The Ottoman Empire Enters the War

In 1915, the Allied powers attempted to break through the Dardanelles and threaten the Ottoman capital, Constantinople. This resulted in the Gallipoli Campaign. The Ottomans successfully defeated the Allied attempt, and among the Ottoman commanders who rose to fame during the campaign was a young officer named Mustafa Kemal, who would later become one of the most important figures in the creation of modern Turkey.

However, while the Ottomans successfully defended Gallipoli, they were losing territory elsewhere.

British forces advanced through Mesopotamia, occupying Baghdad in March 1917. In the Levant, British forces under General Edmund Allenby captured Jerusalem in December 1917, and in 1918 the Allied advance continued northward. Damascus fell in October 1918 to forces of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force together with Arab forces.

By the end of the war, the Ottoman military position had collapsed. Constantinople itself was not conquered through battle, but after the Ottoman surrender under the Armistice of Mudros in October 1918, Allied forces entered and occupied the city.

Yet the military campaigns were only one part of what was happening. While the war was being fought, Britain and its allies were also making plans and promises concerning what would happen to Ottoman lands after the war.

The Sharif of Makkah and the British

Beginning in 1915, the British High Commissioner in Egypt, Sir Henry McMahon, entered into correspondence with Sharif Hussein ibn Ali of Makkah.

Hussein belonged to the Hashemite family and traced his lineage to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. His family had held the Sharifate of Makkah for centuries, although the Hejaz remained under Ottoman sovereignty.

Through what became known as the Hussein–McMahon Correspondence, Britain indicated that it was prepared, subject to territorial qualifications that later became highly disputed, to recognize and support Arab independence in return for an Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire. The surviving diplomatic record shows that the precise territorial meaning of these promises later became a serious point of disagreement.

Sharif Hussein eventually sided with Britain. In 1916, the Arab Revolt began. Hashemite forces, including those led by Hussein's sons, fought against the Ottomans with British assistance. Among the British officers who worked with the Arab forces was T. E. Lawrence, later popularly known as Lawrence of Arabia.

But while Britain was negotiating with Sharif Hussein about Arab independence, Britain and France were conducting another set of negotiations.

Sykes–Picot

In 1916, British diplomat Mark Sykes and French diplomat François Georges-Picot negotiated what became known as the Sykes–Picot Agreement.

The agreement concerned how Britain and France would divide spheres of direct control and influence in Ottoman Arab territories if the Ottoman Empire was defeated. Russia was also involved in the wider wartime arrangements. Contemporary diplomatic records explicitly describe Sykes–Picot as an agreement concerning the eventual partition of Ottoman territories between Britain, France and Russia.

This created an obvious tension.

On one side, Britain was discussing Arab independence with Sharif Hussein. On the other, Britain and France were privately discussing how much of the same general region would fall within their respective spheres after the Ottoman defeat.

This contradiction did not disappear after the war. At the Paris Peace Conference, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George himself referred to Britain's commitments to Hussein while arguing with French officials over Syria.

And there was still another promise being made.

The Balfour Declaration

In November 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issued what became known as the Balfour Declaration.

The British government declared its support for the establishment in Palestine of a “national home for the Jewish people,” while also stating that nothing should be done to prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities.

Therefore, by the final years of the war, several overlapping commitments and plans existed concerning Ottoman territory.

There were British commitments arising from the Hussein–McMahon correspondence. There was the Anglo-French Sykes–Picot arrangement. And there was the Balfour Declaration concerning Palestine.

These agreements were not identical in legal character or wording, and historians continue to debate how far they directly contradicted one another. Nevertheless, they became central to the political disputes that followed the collapse of Ottoman rule.

The Balfour Declaration did not itself establish Israel or the later occupation, but it became a foundation of British policy when its terms were incorporated into the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine. The mandate helped shape the conflict over sovereignty, immigration and political rights that followed. ^[1] Israel was established in 1948; Israel then occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza in 1967. In its 2024 advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice found Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful. ^[2]

The consequences of this unresolved conflict remain acute in Gaza. In 2025, a United Nations independent commission of inquiry concluded that Israeli authorities and forces had committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. ^[3] The commission reiterated that finding in 2026. ^[4] The separate genocide case brought by South Africa before the International Court of Justice remains in progress; the Court has ordered provisional measures but has not issued a final judgment on the merits. ^[5] These developments form part of a long political history in which the Balfour Declaration was an early and consequential step, rather than the sole cause of everything that followed.

The War Ends

The First World War came to an end in 1918.

In 1919, the victorious powers gathered at the Paris Peace Conference to decide the postwar settlement. Among the most difficult questions was what should happen to the territories of the defeated Ottoman Empire.

The original Sykes–Picot arrangement was not simply “ratified” at Versailles. Instead, the postwar settlement developed through the Paris negotiations and, later, the League of Nations mandate system. Britain ultimately received mandates for Iraq and Palestine, while France received mandates for Syria and Lebanon.

But before these arrangements were fully settled, an attempt was made to determine what the people living in these territories actually wanted.

The King–Crane Commission

At the initiative of American President Woodrow Wilson, an international commission was proposed to investigate the wishes of the inhabitants of the former Ottoman territories. In practice, only the American delegation carried out the investigation. It became known as the King–Crane Commission, after Henry Churchill King and Charles R. Crane.

The commissioners travelled through the region and collected petitions and testimony.

Their findings were striking.

They found strong support for the political unity and independence of Syria, including Palestine, and substantial opposition to the Sykes–Picot arrangement. Their report also recommended a serious modification of the Zionist programme in Palestine and warned about attempting to establish a Jewish state against the wishes of the existing population.

Yet the commission's recommendations had little influence on the final political settlement.

The great powers proceeded largely according to their own strategic interests and agreements.

Faisal and the Arab Kingdom

Sharif Hussein's son Faisal ibn Hussein, who had participated in the Arab Revolt alongside Lawrence, attempted to secure the promised Arab independence.

After the Ottoman withdrawal, Faisal established himself in Damascus. In March 1920, the Syrian National Congress proclaimed him King of Syria.

His kingdom did not last.

France had been assigned the mandate for Syria, and French forces moved against Faisal's government. After defeating the Syrian forces at the Battle of Maysalun in July 1920, France occupied Damascus and Faisal was expelled.

French rule also reshaped the Syrian state. The mandate authorities established a separate Alawite State on the coast and recruited religious minorities, including Alawites, into the military. ^[6] Alawites are a religious community, not a tribe. The military became one route through which Alawite officers gained influence after independence. ^[7] Following later coups and struggles within the Ba’ath Party, Hafez al-Assad seized power in 1970 and became president in 1971. His son Bashar succeeded him in 2000 and ruled until his government fell in December 2024. ^[8] French policies helped shape the institutions and divisions through which the Assad family rose, although the later coups and choices of Syrian political actors were also decisive.

The British later found another throne for him.

In 1921, Faisal became King of Iraq, establishing the Hashemite monarchy there. His family continued to rule Iraq until 1958, when the monarchy was overthrown in a military revolution.

The 1958 revolution ended the Hashemite monarchy and opened a period of coups and military-led governments. Iraq’s Ba’ath Party briefly took power in 1963 and seized it again in 1968. Saddam Hussein rose within that regime, consolidated control over its security apparatus and became president in 1979. His rule was therefore a later consequence of the political order that followed the revolution, rather than an immediate result of the 1958 coup. ^[9]

Another son of Sharif Hussein, Abdullah, established himself in Transjordan under British sponsorship. His branch of the Hashemite family survived there, and the Hashemite dynasty continues to rule Jordan today.

The situation in the Hejaz itself developed differently.

Sharif Hussein ruled the Kingdom of the Hejaz after the Arab Revolt, but his position became increasingly vulnerable. His principal regional rival was Abdulaziz ibn Saud, whose forces eventually conquered the Hejaz. Hussein abdicated in 1924, and by 1925 the Hashemites had lost the region. Ibn Saud later united his territories into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932.

Thus, the Hashemite family that had launched the Arab Revolt from Makkah ultimately lost Makkah and the Hejaz, while branches of the family instead came to rule Iraq and Transjordan.

Meanwhile, the Ottoman Empire Was Being Dismantled

While these developments were taking place in the Arab lands, the Ottoman heartland itself faced partition.

In 1920, the Ottoman government signed the Treaty of Sèvres.

The treaty proposed a drastic reduction of Ottoman territory. Greece received important territorial gains, arrangements were made for Armenian independence, provisions were included for possible Kurdish autonomy, and the Allied powers obtained extensive political and economic influence.

For many Turks, the settlement was unacceptable.

A Turkish nationalist movement had already begun to organize resistance under Mustafa Kemal, the Ottoman officer who had become famous at Gallipoli.

It is important here to distinguish this movement from the Young Turks. Mustafa Kemal had emerged from the late Ottoman military and political environment in which the Young Turk movement had been influential, but the Turkish National Movement was not simply a faction of the Young Turks. It developed into a separate nationalist struggle centred on Ankara.

The nationalists rejected the authority of the Ottoman government in occupied Constantinople and rejected the Treaty of Sèvres.

A new war began.

Mustafa Kemal and the Turkish War of Independence

From 1919 to 1922, the Turkish nationalists fought against forces occupying or attempting to partition Anatolia, most importantly Greece, while also confronting Armenian forces and resisting the postwar settlement imposed by the Allies.

The nationalist movement eventually succeeded.

The Treaty of Sèvres was never fully implemented. The military victories of Mustafa Kemal's movement forced the Allies to negotiate a new settlement, resulting in the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, which internationally recognized the borders of the new Turkish state.

But the nationalist victory also raised a fundamental question.

What would happen to the Ottoman dynasty?

The End of the Ottoman Sultanate

In November 1922, the Turkish Grand National Assembly abolished the Ottoman Sultanate.

The reigning Sultan, Mehmed VI, therefore became the last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Shortly afterward, he left Constantinople aboard a British warship and went into exile.

However, the Caliphate was not abolished at the same time.

Instead, the Assembly selected another member of the Ottoman dynasty, Abdülmecid II, as Caliph.

This created an unusual situation. Abdülmecid was Caliph but not Sultan. He possessed the religious title associated with the Ottoman Caliphate but no longer ruled an Ottoman state.

Then, on 3 March 1924, the Turkish Republic abolished the Caliphate itself.

Abdülmecid II became the last Ottoman Caliph and was expelled from Turkey along with other members of the Ottoman dynasty.

An office that had been associated with Ottoman rulers for centuries had come to an end.

From Constantinople to Hyderabad

The story, however, has one final and rather unexpected turn.

After his exile, Abdülmecid II eventually settled in France. His family was now a royal dynasty without a kingdom.

Yet the Ottoman family soon became connected to another Muslim dynasty thousands of kilometres away—in India.

Abdülmecid's daughter was Princess Dürrüşehvar Sultan. In 1931, she married Azam Jah, the eldest son of Mir Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII, the seventh and last ruling Nizam of Hyderabad.

This connected the former Ottoman dynasty with one of the wealthiest and most important Muslim princely houses in India.

Azam Jah and Dürrüşehvar had two sons, Mukarram Jah and Muffakham Jah. Mukarram Jah would later succeed his grandfather as the titular head of the Asaf Jahi dynasty.

It was an extraordinary endpoint to a story that had begun with the First World War.

The Ottoman Empire entered the war in 1914 as one of the world's great imperial powers. During the war, Britain encouraged an Arab revolt against it while Britain and France negotiated the division of its Arab territories and Britain separately issued the Balfour Declaration concerning Palestine. After the war, the victorious powers created a new political order across much of the former Ottoman Middle East. Meanwhile, Turkish nationalists rejected the partition of Anatolia and created the Republic of Turkey.

By 1924, both the Ottoman Sultanate and the Ottoman Caliphate were gone.

And within a few years, the daughter of the last Ottoman Caliph would marry the son of the last ruling Nizam of Hyderabad—connecting, in an unexpected way, the final chapter of the Ottoman dynasty with the history of Muslim India.