Secrecy in early Arab nationalist organizations

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It was in the period 1908-14, the years of Young Turk rule, that protonationalist and nationalist activity significantly increased in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire. Arab activists in Istanbul, in the Fertile Crescent, and also in the emigre communities outside the Empire established a series of nationalist societies in order to defend the rights of the Arabs in the Empire. Most of these organizations were considered illegal by the Ottoman authorities. It is the purpose of this article to investigate the modi operandi in which these societies tried to preserve their secrecy. The first element in preserving the secrecy of the societies was strict selection from among those who wanted to join them. Only those deemed appropriate, able to keep secrets, were accepted. The al-Fatat society's security measures were the most strict from this standpoint. Al-Fatat (the Young, or in full Jam'iyyat al-Umma al- 'Arabiyya al-Fatat, the Society of the Young Arab Nation) was the first of the secret Arab societies during the Young Turk period. It was established in 1909 in Paris by several Arab students studying there, for the purpose of protecting the 'natural rights' of the Arab nation and placing it within the 'ranks of living nations'.' Every new candidate to the society had to be recommended by a current member, and in most cases even this was not sufficient, and another member of the society was appointed to investigate him. After the investigation the candidate was given basic information about the society, but in such a way that retreat was still possible without affecting the secrecy of the society. Even after the member was already sworn into the society, he would only know the two members who had sworn him in (one of them the person who had recommended him), and he would receive the society's instructions through them. The programme of the society would only be revealed to him after a trial period of three months. Letters from the society's centre would reach the members from the address 'the Desert' (al-badiya). without their knowing who the senders or the members of the centre were. And as an additional security measure for preserving the secrecy of the members' identity, each member had a personal number.2 However, the fact that despite all these measures society member Mustafa al-Shihabi, who was not a senior member in the society, could relate that he knew almost all of the