The Proclamation of Baghdad

19 March 1917:
The Proclamation of Baghdad

Lieutenant General Sir Stanley Maude

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The following proclamation was issued to the inhabitants of Baghdad on March 19, 1917, by Lieut. General Sir Stanley Maude, shortly after the occupation of the city by British forces.

To the People of Baghdad Vilayet: 

In the name of my King, and in the name of the peoples over whom he rules, I address you as follow:- 

Our military operations have as their object the defeat of the enemy, and the driving of him from these territories. In order to complete this task, I am charged with absolute and supreme control of all regions in which British troops operate; but our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators. Since the days of Halaka your city and your lands have been subject to the tyranny of strangers, your palaces have fallen into ruins, your gardens have sunk in desolation, and your forefathers and yourselves have groaned in bondage. Your sons have been carried off to wars not of your seeking, your wealth has been stripped from you by unjust men and squandered in distant places. 

Since the days of Midhat, the Turks have talked of reforms, yet do not the ruins and wastes of today testify the vanity of those promises? 

It is the wish not only of my King and his peoples, but it is also the wish of the great nations with whom he is in alliance, that you should prosper even as in the past, when your lands were fertile, when your ancestors gave to the world literature, science, and art, and when Baghdad city was one of the wonders of the world. 

Between your people and the dominions of my King there has been a close bond of interest. For 200 years have the merchants of Baghdad and Great Britain traded together in mutual profit and friendship. On the other hand, the Germans and the Turks, who have despoiled you and yours, have for 20 years made Baghdad a centre of power from which to assail the power of the British and the Allies of the British in Persia and Arabia. Therefore the British Government cannot remain indifferent as to what takes place in your country now or in the future, for in duty to the interests of the British people and their Allies, the British Government cannot risk that being done in Baghdad again which has been done by the Turks and Germans during the war. 

But you people of Baghdad, whose commercial prosperity and whose safety from oppression and invasion must ever be a matter of the closest concern to the British Government, are not to understand that it is the wish of the British Government to impose upon you alien institutions. It is the hope of the British Government that the aspirations of your philosophers and writers shall be realised and that once again the people of Baghdad shall flourish, enjoying their wealth and substance under institutions which are in consonance with their sacred laws and their racial ideals. In Hedjaz the Arabs have expelled the Turks and Germans who oppressed them and proclaimed the Sherif Hussein as their King, and his Lordship rules in independence and freedom, and is the ally of the nations who are fighting against the power of Turkey and Germany; so indeed are the noble Arabs, the Lords of Koweyt, Nejd, and Asir. 

           Many noble Arabs have perished in the cause

           of Arab freedom, at the hands of those alien

           rulers, the Turks, who oppressed them. It

           is the determination of the Government of

           Great Britain and the great Powers allied

           to Great Britain that these noble Arabs shall

           not have suffered in vain. It is the hope

           and desire of the British people and the

           nations in alliance with them that the Arab

           race may rise once more to greatness and

           renown among the peoples of the earth, and

           that it shall bind itself together to this

           end in unity and concord. 

           O people of Baghdad remember

           that for 26

           generations you have suffered

           under strange

           tyrants who have ever endeavoured

           to set

           on Arab house against another

           in order that

           they might profit by your dissensions.

           This

           policy is abhorrent to Great

           Britain and

           her Allies, for there can be

           neither peace

           nor prosperity where there is

           enmity and

           misgovernment. Therefore I am

           commanded to

           invite you, through your nobles

           and elders

           and representatives, to participate

           in the

           management of your civil affairs

           in collaboration

           with the political representatives

           of Great

           Britain who accompany the British

           Army, so

           that you may be united with your

           kinsmen

           in North, East, South, and West

           in realising

           the aspirations of your race. 

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