The Islamic world stretches across more than 135° of longitude, from Spanish Morocco in the west to the Celebes in the east. Geographically continuous except for a gap in the Indian peninsula, part of it lies behind the Iron Curtain, but at this moment Islam is neutral. Courted by the Communists, the independent Islamic nations, with such notable exceptions as Turkey and Pakistan, are more concerned with their own independence than with the struggle between the West and the Communists. To understand their neutrality and their potential as members of the “Free Nations,” we must begin with the basic concepts which give the Islamic world its identity.
Islam, meaning submitting oneself to God, was born some forty years after its founder, Mohammed, who was born in Mecca about 570 A.D. During this period of history, Mecca was the largest city on the west coast of the Arabian Peninsula, if not in all Arabia, and a flourishing trade center. It was also a strong point of Arabian paganism. Here was the sacred Kaaba, a small temple of uncut stones; and the famous Black Stone, a meteorite which tradition claimed turned black from the sins of those who touched it. In addition to the Black Stone, there were some 360 pagan idols of worship in the vicinity of the Kaaba.
Mohammed passed his first years in such an atmosphere. When a youth, he tended sheep to supplement the none-too-great assets of his uncle and guardian. On reaching the age of maturity, it was arranged that he should enter the services of a rich widow, Khadija by name. This prosperous widow had gained her wealth through trade. It is known that Mohammed, as her agent, made at least one trip to Bosra, where he is reputed to have done well for his employer.
Although of no great means and in the employ of the widow, Mohammed was of a good family. In his late twenties, he married the widow. His new social position as the husband of a wealthy woman afforded him time for contemplation and study. At the age of forty, he began retiring to the hills in the wilderness about Mecca.
It was under such conditions that Mohammed began to hear voices. The messages of these voices were dictated by Mohammed to a male secretary, and later written down to form the Suras, or chapters, of the Koran, the Islamic holy book. It suffices to say that the voices had one basic message, “There is no God but the God (Allah) and Mohammed is his prophet.”
It is not difficult to understand the repercussions of such a philosophy in Mecca, a pagan center. At first the Meccans simply mocked Mohammed. Then he began to condemn the pagan gods of the Kaaba and to intimate that the forefathers of the citizens were in eternal Gehenna, hell. The local populace was probably more fearful of losing pagan trade than of their forefathers’ fate.
Persecution grew more intense. During this period, Mohammed was bereaved by the death of his wife and his guardian uncle. The chief of the rival city of Medina agreed to receive him, and in 622 the Hegira (flight) was made by Mohammed and his following from Mecca to Medina. The Moslems do well to use the Hegira as the event from which to date their era, for it was a turning point. The years of persecution were over, and the years of expansion were begun.
In Medina, Islam became more than a religion. It became a theocratic state. The preachings of Mohammed assumed a more practical tone. It is well to look briefly at the basic concepts, or pillars, of Islam:
CONFESSION OF FAITH: There is no God but the God, Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet.
PRAYER: The Koran does not specify the times or the method of prayer, but morning, noon, mid-afternoon, evening, and early night prayers are universally said in the Moslem world.
ALMS GIVING: This corresponds to the Christian tithe.
FASTING: No food or drink is taken during the daylight hours of the ninth month, Ramadan.
PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA:
Each who is able makes a pilgrimage to Mecca during his lifetime.
HOLY WAR, JIHAD: This last pillar is at times not included because of the impossibility and undesirability of carrying it out. But it played a part of extreme importance in the early period of Islamic expansion.
The last pillar, holy war, was especially effective in recruiting followers from the nomadic tribes who practiced raiding as a logical and accepted means of supplementing a meager desert existence. Here was a chance to make war on non-believers and share the spoils of plunder, of which the fighters got 80%, or to die in holy war and thus gain a place in the promised land with all its darkeyed maidens and cool shade.
By 624, Mohammed’s revelations were more aggressive. “Slay the Infidels [polytheists] wherever you find them; make prisoners, besiege, lay ambuscade against them.” Now at this time the “Infidels” were the pagan Meccans who had persecuted the Prophet.
In 624 Mohammed led about three hundred followers out of Medina and intercepted a Mecca caravan of about 1,000 people near the well of Badr. Fired by the hope of victory or paradise, Mohammed’s band swept the Meccans before them. Seventy “Infidels” were killed, and fourteen Moslems reached paradise. The Battle of Badr was decisive not only as a military engagement but because of its effect on recruiting followers. The appeal of spoils, or paradise, was a strong one.
In 630 Mecca fell to Mohammed and his army of 10,000 without a great struggle. Islam ruled the Arabian Peninsula. Mohammed died two years later. He was sincere in his beliefs from first to last. He was no opportunist preaching a doctrine to feather his own nest. Some state that the Koran, meaning recital, is more similar to the Old Testament than is the New Testament. Islam preaches the oneness of God as do the Hebrew and Christian faiths, all religions born in the deserts of the Near East.
The wave of expansion begun in Mohammed’s ten years in Medina was to continue until the flood of Islam defeated the Roman and Persian armies and flowed to Spain via North Africa.
A sizeable Imperial Byzantine army was met in decisive battle at the Yermuk River in 634. The “Romans,” as the Arabs called them, fought long and hard but were defeated. The strength of the Moslems was not in superiority of arms, organization, or equipment, but in esprit de corps. Of course the Bedouin fighter was more adept at fighting in the desert, at long desert marches, and at lightning raids, than his Byzantine foe. Said a certain Arab officer in refusing a high command, “It is the duty of a general to have a care for his own safety; but as for me, I wish to fight and die martyr for the faith.” In spite of this fanatic fighting spirit, the Moslem administration of conquered territories was orderly.
Damascus fell shortly after the battle at Yermuk. It was followed by Baalbec and Antioch. In 642 Alexandria capitulated to Moslem forces. While operations were being conducted against the remnants of the Roman Empire in the East, Persian forces were also being hard pressed. In 635 there was a battle at Kedesia between the Persians and the Arabs. The battle swayed back and forth for three days. Persian war-elephants were sent against the Moslems but were driven back against their own lines. At last Arab reinforcements arrived and the Persian army was routed. The Moslems were able to cross the Tigris and take the Persian capital of Ctesiphon. Although the Persians were excellent soldiers, it was not many years before the momentum of Islam reached the steppes of Central Asia, and by 643 the borders of India had been reached.
This area east of the Caspian Sea and west of China, generally known as Central Asia, is to most Westerners a dim land from which come famous Bokhara rugs but which plays little part in most conventional history. At the time of the Arab-Islamic conquests, this area was inhabited by various Turanian tribes. W. S. Davis in his Short History of the Near East states: “For the sake of clarity one may call the Tartars those Turanians who ultimately found their way north of the Aral and Caspian Seas into Russia; while the Mongols remained mostly near China, and the Turks entered Southwestern Asia. This classification is wholly unscientific, but decidedly convenient.”
In spite of the warlike and nomadic character of these Turanian peoples, by 1000 A.D., the bulk of the southern Turkish tribes had been converted to Islam. The role that these people were to play in spreading Islam is difficult to overstate, but often overlooked. The Arab-Moslem impetus had exhausted itself in conquering all of the Near East, North Africa, and Spain. It was the fresh blood of these Turanian tribes which gave Islam a new lease on life and spread the Faith to Europe, twice reaching Vienna. By 1100, the Seljuks, a Turanian group, controlled the expanse from the Bosporus far east into Asia. The Seljuk Empire began as an Islamic military renaissance in a region which is presently a part of the Soviet Union.
About 1250, a sizeable Turkish horde was pushed west by Mongol attacks from further to the east. This period was just subsequent to the devastations of Genghiz Khan (Perfect Warrior). The Turkish group found themselves witness to a battle involving two strange armies. These Turanian warriors could not stand idly by and see a good fight, and so they aided what appeared to be the underdog. Their forces turned the tide of battle and Alaeddin, the Sultan of Seljuk Asia Minor, had been rescued.
To express his gratitude, Alaeddin gave the leader of the Turkish band the district in the vicinity of present day Eskisehir, Turkey. In 1288 the leader of the Turanian group died leaving his son, Osman I, ruler in his stead. This was the beginning of the Ottoman Empire which, from the time it defeated Mamluk forces of Egypt in 1516 until its downfall in 1918, ruled the Near East and the Balkans.
Thus it is seen that a culture which began among the Arabian Bedouins about 622 A.D., flooded the Near East, North Africa, and the Iberian Peninsula before exhausting itself. When the Arabic-Islamic force had turned from military conquest to a period of cultural development, the military initiative was assumed by an Arab protégé, the Turanian tribes of Central Asia.
It is ironic that these tribes which formed the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey originated in an area which is now a part of the U.S.S.R.; for the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey have controlled the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, the constant aspiration of Tsarist Russia, and the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics.
The Moslem Central Asian area which is presently under Soviet power fell under Russian control less than one hundred years ago. When the Civil War was ending in the United States, Tashkent was being captured by the Russians. Russian interest had been attracted by Turkestan since early in the eighteenth century. Despite its deserts and mountains, the area east of the Caspian Sea was rich in hemp, cotton, tobacco, silkworms, and minerals. Preliminary attempts to gain control of the area were made in the early 1800’s. These expeditions were for the most part unsuccessful, but succeeded in alarming the British over the safety of India. Russian defeat and humiliation in the Crimean War in 1856 again diverted interest to Central Asia. Following the fall of Tashkent in 1865; Bokhara was invaded in 1866, and in 1868 Samarkand fell to the Russians. The inhabitants of the area, largely Moslems, were brutally subjected. Many fled to China as is evidenced by the large number of Moslems in the Sinkiang Province of China.
During and subsequent to this period of conquest, the Russian Empire endeavored to spread Russian culture, language, and customs to minority ethnic groups, Moslem Central Asia was opened by the construction of railroads and by the strengthening of military installations. All efforts were made to promote Russian culture. It was endeavored to make the area a part of the economic, political, and strategic structure of the Empire.
In spite of Tsarist Russian attempts to digest the Moslem area of Central Asia, European culture was not introduced to any extent until after the Russian Revolution. Moslem nationalities tended to retain their customs and law of the Koran. Child marriage, bride purchase, and polygamy continued among the Uzeb, Kirgiz, and other Moslem peoples. Due to a lack of political reliability, the Imperial Russian government did not dare conscript Moslems from Central Asia. They were left out of the military service in spite of the fact that they constituted a substantial source of man power. The Workers’ Yearly, published in 1906 in St. Petersburg, states that 10.8% of the population in 1897 was Moslem. The Moslem element then comprised a group of fourteen to fifteen million.
Immediately after the birth of the Soviet state, there were active campaigns against all religions, including Islam. Milder measures have since supervened. The Soviets presently support a different policy from that practiced by Tsarist Russia. The attempt to create a central state and a uniformity of culture and ideology has continued; but national groups are allowed, and encouraged, to retain their own culture while at the same time being steeped in the ideology of the homo sovieticus.
The June, 1953, issue of The Soviet Union, a Moscow-published magazine, illustrates this duplicity of cultures. “ . . . local publishing concerns [in Ashkhabad, Turkmen, S.S.R.] publish the works of Lenin and Stalin, Russian and world classics, . . . both in Russian and in the Turkmen language.”
It is obvious that at times the two cultures conflict. It would appear that such a conflict exists relative to the place of women. True Moslems subordinate women as evidenced by the veil, separation of men and women in the mosque, and polygamy. The Stalin Constitution of 1936, guarantees among other things “ . . . equal rights [of women] with men in all spheres of economic, public, cultural, social, and political life.” This guarantee has been implemented largely to increase man power. The Soviet policy of placing women in factories, fields, and other public work is obviously in conflict with the concepts of Islam. True, where Islam has come into contact with Western culture, it has been modified to a great degree; witness the Moslems of Lebanon or Turkey. However, often pressure on a national group will not change the group’s customs, but only make it more conscious of its own heritage. Attempts to Russify Poland met with such resistance.
The Soviets have taken great pains to represent the place of women alongside that of men. It is natural that in the cities they have met with greater success than in the rural areas. To what extent this movement has been successful among the Moslem population of Central Asia is difficult to ascertain. Only through Soviet publications, news releases, and occasional defectors can the West learn what is the reaction of the Moslems in Central Asia to the Soviet proselytism. In this respect it is most interesting to analyze the 1953 issues of the Soviet Union, the Moscow published “social- political” magazine which is printed in six languages besides Russian. Eight of the twelve 1953 copies contained a substantial volume of material devoted to Soviet Central Asia. This practice would indicate that a program is being conducted for the benefit of indigenous Moslems, and for foreign Moslems. No effort has been spared to convince foreign Moslems that all is kak po maslu, smooth as oil, in the Islamic areas of the U.S.S.R. Of the forty pages in the May issue, seven were devoted to two articles on Central Asia.
One of these articles warrants inspection. It is entitled “In the Fields of Usbekistan.” I quote in part. “In the five republics, Uzbek, Kazak, Kirgiz, Turkmen, and Tadzhik, having a total population of 17,000,000, is developed two times the total electrical energy of Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. These countries have a total population of 156,000,000. ...”
Was it only by chance that the Moslem republics of the U.S.S.R. were compared with other nations all of which are Moslem?
The article is designed to say, "Look at us Moslems in the U.S.S.R. Our position is far superior to yours, Moslems of the world!” It would also be effective in appeasing the Moslems at home.
In the November issue, there appears an article on the Fergansky Valley which stretches along the Syr-Darya River through the Uzbek, Tadzhik, and Kirgiz Republics. Although Soviet production figures are exaggerated and usually based on the previous year and expressed as a certain percentage of the previous year, etc.; this article gives more concrete figures for cotton production in Uzbekistan. The article states that two-thirds of all the cotton produced in the U.S.S.R. is produced in the Uzbek S.S.R. Although these figures may be inaccurate, they convey the economic importance to the Soviet Union of Central Asia.
The Republics of Kazakh, Uzbek, Turkmen, Tadzhik, and Kirgiz comprise the principal Soviet Islamic areas, but there are other Moslem areas within the Soviet Bloc. Azerbaijan S.S.R. is three-quarters Moslem. Albania with a population of about 1,200,000 is seventy per cent Moslem. Bulgaria also has a Moslem element. Soviet-Moslem relations are not limited to areas within the Soviet Bloc. Chinese Turkistan (Sinkiang), although nominally under Chinese rule, is under effective Soviet domination. An important Soviet motive for attaining harmony at home is the political effect on all of the world’s 315,000,000 Moslems. It is noted that of this number approximately two- thirds are located in Asia, and only about 170,000 are in the Americas, while European Moslems number some 3,800,000. The bulk of the European component is within the Soviet Bloc. Turkey with a population of about 22,000,000 is the only Moslem nation presently definitely committed to the West. Turkey’s population roughly equals the number of Moslems in the Soviet Bloc. It is then evident that the heart of the world’s Moslem population of some 315,000,000 is yet uncommitted to the East-West conflict.
It is this “neutral” group that has refrained from taking sides in the East-West struggle that we must set our sights on. If this group is won by the Soviets, the blow could be fatal to the West. The importance of good Soviet relations with the Moslems in the U.S.S.R. as a political tool to win this “neutral” group is very evident. Nor have the Soviets overlooked this aspect.
Some experts question that Islam could be made an instrument of the Soviets. It is not a question of Soviet ideology vs. Islam. What Communism is, and what it is sold for, are birds of a different feather.
An inspection of a map of the Moslem world readily identifies the “neutral” area geographically. The Moslem world centers on the Near East, often called Middle East, extending westward along the northern coast of Africa and eastward to Indonesia. The latter country is unfortunately already engaged in a critical struggle with internal Communists. The extreme western areas comprised of Morocco and Algeria are colonies of the French and Spanish. Here Communists have used the appeal of nationalism to work to the detriment of real nationalism. The center, or heart, of Islam remains as a “neutral” area yet uncommitted to the struggle. This is the area that will be won by the West or by the Soviets. It is no Switzerland which can remain, at least initially, neutral.
Historically this “neutral” area has been the aspiration of Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union. In 1853, Tsar Nicholas I, spoke to the British Ambassador to St. Petersburg of l’homme malade. “We have on our hands a sick man—a very sick man. It will be, I tell you frankly, a great misfortune if one of these days he should slip away from us, especially before all necessary arrangements had been made.” The “sick man” was the declining Ottoman Empire which controlled the Near East. The necessary arrangements were of course an understanding of what fruits Russia was to gather from the dying tree. The Russian desire for annexing the exit from the Black Sea was fortunately not satisfied by the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918.
Russian interest in Iran, or Persia, has been equally pronounced. By a secret agreement of March 1915, the Allies promised Russia Istanbul and the Straits, as well as full liberty of action in northern Persia in return for which Britain was to receive full rights to annex the southern portion of Persia. This agreement was never carried out, largely because of the Russian Revolution.
In 1918 the Communist author Troyanovsky pointed out the significance of Iran to Soviet expansion as follows: “The Persian revolution is the key to the revolution of all the Orient, just as Egypt and the Suez Canal are the key to the British domination of the Orient.” The Tudeh party of Iran has done its best to create revolution and instability in Iran.
Unfortunately, a 1921 treaty between Iran and the Soviet Union is still in effect. The Soviet Union can introduce troops into Iran under the following condition: a hostile foreign power organizing elements of the over-thrown Tsarist forces then in Iran in sufficient force to threaten an invasion of the U.S.S.R., would invite the Soviet Union to ask Iran to disperse such a force. If Iran did not or could not disperse the force, then the U.S.S.R. could send in troops for its own protection. These conditions only existed in 1919-1923. They are no longer possible.
What are possible Soviet motives for seeking domination of the Near East other than an outlet into the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf? They are many. The area contains fifty to sixty per cent of the world’s proved oil reserves. In 1951 eighty to ninety per cent of European oil came from this area. If this supply of oil was shut off, the industry of the NATO nations would be adversely affected with a resultant creation of economic conditions favorable to the growth of Communism. Although she would experience difficulty in transporting this oil for lack of a tanker fleet, the Soviet Union would profit greatly from Near East oil.
Control of the Near East by a power unfriendly to the West could close the land- bridge linking Asia, Africa, and Europe, both to naval and to air communications.
Control of the Near East by the Soviets lays open the east flank of NATO defenses and opens wide the doors to all of Asia.
Control of the area increases the radius of the Soviet early-warning system and permits the earlier interception of attacks on the U.S.S.R. in the event of war.
Control of the area could provide the Soviet Bloc with the needed man power to overcome the West’s present superiority in this respect in the European theater. It was not very many years ago that most Westerners were scoffing at the ability of the Chinese to be trained en masse for modern warfare. The presently backward Moslem nations of the Near East would provide equal, if not superior, troops. The Arab Legion of Jordan is an example.
Control of the area need not be complete nor even reach satellite status to be effective. If the Near East is oriented hostilely towards the West, we may still be able to force a landing in the area should the need arise in the event of war. It is more a question of how many troops would be needed to perform security missions and to keep supply routes open than of how many troops would be needed for the landing.
If the West realizes the importance of the “neutral” area and acts intelligently, it will not become “neutraliya,” and all of the aforementioned possible advantages to the Soviets will be cancelled. In addition, we may be able to form some sort of Middle East Defense Organization in order to enable the countries of the Middle East to defend themselves. Recent Turkey-Pakistan mutual defense negotiations are an encouraging step.
It is appropriate to conclude on an optimistic note. The tendency to overestimate the enemy is very current for fear of underestimating him. The Soviets make mistakes, too. If they didn’t, the area in question would already be lost to the West. The Near East is not an inanimate object waiting to be taken into the camp of the East or West. There is a dynamic element at work among the progressive thinkers of the area. Under the initial guidance of Mustapha Kemal, Turkey accomplished the impossible in a short thirty years. She is now a nation with self respect, and a decisive force working for Democracy and the West. The same forces which were influencing Turkey a half century ago are now in evidence in the rest of the Moslem world. The desire for reform and modernization is gaining momentum.