Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Helena Cobban, The Palestinian Lib-

eration Organisation: People, Power and Politics (Cam-

bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984); David Hirst, 

The Gun and the Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in 

the Middle East (New York: Thunder’s Mouth/Nation 

Books, 2003); Graham Usher, Palestine in Crisis: The 

Struggle for Peace and Political Independence after Oslo

(London: Pluto Press, 1995).

pan-Islamism

 

(pan-Islam)

One of the responses Muslim leaders had to the 

colonization of their lands by European powers 

in the 19th century was what Europeans called 

pan-Islamism. This was an attempt to forge a 

modern Islamic political unity (ittihad-i Islam) 

based not on nationality, ethnicity, or geography, 

but on membership in the 

umma

, the universal 

community of Muslims. Although this idea has 

its roots in memories of Islamic unity in the 

foundational era of m

Uhammad

 (d. 632) and 

the first caliphs, it was more directly inspired 

by 19th-century nationalist movements among 

Slavs, Greeks, and others.

The pan-Islamist idea first took hold during 

the 1870s in the lands of the Ottoman Empire, 

which had been losing territory to the Russian 

and Austro-Hungarian empires since the 17th 

century. It was promoted by Sultan Abd al-

Hamid II (r. 1876–1909) and supported by the 

Islamic reformer/activist J

amal

 

al

-d

in

 

al

-a

Fghani

(1838–97) and later by Said Nursi (1878–1960). 

The Ottomans had already initiated extensive 

administrative reforms, the t

anzimat

, aimed at 

modernizing the state and limiting the influence 

of traditional Islamic authorities and other oppo-

nents. As part of his pan-Islamist program Abd 

al-Hamid revived the symbolic importance of the 

caliphate

 in an effort to win the support of Mus-

lims even beyond the boundaries of the Ottoman 

Empire, where he sought to convince Muslims 

that he was upholding the faith on their behalf. 

He also built a new railway that carried pilgrims 

to the sacred cities of m

edina

 and m

ecca

 from 

Istanbul, the Ottoman capital, and other locations 

along its path. In the 1870s al-Afghani traveled to 

Afghanistan and other Muslim lands, including 

Iraq, India, Iran, and Russia to promote the pan-

Islamist cause. Al-Afghani returned to Istanbul 

from his mission in 1892, where he died a few 

years later.

Abd al-Hamid’s efforts on behalf of Muslim 

unity enjoyed little success. He encountered strong 

opposition from a well-organized coalition of secu-

larist reformers known as the Young Turks, who 

succeeded in forcing him to leave the throne in 

1909. Pan-Islamism was also undermined by other 

nationalist currents that were stirring in Ottoman 

lands and India, and it failed to rally non-Sunni 

Muslim minorities like the Shia. British support 

for the Hashimites in the Arabian Hijaz helped end 

Ottoman control and paved the way for Saudi con-

quest in the 1920s. Abd al-Hamid’s own authoritar-

ian character was also detrimental. Pan-Islamism 

was used to rally Muslim support for the Ottoman 

alliance with Germany against Britain, France, and