Description

Contemporary quarter brown morocco. Red boards. Staining on the red cloth. Roy. 8vo. (25 x 17 cm). In Ottoman script (Turkish with Arabic letters). 64 p. Extremely rare first and only edition of this Turkish guide to the Turkish delegation of intelligence officers formed within the Niedermayer-Hentig Expedition, also known as the Kabul Mission to carry out counter-activities in the region against the British and Russian alliance, to return from India, through Russia, Afghanistan, and Iran, published after the expedition failed in 1916. This work both in very rare institutional holdings and market rarity is probably printed in no more than 100 copies. It was expected from the Turkish delegation, organized by Ömer Fevzi Bey, who was in charge of the Eastern Branch of the Turkish Intelligence (Teskilât-i Mahsûsa), by reaching Afghanistan through Iran and bringing "Jihad-i Akbar" to this country, to provide an important ally on the Indian border and to support the pro-independence Indian committees and an uprising against the British rule in India and the region. This book was prepared by the Ottoman Army Headquarters-General Intelligence Branch in 1916, during the First World War. In its introduction, the commission described their purpose of publishing this book, which is providing secret information to officers and other staff of the Ottoman army who will travel to Iran, Afghanistan, and Russia, telling them which roads to use, how to use their passports, where and how much food they need to take with them, etc., otherwise being a very comprehensive and detailed guide to the officers. The first chapter includes Iran and its environment, and the second chapter includes Russia and its environment. The first addendum contains detailed passport information, and the second part consists of the routes and towns requiring passports. According to the introduction, references of this book are some early British sources and reports by "Kralliik siyasi ve sehbenderhane zâbitâni, sabik müsahid atasemiliteri" H. Smith,  "Harbiye Nezâreti Erkân-i Harbiye-i Ummiyesinden" A. D. Geddesi and "Istihbarat Subesinden" Captain S. M. Gibbon. Additionally, they are Foreign Ministry's 'tahrirât' documents, Intelligence Branch's 'kuyudâti', and a Russian railways guide printed in 1909. The Niedermayer-Hentig Expedition was a diplomatic mission to Afghanistan sent by the Central Powers in 1915-1916. The purpose was to encourage Afghanistan to declare full independence from the British Empire, enter World War I on the side of the Central Powers, and attack British India. The expedition was part of the Hindu-German Conspiracy, a series of Indo-German efforts to provoke a nationalist revolution in India. Nominally headed by the exiled Indian prince Raja Mahendra Pratap, the expedition was a joint operation of Germany and Turkey and was led by the German Army officers Oskar Niedermayer and Werner Otto von Hentig. Other participants included members of an Indian nationalist organization called the Berlin Committee, including Maulavi Barkatullah and Chempakaraman Pillai, while the Turks were represented by Kazim Bey, a close confidante of Enver Pasha. The mission failed in its main task of rallying Afghanistan, under Emir Habibullah Khan, to the German and Turkish war effort, but it influenced other major events. In Afghanistan, the expedition triggered reforms and drove political turmoil that culminated in the assassination of the Emir in 1919, which in turn precipitated the Third Anglo-Afghan War. It influenced the Kalmyk Project of nascent Bolshevik Russia to propagate socialist revolution in Asia, with one goal being the overthrow of the British Raj. Other consequences included the formation of the Rowlatt Committee to investigate sedition in India TBTK 13568.; Not in OCLC.

Lingue: Turkish, Ottoman (1500-1928)