letters from 1918.
it has always fascinated me how the elements of unconstructive socio-political discourse rarely change, even within an area barely the size of a chick-pea. such a notion makes one wonder whether we are living within an existential battle - as some would have us believe - or if current events can simply be blurred into another oscillation in the cycle of life. for example, below are two letters sent between two leaders (on the eve of Ottoman defeat in WWI).change a few nouns here and there. they could've been written today.
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25 September 1918
To the leader of the great Druze army, Sultan Pasha:
I was informed of your message to the villagers [of a list of villages] asking them to join you in Busra Eski Sham with the sharif. You must stop your endless revenge against the Ottoman state. Our noble ancestors were divided between the British and the [Ottoman] state. You must not divide the Druze again. The [people] have rejected and turned away from your furious excesses and outrages.
[If you do not reject revolt,] we will expel you from the community.
Do not be fooled by illusions. You have deceived the people by claiming that Nablus has fallen with 30,000 prisoners. We do not know this.
Before anyone understands what is really happening, you are trying to convince the ignorant Druze to join the 'snuffbox army' of the sharif.
You must know that, if you continue, both your village and your huge army will be destroyed.
We are not disloyal and our ancestors were not disloyal. They were firmly behind the throne of the state in the time of Sultan Salim [against the Mamluks] and during the time of Ibrahim Pasha al-Masri. This was the way of our ancestors: to fortify the besieged; not your way: the way of disloyalty for money and of subverting the feelings of the community. Division is not the way of our ancestors.
Salim al-Atrash
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Sultan al-Atrash replied the following day.
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26 September 1918
To the leader of the Turkish army, Salim Pasha al-Atrash:
Today I was informed of your fraudulent letter, which was dictated to you by the Turks. I wanted to answer every bit, but my time is too valuable to permit it, especially since you commemorate the dying Turkish state and describe it using words that even the [state's servants] do not themselves use, since they admit the state's impotence.
As for your charges, honoured cousin, it is not we who are disloyal. We have not dined at the Damascus Palace Hotel or entered the garden of the municipal saray. And we have not met any Turk, the murderers of our fathers, and those who disgraced our country.
Read the poems of your grandfather, Shibli, [that] great man of the Druze, who is calling you from his tomb and who told you that you must arm yourself against your enemy, [not against] your friend, and take caution with the treacherous and tyrannical Turks.
We declare a sacred war against the starving remnants of the Turkish army. We advise you to be wise enough to save your remorse. It will not help.
The news that we heard of the fall of Nablus and the victory in Tiberias is [that they cam] at the hand of the state of the world, the master of the seas, Great Britain, our old friend.
As far as the destruction of our community (ta'ifat al-Duruz) is concerned, this news [from Nablus] is reality; it is not news manufactured in Germany or by Ottoman intelligence. It is accurate information.
If you desire the greatest air force in the world, we can deliver it to you. As for the wireless and the telephone, and all of the most advanced means of communication, they are at our disposal because ours is the faction of God. Praise God, the exalted master of all.
As for your debased Turks, 'Malta yok,' in other words, everything they [offer] is lacking, even bread. In the name of our noble family, I will not depart from the way [of our ancestors].
As for the 'snuffbox army,' it is your army that is [a snuffbox army]. Now we are aligned with the great state [of Britain], which rules the mutasarrif of Hawran.
God willing, we will be good heirs to our ancestors and we will protect the honour of the Druze and their future; and we will not allow them to be trampled upon, as you wish to put them under the boot of the most savage state on earth.
Your cousin,
Sultan al-Atrash
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posted by Lazarus, 5:56 PM
