In Search of Lost Time: the Congress of the Islamic World in Mecca (1926)

Abstract

This paper sets out to retrace the key stages of the preparation and holding of the Congress of the Islamic World in Mecca (1926), which profoundly influenced public opinion and the course of ideological and political development of the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. The purpose of the study is to assess the political, religious and philosophical positions of supporters of the revival of the caliphate in the main historical and cultural areas of the Arab-Muslim world, as well as the reaction of Muslim figures in peripheral regions to the plans and spiritual and political claims of the Saudi ruler of Arabia Abd al-Aziz (Ibn Saud). The convocation of the congress allowed him to legitimize his claims to be the leader of Sunni Muslims and to neutralize the aspirations of the Egyptian crown and British diplomacy, which intended to proclaim King Fuad I of Egypt as caliph. The authors identify a wide range of political, legal and propagandist means used by the Saudi monarchy to discredit alternative forms of related to caliphate sentiments in the Arab-Muslim world. The coercive “depoliticization” by Ibn Saud of the movement for the caliphate and the reduction of the agenda of the Mecca Congress to the discussion of medical, economic, transport and logistics issues of the Muslim pilgrimage forged the basic principles of the political and propaganda tactics of the third Saudi state for years to come. The article analyzes the historical and cultural origins of the perception of the institution of the caliphate by Muslims in various regions of the world of Islam. The events and the course of the congress in Mecca, as shown in the study, provoked ideological and political differences between the Saudi leadership and the leaders of South Asian Muslims who advocated the caliphate in the geopolitical conditions of the interwar period. This circumstance subsequently led to the organization by the opponents of Saudi hegemony of the General Islamic Congress in Jerusalem in 1931.