Mun memberikan sepatah dua kata semangat sebelom perlawanan bermula
Warming up untuk menghadapi perlawanan nan mencabar
Mun merembat dengan penuh semangat
Menggelecek pihak lawan..
dan setelah gol,dicelebrate(sori xde gamba masok gol haha)
Without going into the question of the legitimacy of their title to the caliphate the last Ottoman sovereigns to combine the office of sultan and caliph were Muhammad Rashad and Muhammad Wahid ud-Din. The latter succeeded the former on 3 July 1918 at a dark moment in Ottoman history, only four months before the Ottoman Empire finally lost the war with Britain and sued for peace terms.
Meanwhile one of the Empire's most colourful generals, 'Umar Fakhr ud-Din Pasha, had been besieged in Medina since the outbreak of the Arab revolt in June 1916. The story of his tenacious defence of the city for seventy days after the signing of the armistice at the end of October 1918 merits a shining page in the annals of Ottoman, and indeed Islamic, history. The demise of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of a secular Turkish republic in Anatolia overshadowed-even for professional historians-the Fakhri Pasha episode. This short article is a record of the main facts, a contribution to history as well as a tribute to him who deserves to be called the last knight-defender of the caliphate, worthy of the meaning of his name-'the glory of religion'.
This is not the place to give even a summary of the antecedents of the Arab revolt which was proclaimed by Husain ibn 'Ali, the Sharif of Mecca, in June 1916 against the Ottoman Empire which was then allied to Germany and at war with Britain and her allies. The Sultan asserted his claim to be the caliph of all Muslims and declared a holy war (jihd) against Britain and her allies. Husayn was reluctant to publish the proclamation in Mecca on the not implausible plea that it would provoke a blockade, which would starve the people of Hejaz, dependent as they were on pilgrims and donations and provisions from Egypt. He had, in addition, the secret intention of revolt in return for a British promise of recognizing Arab independence.
The Turkish high command were not entirely ignorant of the Sharif's designs. Partly to thwart them and partly to send reinforcement to Yemen, a few weeks before the outbreak of the Arab revolt, the garrison of Hejaz was reinforced with the Twelfth Army Corps under Fakhri Pasha, and a company of German machine gunners was dispatched to Medina, the terminal of the Hejaz Railway from Damascus, on the way to Yemen. Generalissimo Enver Pasha himself, together with Jamal Pasha, com-mander of the Fourth Army in Syria with jurisdiction over Sinai and Hejaz, visited Medina soon after the arrival of these reinforcements. They were accompanied by Faisal, the third son of the Sharif, who was more or less a hostage.
Faisal's dramatic escape, followed by the proclamation of the revolt in Mecca by his father, is briefly described by T. E. Lawrence. It was Faisal's lot with his elder brother 'Alt to face these formidable forces of regular troops in Medina. The Arab assault with no more than muzzle-loading guns was easily beaten off by Fakhri Pasha who terrified Beduin irregulars with salvos from his artillery. It was immediately plain that tribesmen, with no military training and poor weapons, could not capture a fortified city from a modern army under an able general.
After six months of skirmishing Fakhri Pasha held an entrenched line well outside the city, and made sure that the railway to the north was garrisoned and patrolled. Despite stories to the contrary, the line was never permanently cut off till the final phase of the war in Palestine. The dynamiting of sections of it by Lawrence and his men simply led to its being repaired.
Having lost Mecca to the Arabs in 1916 and Jerusalem to their British allies in 1917, even 'godless' men like Enver and Jamal were loath to abandon Medina as was repeatedly urged on them by their German allies. Jamal did actually censure the Sharif, and held his revolt respon-sible for the fall of Jerusalem. Perhaps the sentiment was more political than religious, for the loss of Medina would have deprived the Sultan-Caliph of the prestige of being the guardian of the three holy mosques in Islam.
The Turks remained hopeful of a reconciliation with the Arabs as brother Muslims. Overtures with favourable terms continued to be made until within two months of the armistice. In September 1918 the British War Office sent a report to the Foreign Office that the Sharif (by then King Husain) was ready to settle with Turkey on the basis of recognizing his 'temporal' authority while he recognized the Sultan's 'spiritual' authority, and asked what Britain's attitude would be. The Foreign Office rejected the idea of a separate peace between the Sharif and Turkey but suggested another approach be made to Fakhri Pasha to induce him to surrender.
A Turkish author asserts that Fakhri Pasha did actually refuse to obey an order from his superior, Jamal Pasha, to evacuate Medina and withdraw to Trans-Jordan. We are told that Jamal then turned to a younger general, Mustafa Kamal Pasha (later Ataturk), who also refused to undertake the task on the ground that he did not wish to go down in history as the soldier who gave up Medina.
There is little doubt that Fakhri Pasha had such a sentiment i n mind when he clung to his position even when the Turks were driven out from southern Palestine east and west of the River Jordan, thus completely cutting off the railway link with Medina. He managed to get supplies from Najd and elsewhere, for to the east of Medina he was virtually free.
Some of his officers saw the futility, from a military point of view, of continued resistance. But his steadfastness remained unshaken. The available evidence shows very conclusively that he was animated by religious motives with little or no regard to military strategy or political expediency. According to the same Turkish author, who quotes an eye-witness account, one Friday in the spring of 1918, after prayers in the Prophet's Mosque, Fakhri Pasha ascended the steps of the pulpit, stopped halfway and turned his face to the Prophet's tomb and said loud and clear:
'Prophet of God! I will never abandon you!' He then addressed the men: 'Soldiers! I appeal to you in the name of the Prophet, my witness. I command you to defend him and his city to the last cartridge and the last breath, irrespective of the strength of the enemy. May Allah help us, and may the spirit of Muhammad be with us.
'Officers of the heroic Turkish army! O little Mubammads Come forward and promise me, before our Lord the Prophet, to honour your faith with the supreme sacrifice of your lives'.
Such was Fakhri's resolve when in August 1918 he received another call to surrender. The call ought to have been made by the Amir Abdul-lah, the second son of the Sharif, who then commanded the Arab forces round the city, but it seems to have come from his father. King Husain. Only Fakhri Pasha's reply survives in a poor English translation. It is apparently addressed to Husain himself from 'Fakhr-ud-Din, General, Defender of the Most Sacred City of Medina. Servant of the Prophet'. The text as preserved in the British Public Record Office it given below, slightly amended:
'In the name of Allah, the Omnipotent. To him who broke the power of Islam, caused bloodshed among Muslims, jeopardized the caliphate of the Commander of the Faithful, and exposed it to the domination of the British.
'On Thursday night the fourteenth of Dhu'l-Hijja, I was walking, Tired and worn out, thinking of the protection and defence of Medina, when I found myself among unknown men working in a small square. Then I saw standing before me a man with a sublime countenance. He was the Prophet, may Allah's blessing be upon him! His left arm rested on his hip under his robe, and he said to me in a protective manner, 'Follow me " I followed him two or three paces and woke up. I imme-diately proceeded to his sacred mosque and prostrated myself in prayer and thanks [near his tomb].
'I am now under the protection of the Prophet, my Supreme Com-mander. I am busying myself with strengthening the defences, building roads and squares in Medina. Trouble me not with useless offers.'
It is difficult to imagine Husain, himself a descendant of the Prophet, not to have been moved by Fakhri Pasha's vision. To the Pasha the legitimate caliph was the Sultan of Turkey, and Husain (even after his assumption of kingship) was no more than a rebel. His rebellion was the more reprehensible because it disrupted Islamic unity and aided the enemies of the Sultan-Caliph.
He refused to hand over his sword even upon the receipt of a direct order from the Ottoman minister of war.The Ottoman Government was upset upon his behaviour and the Sultan dismissed him from his post. He refused to do so and kept the flag of Ottoman sultan high till 70 days after the end of the war.
He surrendered on January 9 1919 at Bir Darwish with 456 officers and 9,364 men.
Abdullah and then Ali entered the city on February 2, 1919.
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