Allied Friends or Foes: The First World War in/and the Arab World

National Archives of Egypt

May 9-11, 2015

Background

The First World War (or the Great War) exerted a great impact on the inhabitants of the  Middle East and North Africa by shaping the region’s political post-1914 densities and its relations with Europe until nowadays. In this period in particular, the notions of Ottomanism and Pan-Islamism provided competitive impetuses to Arab nationalism. All political and social upheavals in the Middle East were also entangled with various Arab national(ist) responses to the military, political, economic and intellectual predicaments evolved during the war and its aftermath. In this sense, although this war was primarily initiated in Europe and by Europeans, the Arab World became a major theater for this war and its politics because of the position of the region in the European completion for regional supremacy. Middle-Eastern combatants fought on both sides, including Arabs, Berbers, Ottoman Turks, Kurds, Turcomans, and Iranians.

Focus

The conference will examine the various aspects of the Arab roles in the First World War. The focus will be, however, on the multiple conflicts and battles in the Middle East and North Africa, especially these  that have been buried in national and historical memories. What  was the impact of the First World War on the societies and inhabitants of the Arab World? How did these  military  interventions  influence  the  patterns  of  social,  agricultural  and  economic activities? How did European and non-European politicians and intellectuals perceive the role of the Arabs under their colonial control as part of the War? In what way did European imperial powers make use of local partners in fulfilling their secret agreements for the interests of the war?