Influence without power: the last Khedive of Egypt and the great powers, 1914–18

Abstract

One of the few remaining mysteries of World War I in the Middle East is why the last Ottoman viceroy in Egypt, the Khedive Abbas Hilmi II, deposed by Britain in December 1914, remained during much of the war the object of substantial attention lavished on him by the Great Powers of Europe. The popular postwar view of Abbas Hilmi was that of an incompetent and corrupt former Muslim ruler, stripped of his power and made harmless to Britain's wartime control over Egypt, mainly because he acted during the war for no ideological purpose, but instead for his own 'personal position'.' Little doubt exists that personal and dynastic ambitions served as the driving forces for the ex-Khedive's actions. However, a study of European archives reveals that during the war the Great Powers treated Abbas Hilmi as an influential player in Middle Eastern politics. Britain, Germany, Austria and the Ottoman Empire nearly always viewed the Khedive as either potentially powerful or useful to them. In return, he saw the Great Powers in the same light. The example of the ex-Khedive's wartime relations to the Great Powers illustrates in a major way the different and competing interests of the Powers in the Middle East as well as the opportunity for Muslim leaders in the region to exploit such differences, even occasionally to the leaders' advantage. The Ottoman interest in Abbas Hilmi stemmed mainly from his pre-war involvement with the Arabs and from the Ottoman desire to recapture complete control of Egypt and replace him as Khedive with someone wholly loyal to the Sublime Porte. But the interest of Britain, Germany and Austria in him resulted more from their perception of his worth to them in Egypt and among Orientals exiled in Europe and from their wish to keep him from joining the enemy side in the war. Great Power regard for the Khedive long predated the world war. Historians have emphasized how the Vienna-educated Abbas, following his accession to the Khedivat as a twenty-two-year-old in January 1892, desired to rid Egypt of British control and free the country of Ottoman suzerainty. The young Khedive, who possessed no political or military means to achieve his ambition of personal autonomy from both Britain and the sultan,