Hakeem Naim

University of California–Davis

”Imperial Intrigue: Britain’s Obstructionism of the Ottoman-Afghan Relations”

This paper studies the British close interest in the Ottoman-Afghan relations in the 19th century. A study of British intervention and intrigue in the relationship of two Sunni Muslim entities – Afghanistan and the Ottoman Empire – is an important point of connection between Afghanistan and British colonial policies in the broader Middle East and goes beyond the established India-centric argument. The British keen interest in the affairs of Ottoman Empire with Afghans and Afghanistan followed two different trends and objectives:

First, Britain was alarmed and greatly occupied with the ‘Eastern Question’ after the treaty of Kucuk Kaynarca in 1774 and most importantly after the short-lived French Invasion of Egypt in 1792. At Kucuk Kaynarca, the Ottomans ceded some important territories in the Black Sea region to the Russians and the French Invasion of Egypt aimed to open the way to a possible attack on the British in India. Thus, the British declared any contacts of the Ottomans with Afghans and Indian Muslims an “object of His Majesty’s Government’s interest.”  The aim was to limit, closely watch, and to some degree influence any relationships between the Afghans and Ottomans through political, military, and espionage activities.

Secondly, an important cornerstone of the Tanzimat, Ottoman reordering, was the Ottoman’s unofficial and mostly imposed alliance with the British. The failure of the Tanzimat elite and subsequently the rise of anti-Tanzimat forces, such as the Young Ottomans, resulted in the enthronement of Sultan Abdul Hamid II in 1876. Abdul Hamid used Ittihad-i Islam, hastily translated as ‘Pan Islamism’ in European Languages, as a mobilizing force within a strategic context in his foreign relations with European powers to delay the downfall of his empire. He sent multiple missions to Afghanistan and India, using Afghan and Ottoman agents. Therefore, the British government carefully encountered and to some extent sabotaged what the British Foreign affairs called the “menacing activities of the Ottoman Caliph in Afghanistan and Indian frontiers.”

Hakeem Naim is a Ph.D. candidate and lecturer at University of California, Davis. He received his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in Middle Eastern Studies and was a Robert & Colleen Hass scholar.  He was subsequently admitted to UC Davis History Department, where he is currently obtaining his Ph.D. in modern Middle East History.  In his research, Naim focuses on the 19th century Islamic nationalism and comparative studies of religious nationalism, modernity, intellectual history in the Ottoman Empire, Afghanistan, and Central Asia.  He attended national and international conferences and presented his work at Cambridge University, University of Toronto, Stanford University, and University of California.  He has a command of various languages, including Persian (Dari), Turkish (Modern and Ottoman Turkish), Arabic, Pashto, Uzbek, German, and English.