Between Two Empires – The Arab Revolts Against the Ottomans in Mesopotamia

In this episode of the Explaining History Podcast, we explore the complex dynamics of the Mesopotamian campaign during the First World War – where subject peoples, caught between the collapsing Ottoman Empire and the advancing British, navigated their loyalties with survival in mind.**

Drawing on Eugene Rogan's masterful *The Fall of the Ottomans*, we examine the Arab rebellions that erupted in the Middle Euphrates region in 1915. The Ottomans, desperate to hold their empire together, attempted to enforce conscription among their Arab subjects – many of whom had no desire to die in a war they had not chosen. When Ottoman authorities clamped down on deserters, the shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala exploded in rebellion.

The rebellion was not nationalist in the modern sense. The rebels did not seek independence; they sought autonomy from a distant Ottoman state that was extracting their young men and disrupting their lives. In Najaf, deserters holed up in the shrine city. When Ottoman soldiers violated local customs by searching under women's veils, the townspeople turned against them. The rebellion spread to Karbala, Al-Hilla, Samawah, and other towns, with rebels burning government buildings, destroying records, and driving Ottoman soldiers out.

As the British advanced up the Tigris and Euphrates, local populations made pragmatic choices. Arab villages flew white flags to welcome the new conquerors. The Ottomans, meanwhile, faced a collapse of morale that led to mass surrenders – including at the town of Amara, where a single British steamer with a crew of eight sailors accepted the surrender of hundreds of Ottoman troops.

We also explore the divided loyalties of figures like Ali Djaoudat, an Iraqi Arab officer who had served the Ottomans loyally but secretly sympathised with the Arab autonomy movement. His capture by British forces – after being ambushed by Bedouin tribesmen who had turned against the Ottomans – illustrates the complexity of the situation.

**Topics covered:**

- Eugene Rogan's *The Fall of the Ottomans*

- Ottoman conscription and desertion in Mesopotamia

- The Najaf rebellion of May 1915

- The Karbala uprising and its spread

- The collapse of Ottoman morale

- The British advance and "Townsend's Regatta"

- The surrender at Amara

- The divided loyalties of Arab officers

- Robert Fisk's "Lord Blair of Kut" comment

- The experience of colonised peoples between two empires

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*Eugene Rogan's *The Fall of the Ottomans* is available from all good bookshops. Please consider buying from an independent retailer.*

*If you enjoy the podcast, please consider supporting us – we are migrating from Patreon to Substack. Details in the show notes.*

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