movements: "Pan-Turanism," "Pan-Arabism," and (most amazing of apparent
paradoxes) "Pan-Islamic Nationalism."

I

Let us now trace the genesis and growth of nationalism in the Near and
Middle East, devoting the present chapter to nationalist developments in
the Moslem world with the exception of India. India requires special
treatment, because there nationalist activity has been mainly the work
of the non-Moslem Hindu element. Indian nationalism has followed a
course differing distinctly from that of Islam, and will therefore be
considered in the following chapter.

Before it received the Western impact of the nineteenth century, the
Islamic world was virtually devoid of self-conscious nationalism. There
were, to be sure, strong local and tribal loyalties. There was intense
dynastic sentiment like the Turks' devotion to their "Padishas," the
Ottoman sultans. There was also marked pride of race such as the Arabs'
conviction that they were the "Chosen People." Here, obviously, were
potential nationalist elements. But these elements were as yet dispersed
and unco-ordinated. They were not yet fused into the new synthesis of
self-conscious nationalism. The only Moslem people which could be said
to possess anything like true nationalist feeling were the Persians,
with their traditional devotion to their plateau-land of "Iran." The
various peoples of the Moslem world had thus, at most, a rudimentary,
inchoate nationalist consciousness: a dull, inert unitary spirit;
capable of development, perhaps, but as yet scarcely perceptible even to
outsiders and certainly unperceived by themselves.

Furthermore, Islam itself was in many respects hostile to nationalism.
Islam's insistence upon the brotherhood of all True Believers, and the
Islamic political ideal of the "Imamat," or universal theocratic
democracy, naturally tended to inhibit the formation of sovereign,
mutually exclusive national units; just as the nascent nationalities of
Renaissance Europe conflicted with the mediaeval ideals of universal
papacy and "Holy Roman Empire."

Given such an unfavourable environment, it is not strange to see Moslem
nationalist tendencies germinating obscurely and confusedly throughout
the first half of the nineteenth century. Not until the second half of
the century is there any clear conception of "Nationalism" in the
Western sense. There are distinct nationalist tendencies in the
teachings of Djemal-