means a comprehensive political or ideological history of
those countries; on the contrary, it assumes a certain amount of knowledge
of them.
The description and analysis begin in about 1930 since in that year Iraq
got its formal independence. Thus its ruler could pursue, much more vig­
orously than in the past, his policy of Arab unity. For many Arab nationalists
Iraq had by then become the potential engine of pan-Arabism, a possible
Piedmont of Arab Unity. The formation of the Arab League in 1945 was
the culmination of all those factors under discussion.
British and Jewish archival source-material is the main fountainhead of
information. I am well aware of the great disadvantage caused by my inability
to consult Arab source-material. I tried my best to minimise the damage by
drawing heavily upon memoirs of Arab statesmen and the press. I hope that
one day this discrepancy will be made good. Until then my conclusions cannot
be regarded as final even by myself.
During the preparation of this book I got financial support for the
collection of the source-material from the Davis Institute, the Truman
Institute and the Research Fund of the Faculty of Humanities, all at the
Hebrew University, Jerusalem. I gladly acknowledge my deep gratitude to
them all.
The Hebrew University, Jerusalem YEHOSHUA PORATH
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1
Hashemite Attempts at Fertile
Crescent Unity
From its inception in 1930 the new Iraqi state was in an ambivalent
position: on the one hand, it was apprehensive of most of its neighbours,
and on the other, it was bound to the Arab World and the Mediterranean
through Syria. Persia, since the establishment at the end of the fifteenth
century of the strong Safawi-Shi‘ite dynasty had been a persistent enemy
of the Ottoman Empire, which had annexed Iraq from the Safawis in
1534. Since then the boundary between these two empires along the Shatt
al-‘Arab river had been a permanent bone of contention. Usually when
the Ottomans were engaged in a war on their western or northern frontiers
the Persians would use the opportunity to encroach upon Ottoman
dominions in Iraq, until they were strong enough to regain control of
what the Persians grabbed. The fact that the Shi‘a Holy Places of Najaf,
Karbala and al-Kazimayn were located in Iraq under Ottoman-Sunni rule
formed a steady source of friction.
This basic situation did not change essentially with the dissolution of
the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War. From a Persian
point of view nothing was altered as far as the boundary and the Holy
Places were concerned, with the substitution of the Ottoman Sunni rule
by an Arab-Hashemite Iraqi rule which was Sunni too.1 From an Iraqi
angle if there was a change it was for the worse. Persian pilgrims continued
to visit their Holy Places, but now the new Iraqi ruler was much weaker
than the Ottoman Sultan. The new Iraqi monarch was afraid lest
the more rigorous Pahlevi ruler should exploit the existence of the Holy
Places and the rights of the pilgrims to press various political demands
upon Iraq. Iraq continued to claim the validity of the provision of the
old Ottoman-Persian treaty which had conferred upon the former full
rights of sovereignty over both banks of the Shatt al-‘Arab river and
brought the matter before the League of Nations.2
Iraqi Shi‘ites looked towards Persia (Iran since 1935) for guidance,
inspiration and protection. Some of the co-religionists of Persia, including
schoolteachers, regarded themselves as Persians. At times they expressed
loyalty to Persia or propagated the desirability of Persia taking over the
Iraqi mandate from Britain. Such manifestations of attachment to Persia
only increased the suspicions of Iraqi authorities towards the Persian
ISAU-A*