Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Revolt in Arabia (1917).djvu/50

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
The Revolt in Arabia
33

these visions were often big with ambition.

How completely at odds the Caliphate idea is with modern international relations appeared when the Turkish Government, seduced by its alliance with Germany, brought it to the fore, anew. The first outward and visible sign of the renaissance of the Caliphate was the declaration of the "Holy War," accompanied by an appeal to all the Mohammedans in the world to participate therein, irrespective of the political authority they were bound to obey. Next came a series of official and officious publications, all based on the hypothesis that the Turkish Sultan-Caliph is the man who, under all circumstances, controls the political policy of the Mohammedans.

Taking all these points into consideration, it becomes hardly needful to reply to the question as to how the Shereef of