The proclamation of a “Holy War” by the Sheikh-ul-Islam at
Constantinople has excited interest above and beyond its connection
with the present war. It has raised the whole question of the validity
and effectiveness of this measure as a political instrument in the
hands of a modern Mohammedan government. Students of Islam have asked
themselves of what use this weapon, taken from the arsenal of a
theocratic form of sovereignty, could be in a state which is in process
of conforming to the present-day theory of secular and democratic
control. The development of the Ottoman Empire since the granting of
the Constitution in 1908 has been followed with an interested eye
by those of us who have felt the immense possibilities inherent in
the Turkish people and latent in Turkish soil. It is with distinct
pleasure that we read the following study of a knotty problem; for it
is worked out with the hand of a master. There are few so well equipped
or so competent to effect such a study--especially in the relations of
the question to the larger problems of the day--as is Dr. C. Snouck
Hurgronje. One of the rare Europeans who have ever travelled in that
part of Arabia considered by Mohammedans to be sacred and exclusive,
his stay of eight months in the capital of their faith (1884-1885)
enabled him not only to write the most complete and the most reliable
history of that city (_Mekka_, Leiden, 1888), but also to talk with the
faithful from all the corners of the Mohammedan world. As Councillor
to the Government of Netherlands-India, he spent the years 1889-1906
in Batavia, where he came into closest touch with the development of
Islam in the farthest East. He has laid down many of his conclusions
in his comprehensive work on the Achehnese (_De Atjehers_, Leiden,
1903-1904; English translation, London, 1906). His scholarly lectures
on the origins of Islam, given before various American university
audiences in the spring of 1914, will long be remembered for the
cool judgment and the careful poise they evinced. In the periodical
publications of learned societies he has contributed numerous essays
which easily place him in the very forefront of authorities on the
subject which he has made his own.
The study which is here presented to the English-reading public
appeared originally in the Dutch periodical _De Gids_, 1915, No.
1, under the title “Heilige Oorlog Made in Germany.” It has been
ably translated by Professor Joseph E. Gillet of the University of
Wisconsin, with the distinct attempt to preserve as much of the style
of the author as the English language will permit. I am glad of the
opportunity to express publicly my thanks to Professor Gillet for the
readiness with which he accepted the task I laid upon him.