1914 Declaration of Support for French in WWI
1914 Declaration of Support for French in WWI
Total Pages: 1 of 3
1914 Declaration of Support for French in WWI
Total Pages: 2 of 3
1914 Declaration of Support for French in WWI
Total Pages: 3 of 3
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English translation from the French translation of the Arabic original
In the name of God the generous and merciful.
Praise be to God, master of the worlds, and may peace be upon Muhammad and the other prophets and saints.
God, the generous and merciful, all knowing and wise, revealed, by the entry of the French power into the country of the Tokolor, the Moors and the Blacks, the incalculable advantages that had not been known before, such as abandoning the instruments of tribal war, the abolition of the acts of oppression inherited from previous generations, the suppression of pillage and death penalties, all of which were ancient practices. France has also instituted justice and security in all of the areas it administers, sedentary and nomadic; she has built abundant wells in the desert and in the towns, she has provided skilled doctors, for rich and poor alike.
She has also provided other advantages that intelligent people will not ignore. Only the ignorant, or those who feign ignorance, will not recognize that.
Praise be to God for providing such favors from the hands of this pacific power.
It is to God that we ask for the consolidation and preservation of this power in the country and to protect it from every enemy, may this power always be the one who puts down the evil doer and brings peace, may she continue to control the affairs of the inhabitants, sedentary as well as nomadic. Amen.
Seal.
Written as God knows, with two days remaining in the lunar month of Muhammad, corresponding to 8 December 1914, at Butilimit, may God keep it safe.
May our Muslim brothers - may God guide them - be vigilant at the lies that can damage the interests of France and create distance from France, given the merits which the French have brought to the Muslim countries, which they have always treated with care and to which they have brought many advantages. It is not permissible for a Muslim who knows his interests to work in any way which can weaken France.
The recompense for a good deed, is it not also a good deed?
Related Essay
The Sidiyya And The French
Contributing Institutions: David Robinson; MATRIX: Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences at Michigan State University
Description: In 1914, as the Allies faced off against the Axis powers, including the Ottomans and their sultan, who had recently begun using the more resonant Islamic title of caliph, the French grew concerned that the Ottoman sultan's call for all Muslims in the world to wage jihad against the Allies might produce revolt among some of their subjects in West Africa. They consequently called upon their leading clerical allies to issue declarations of support for the French cause, and to indicate that there was no obligation incumbent upon Muslims to support the Ottoman cause. They gathered these statements together in a special issue of their leading journal on the Islamic world, the "Revue du Monde Musulman," and published it at the end of the year.
Sidiyya Baba's declaration was among the most important in that volume. He took up some of the themes that he had articulated in his 1903 declaration.
We have no way to measure the impact of Baba's statement or the others in that volume. We can say that the sultan's call to jihad received little response among the Muslim societies of French West Africa.
Date: December 8, 1914
Date Range: 1900-1909
Location: Butilimit, Mauritania
Format: Text/txt
Language: Arabic
Rights Management: For educational use only.
Digitizer: MATRIX
Source:
Revue Du Monde Musulman. Paris: Mission scientifique du Maroc, vol. 29 (1914), pp. 16-18.