Khalif of all the Mohammedans. Thus, one
great difficulty, the separation of the civil and the religious powers
in Islam, will have been solved for the greater good of all."

To their fellow Arabs the committee issued the following proclamation:
"Dear Compatriots! All of us know how vile and despicable the glorious
and illustrious title of Arabian Citizen has become in the mouths of all
foreigners, especially Turks. All of us see to what depths of misery and
ignorance we have fallen under the tyranny of these barbarians sprung
from Central Asia. Our land, the richest and finest on earth, is to-day
an arid waste. When we were free, we conquered the world in a hundred
years; we spread everywhere sciences, arts, and letters; for centuries
we led world-civilization. But, since the spawn of Ertogrul[143] usurped
the caliphate of Islam, they have brutalized us so as to exploit us to
such a degree that we have become the poorest people on earth." The
proclamation then goes on to declare Arabia's independence.[144]

Of course "Young Arabia" did not then attain its independence. The
revolt was kept localized and Turkey maintained its hold over most of
its Arab dominions. Nevertheless, there was constant unrest. During the
remainder of Abdul Hamid's reign his Arab provinces were in a sort of
unstable equilibrium, torn between the forces of nationalist sedition on
the one hand and Pan-Islamic, anti-European feeling on the other.

The Young-Turk revolution of 1908 caused a new shift in the situation.
The Arab provinces, like the other parts of the empire, rejoiced in the
downfall of despotism and hoped great things for the future. In the
Turkish Parliament the Arab provinces were well represented, and their
deputies asked for a measure of federal autonomy. This the Young-Turks,
bent upon "Ottomanization," curtly refused. The result was profound
disillusionment in the Arab provinces and a revival of separatist
agitation. It is interesting to note that the new independence agitation
had a much more ambitious programme than that of a few years before. The
Arab nationalists of Turkey were by this time definitely linking up with
the nationalists of Egypt and French North Africa--Arabic-speaking lands
where the populations were at least partly Arab in blood. Arab
nationalism was beginning to speak aloud what it had previously
whispered--the programme of a great "Pan-Arab" empire stretching right
across North Africa and southern Asia fro