future, the more European assaults on Turkish territorial
integrity spurred them to defend their threatened independence. The
nationalist ideal was "Ottomanism"--the welding of a real "nation" in
which all citizens, whatever their origin or creed, should be
"Ottomans," speaking the Turkish language and inspired by Ottoman
patriotism. This, however, conflicted sharply with the rival (and prior)
nationalisms of the Christian peoples of the empire, to say nothing of
the new Arab nationalism which was taking shape at just this same time.
Turkish nationalism was also frowned on by Sultan Abdul Hamid. Abdul
Hamid had an instinctive aversion to all nationalist movements, both as
limitations to his personal absolutism and as conflicting with that
universal Pan-Islamic ideal on which he based his policy. Accordingly,
even those Turkish nationalists who proclaimed complete loyalty were
suspect, while those with liberal tendencies were persecuted and driven
into exile.

The revolution of 1908, however, brought nationalism to power. Whatever
their differences on other matters, the Young-Turks were all ardent
nationalists. In fact, the very ardour of their nationalism was a prime
cause of their subsequent misfortunes. With the rashness of fanatics the
Young-Turks tried to "Ottomanize" the whole empire at once. This enraged
all the other nationalities, alienated them from the revolution, and
gave the Christian Balkan states their opportunity to attack
disorganized Turkey in 1912.

The truth of the matter was that Turkish nationalism was evolving in a
direction which could only mean heightened antagonism between the
Turkish element on the one side and the non-Turkish elements, Christian
or Moslem, on the other. Turkish nationalism had, in fact, now reached
the second or "racial" stage. Passing the bounds of the limited, mainly
territorial, idea connoted by the term "Ottomanism," it had embraced the
far-flung and essentially racial concepts known as "Pan-Turkism" and
"Pan-Turanism." These wider developments we shall consider later on in
this chapter. Before so doing let us examine the beginnings of
nationalism's "first stage" in other portions of the Moslem world.

Shortly after the Ottoman Turks showed signs of a nationalistic
awakening, kindred symptoms began to appear among the Arabs. As in all
self-conscious nationalist movements, it was largely a protest _against_
some other group. In the case of the Arabs this protest was natur