Page:Turkey, the great powers, and the Bagdad Railway.djvu/86

 to undertake efficiently an international service involving high speeds over the whole line."[13]

From the political point of view, too, there were reasons for giving preference to German capitalists. Abdul Hamid was seeking moral and material assistance for the promotion of his favorite doctrine of Pan-Islamism. He sought to foster this movement, which looked toward the unification of Islamic communities for resistance to Christian European domination over the Moslem world. As Caliph of the Mohammedan world, Abdul Hamid placed himself at the head of those defenders of the faith who had been propagating the idea that Mussulmans everywhere must resist further Christian encroachment and aggression, be it political, economic, religious, cultural. That the Sultan's primary motives were religious is doubtful. Apparently he believed that the Pan-Islamic movement could be utilized to the greater glory of his dynasty and his empire. As the tsars of Russia had utilized their position as head of the Orthodox Church for the purpose of strengthening the power of the autocracy, so Abdul Hamid proposed to exploit his position as Caliph for purposes of personal and dynastic aggrandizement.[14]

In awarding the Bagdad Railway concession, which was of such considerable economic and political importance, it was essential to choose the nationals of a power which would be sympathetic toward Pan-Islamism. Would it be Russia, whose tsars had set fires in Afghanistan, sought to destroy the independence of Persia, and threatened all of the Middle East? Would it be Great Britain, whose professional imperialists were holding in subjection more than sixty million Mohammedans in India alone? Would it be France, whose soldiers controlled the destinies of millions of Mussulmans in Algeria and Tunis? These nations could have no feeling for Pan-Islamism other than fear and hatred,[15] for it threatened their dominion over