The “very real bogey”. The Stotzingen-Neufeld Mission to the Hijāz (1916)

• Main Author: Martin Strohmeier
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centre Français d’Archéologie et de Sciences Sociales de Sanaa 2016-09-01
• Series: Arabian Humanities
• Subjects: World War I; Arab Revolt; Ḥusayn b. ‘Alī; Jamāl Pasha; jihad; Hijāz
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/cy/3098

In World War I Germany adopted a policy to incite uprisings in the Muslim world (Holy War “made in Germany”) against the Entente, especially Britain. In this context several propaganda missions were conducted. The task of the Stotzingen-Neufeld mission was to establish a propaganda center in the Yemen from where agitation in East Africa (Sudan, Abyssinia, Somalia) was to be carried out. The undertaking was poorly and hastily prepared. Furthermore, Jamāl Pasha’s delaying tactics contributed to its eventual failure. If the Stotzingen-Neufeld mission achieved anything, it was that it prompted Ḥusayn b. ‘Alī, the Sharīf of Mecca, to announce the Revolt prematurely. The article deals with the planning and financing of the operation, the composition of the group, the different stages of the expedition, as well as its relations with the Ottoman authorities. The material used includes sources from the British National Archives and the German Foreign Office.