Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Revolt in Arabia (1917).djvu/46

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III

SHEREEF AND CALIPH

ASSUMING that the "robber raiders" of the Turkish-German despatch and the Shereef of Mecca, referred to in the Reuter telegram are one and the same person, and that, accordingly, Shereef Husein, Emir of Mecca, has raised his standard against the Turkish domination, then the question arises, "What does the Shereef mean by his opposition?"

Various writers on Islam have commented on the impropriety, according to Mohammedan law itself, of the assumption of the title of "Caliph" by the Sultan of Turkey. It was, indeed, for more than nine centuries, regarded by

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