The Last Sultan to Have the Power to Officially Declare Jihad: Mehmed V.

Key Dates:

Born: 2 November 1844

Reign Began: 27 April 1909

Young Turk Revolution: 1908

German and Ottoman Empire sign a treaty: 2ne August 1914

Declared jihad: 11 November 1914

Made Generalfeldmarschall of the Kingdom of Prussia: 27 January 1916

Died: 3 July 1918

Biography and Legacy:

Mehmed V was the 35th Ottoman Sultan. Mehmad was born in Topkapi Palace, Istanbul but was confined for 30 years in the Harems where he was solitarily confined for 9 years. He studied poetry. He was married four times to four different women. Mehmed V died at the age of 73 on July 3, 1918 in Constatinople.

Mehmed had no real political power and was a figurehead because of the Young Turk revolution in 1908 which restored the Ottoman Parliament and Constitution. With the power the Young Turk’s had, one of their main agendas was to revitalize the “sick man of Europe” through infrastructure and military. He was left to ceremonial duties such as hosting a visit by Kaiser Wilhelm II in Constantinople on October 15, 1917. He was directed by leaders of the Committee of Union and Progress. Mehmad V was opposed to WWI however the Ottoman Empire still entered it on the side of the central powers. The Committee pushed the Sultan to encourage better relations between the Constantinople and the Ottoman territories. The Ottoman and German empire signed a secret treaty on August 2, 1914 which caused the middle East to go to war on November 2, 1914. Mehmed V had no official position on this as he held very little to no power at all. Under his rule, The Ottoman Empire lost all of its European territory to the Balkan Wars with Italy.

His decision had no effect on the war until the Arabs joined the British side and carried out the Arab revolt in 1916. He did not want the empire to be involved in the war but he went along with it like every monarch in Europe. The Monarch had many subjects under him and if they declared war, Britain would be defeated. As the caliph of Islam, Mehmed V declared jihad against the Allies. It was the last time jihad was declared by someone who had the power to do it. He stated:

" Wherever you look you see that the enemies of the true religion, particularly the English, the Russian, and the French, have oppressed Islam and invaded its rights in every possible way…the Moslems work and the infidels…live in luxury. The world of Islam sinks down and goes backward, and the Christian world goes forward.…The Moslems are enslaved and the infidels are the great rulers.…The time has now come for the Holy War, and by this the land of Islam shall be forever freed from the power of the infidels….This holy war has now become a sacred duty. Know ye that the blood of infidels in the Islamic lands may be shed with impunity---except Germans to whom the Moslem power has promised security and who are allied with it….The killing of infidels who rule over Islam has become a sacred duty, whether you do it secretly or openly, as the Koran has decreed: 'Take them and kill them whenever you find them. Behold we have delivered them unto your hands and given you supreme power over them."