Sharif Husayn, Ja’far al-‘Askari and the cipher of the Arab revolt

ABSTRACT

In June 1916, Sharif Husayn of Mecca opened the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Turks. A year later, Ja’far al-‘Askari, an Iraqi officer and a future prime minister of Iraq, was appointed commander-in-chief of the Northern Army of the Arab revolt. In August 1918, on the eve of General Allenby’s final offensive against the Turks, Husayn publicly insulted ‘Askari, following which ‘Askari resigned from his post. Most of the officers of the Northern Army followed their commander, which brought the Northern Army to the brink of disintegration. The British, who deciphered and regularly read all the communications of their Arab allies, decided to intervene, secretly reworded one of Husayn’s telegrams to his officers in the Northern Army and thus tricked both parties into peace.

KEYWORDS:

• Arab revolt
• Husayn
• Ja’far al-‘Askari
• Lawrence of Arabia
• cipher
• cryptography

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Eliezer Tauber, “Secrecy in Early Arab Nationalist Organizations,” Middle Eastern Studies 33 (1997): 119–127.

² The background is based on Eliezer Tauber, The Arab Movements in World War I (London: Frank Cass, 1993); For a detailed description of the British military operations in the Middle East during the war, see George MacMunn and Cyril Falls, Military Operations, Egypt and Palestine from the Outbreak of War with Germany to June 1917 (London: HMSO, 1928), Cyril Falls, Military Operations, Egypt and Palestine from June 1917 to the End of the War (London: HMSO, 1930), and F. J. Moberly, The Campaign in Mesopotamia 1914–1918 (London: HMSO, 1923–1927).

³ The National Archives (Kew, London), Foreign Office records [hereafter: FO] 371/3403: despatch 14, Ronald W. Graham (London) to Gilbert F. Clayton (Cairo), 19 July 1918, and letter, Clayton to Foreign Office (London), August 15, 1918; Al-Qibla, 207, 19 August 1918: 1, and 209, 26 August 1918: 1; Archives du Ministère dela Guerre, Service Historique de l’Armée de Terre (Vincennes, Paris) [hereafter: MG], 7N2141: telegram 86, Edouard-Sylvain Cousse (Jedda) to War Ministry (Paris), 24 August 1918; Arab Bulletin, 101 (Cairo), 27 August 1918: 297; FO 371/3411: telegram 1335, Reginald Wingate (Cairo) to Foreign Office, 10 September 1918; FO 882/13: telegram P630, Chief Egypforce to Troopers, 11 September 1918; MG, 7N2141: report 92, Cousse, 19 September 1918; Arab Bulletin, 104, 24 September 1918: 333; T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (New York: Garden City Publishing, 1938), 576. In his memoirs, Ja’far al-‘Askari claimed that he did not understand why Husayn was attacking him. For ‘Askari’s version, see Jafar al-Askari, A Soldier’s Story from Ottoman Rule to Independent Iraq: The Memoirs of Jafar Pasha al-Askari (London: Arabian Publishing, 2003), 148–149.

⁴ FO 882/13: telegram AB218, Arbur (Cairo) [Arab Bureau] to 1st Echelon Chief Political Officer, 29 August 1918; FO 686/39: telegrams 526 and 527, John R. Bassett (Jedda) to Husayn (Mecca), 30 and 31 August 1918, and telegram, Husayn to British Agent (Jedda) [Bassett], 31 August 1918; MG, 7N2141: telegram 379, Robert Coulondre (Cairo) to Foreign Ministry (Paris), 31 August 1918; FO 686/52: telegram W738, Bassett to Arbur, 4 September 1918; FO 371/3411: telegram 1335, Wingate to Foreign Office, 10 September 1918; FO 882/13: telegram P630, Chief Egypforce to Troopers, 11 September 1918; MG, 7N2141: report 92, Cousse, 19 September 1918; Arab Bulletin, 104, 24 September 1918: 333; Lawrence, Seven Pillars, 576; Alec Kirkbride, An Awakening: The Arab Campaign 1917–1918 (Tavistock: University Press of Arabia, 1971), 47; Edouard Brémond, Le Hedjaz dans la guerre mondiale (Paris: Payot, 1931), 287.

⁵ FO 882/13: telegram AB218, Arbur to 1st Echelon Chief Political Officer, 29 August 1918, and telegram 540, Commandant (Aqaba) to Arbur, 2 September 1918; FO 686/52: telegram AB211, Arbur to Bassett, 2 September 1918, and telegram 531, Bassett to Husayn, 3 September 1918; FO 882/13: telegram AB263, Arbur to Bassett, 3 September 1918.

⁶ FO 882/13: telegram 543, Commandant to Arbur, 2 September 1918, and telegram 074, Commandant to British Agent, 3 September 1918; FO 686/39: telegram, Husayn to British Agent, 3 September 1918; Lawrence, Seven Pillars, 576.

⁷ FO 686/39: telegrams 534, 535 and 536, Bassett to Husayn, 4 and 5 September 1918.

⁸ FO 686/52: telegram, Husayn to Acting British Agent, 5 September 1918, and telegram W739, Bassett to Arbur, 5 September 1918; FO 882/13: telegram AB277, Arbur to Bassett, 5 September 1918; FO 686/39: telegram 540, [Bassett] to Husayn, 5 September 1918; FO 371/3411: telegram 1335, Wingate to Foreign Office, 10 September 1918; MG, 7N2141: report 92, Cousse, 19 September 1918; Arab Bulletin, 104, 24 September 1918: 333.

⁹ FO 882/13: telegram, Husayn to High Commissioner (Cairo), 5 September 1918, and telegram AB292, [Arbur] to [Bassett] and GHQ (Aqaba), 6 September 1918; FO 686/39: telegram 545, Bassett to Husayn, 6 September 1918; FO 882/13: telegram P630, Chief Egypforce to Troopers, 11 September 1918; MG, 7N2141: report 92, Cousse, 19 September 1918; Lawrence, Seven Pillars, 579; Kirkbride, An Awakening, 46–47; ‘Abd al-Rahman Shahbandar, “Al-Kulunil Lurans,” al-Muqtataf 78 (1931): 275.

¹⁰ See, e.g., Sylvia G. Haim, “’The Arab Awakening’ – A Source for the Historian?” Die Welt des Islams N.S. 2 (1953): 237–250; and George E. Kirk, “’The Arab Awakening’ Reconsidered,” Middle Eastern Affairs 13 (1962): 162–173. See also Eliezer Tauber, “When Two Anti-Zionists Corresponded: A Short Note on George Antonius and Elizabeth P. MacCallum,” Israel Affairs 28 (2022): 145–152.

¹¹ Susan Silsby Boyle, Betrayal of Palestine: The Story of George Antonius (Boulder CO: Westview Press, 2001), 215–216; See also Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), vol. 2, 291–293, handlist of the George Antonius Collection in the Middle East Centre Archive, St. Antony’s College, Oxford, sant.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/gb165-0011-george-antonius-collection.pdf, and Antonius’ own testimony in a footnote on page 158 of his book.

¹² For an explanation of the simple substitution cipher, see David Kahn, The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing (New York: Scribner, rev. ed. 1996), xv-xvi. For some clear explanations of the basic principles of how to break a simple substitution cipher, see ibid, 99–105.

¹³ For this, see ibid, 250.

¹⁴ Ibid, 312. For an explanation of the Playfair cipher, see ibid, 198–202. Chapters 9–11 of Kahn’s book deal with the World War I’s ciphers.

¹⁵ See FO 686/9 and FO 141/679/4088. The original Arabic telegrams are available in Muhammad Tahir al-‘Umari, Ta’rikh Muqaddarat al-‘Iraq al-Siyasiyya (Baghdad, 1924–25), vols. 1 and 2. ‘Umari was Faruqi’s cousin and possessed his papers after the latter had been killed in a tribesmen raid on a caravan near Mosul in late 1920. About Faruqi, see Eliezer Tauber, “The Role of Lieutenant Muhammad Sharif al-Faruqi: New Light on Anglo-Arab Relations during the First World War,” Asian and African Studies 24 (1990): 17–50.

¹⁶ Kirkbride, An Awakening, 47.

¹⁷ The epilogue is based on Eliezer Tauber, The Formation of Modern Syria and Iraq (London: Frank Cass, 1995).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eliezer Tauber

Eliezer Tauber is a world expert on the emergence of the Arab nationalist movements, the formation of the modern Arab states, and the early phases of the Arab-Israeli conflict. He has published extensively on these topics. Professor Tauber was the founder and first chair of the Department of Middle Eastern Studies in Bar Ilan University, Israel, and a former dean of the Faculty of Jewish Studies there. Currently, Professor Tauber is the director of the Menachem Begin Institute for the Study of Underground and Resistance Movements.