m the Atlantic to the Indian
Oceans. Thus, Arab nationalism, like Turkish nationalism, was evolving
into the "second," or racial, stage.

Deferring discussion of this broader development, let us follow a trifle
further the course of the more restricted Arab nationalism within the
Turkish Empire. Despite the Pan-Islamic sentiment evoked by the
European aggressions of 1911-12, nationalist feeling was continually
aroused by the Ottomanizing measures of the Young-Turk government, and
the independence agitation was presently in full swing once more. In
1913 an Arabian nationalist congress convened in Paris and revolutionary
propaganda was inaugurated on an increased scale. When the Great War
broke out next year, Turkey's Arab provinces were seething with
seditious unrest.[145] The Turkish authorities took stern measures
against possible trouble, imprisoning and executing all prominent
nationalists upon whom they could lay their hands, while the
proclamation of the "Holy War" rallied a certain portion of Arab public
opinion to the Turkish side, especially since the conquest of Egypt was
a possibility. But as the war dragged on the forces of discontent once
more raised their heads. In 1916 the revolt of the Shereef of Mecca gave
the signal for the downfall of Turkish rule. This revolt, liberally
backed by England, gained the active or passive support of the Arab
elements throughout the Turkish Empire. Inspired by Allied promises of
national independence of a most alluring character, the Arabs fought
strenuously against the Turks and were a prime factor in the _debacle_
of Ottoman military power in the autumn of 1918.[146]

Before discussing the momentous events which have occurred in the Arab
provinces of the former Ottoman Empire since 1918, let us consider
nationalist developments in the Arabized regions of North Africa lying
to the westward. Of these developments the most important is that of
Egypt. The mass of the Egyptian people is to-day, as in Pharaoh's time,
of the old "Nilotic" stock. A slow, self-contained peasant folk, the
Egyptian "fellaheen" have submitted passively to a long series of
conquerors, albeit this passivity has been occasionally broken by
outbursts of volcanic fury presently dying away into passivity once
more. Above the Nilotic masses stands a relatively small upper class
descended chiefly from Egypt's more recent Asiatic conquerors--Arabs,
Kurds, Circassians, Albanians, and Turks. In addition to thi