‘Alī Ḥaydar Pāshā

‘Alī Ḥaydar Pāshā ibn Jābir (Ottoman Turkish: علی حیدر پاشا بن جابر‎; Arabic: علي حيدر باشا‎‎, ‘Alī Ḥaydar Bāshā; April 1866 – 12 May 1935) was an Ottoman politician who served as Emir and Grand Sharif of Mecca from 1916 to 1917 during the Arab Revolt and the First World War.

‘Alī Ḥaydar, the son of Sharif ‘Alī Jābir Pāshā, was born in April 1866 in a yalı belonging to his grandfather, Sharif ‘Abd al-Muttalib, formerly Emir of Mecca, in the Kanlıca neighborhood of Istanbul (Constantinople). He was a member of the Dhawu Zayd, a clan of the Banu Qatada. In 1879 ‘Abd al-Muttalib was appointed Emir of Mecca for the third time and ‘Alī Ḥaydar was sent as a hostage to Istanbul, where he eventually settled in the Çamlıca Hill district. In 1887 he was made a member of the Council of State with the rank of bala.

‘Alī Ḥaydar's second wife was an Irishwoman, Isobel Duncan, who converted to Islam and took the name Fatima. She bore him three children. Their eldest son was educated in Britain, while another son, Şerif Muhiddin Targan, became a musician. Ḥaydar was widely considered an anglophile before the war; he was also a pan-Islamist with close ties to Indian Muslims. In 1908, he was passed over for the Emirate and it was instead given to Ḥusayn ibn ‘Alī, who was older but belonged to the junior Dhawu Awn clan of the Banu Qatada. Ḥaydar, who was considered a liberal on good terms with the Committee of Union and Progress government, was infuriated.

In Istanbul, he served for many years as the naqib al-ashraf, representative of the Hejazi clans. He served as Minister of Waqfs (charitable endowments) from January 1910 in the cabinet of Grand Vizier Ibrahim Hakki Pasha, but he resigned after some time and was replaced by Mustafa Hayri Bey. He also sat for a time in the Imperial Senate. In 1911 the President of the Senate Mehmed Said Pasha was appointed Grand Vizier. Vice-President of the Senate Ahmed Muhtar Pasha was appointed President and ‘Alī Ḥaydar was appointed Vice-President.

There were rumours upon the Ottoman entry into the world war (1914) that Ḥusayn ibn ‘Alī would be replaced by Ḥaydar, but nothing happened for two years. On 10 June 1916, Ḥusayn openly rebelled. Within days, the Grand Vizier Said Halim Pasha had invited ‘Alī Ḥaydar by telegram to replace Ḥusayn and the Minister of the Interior, Talaat Pasha, had visited him at his home to confirm the offer. According to his own account, Ḥaydar reminded Said Halim of their families' intertwined history: "The fall of my own family and the rise of the Aoun, to which Ḥusayn belongs, was entirely due to Mohammed Ali. You are his grandson and I am the great-grandson of Sherif Ghalib whom he deposed. Now God has given you the opportunity to rectify and redeem the crime of your grandfather." In June, Ḥaydar's agent in Jeddah, Ahmed el-Hezazi, was arrested and his house looted by orders of Ḥusayn.

On 2 July 1916, Ḥusayn was formally dismissed as emir of Mecca and on 16 July, Sultan Mehmed V issued an iradé appointing ‘Alī Ḥaydar in his place. On 19 July, ‘Alī Ḥaydar was seen off at the Haydarpaşa railway station by the entire cabinet and the future sultan Mehmed VI. Accompanied by a ceremonial guard of 300 infantry and 25 cavalry, he took a train to Damascus, where he was welcomed by Djemal Pasha. Djemal, who distrusted him, attached Nureddin Bey to his retinue with instructions to kill Ḥaydar if he tried to contact the British. On 29 July, Ḥaydar's party left Damascus; it arrived in Medina, which was being held by Fakhri Pasha against the rebels, on 1 August. On 9 August, Ḥaydar issued a proclamation in response to Ḥusayn's earlier publicly circulated letter:

The enemy has invaded Egypt, the Sudan and India, Yemen, Ahkaf, Oman and vicinity, and this time he made an attempt on Basra. [...] El Sherif Hessein leagues himself with that enemy, and is now trying to place the House of God, the Kibla of Islam, and the tomb of the prophet, under the protection of a Christian Government, at war with the Turkish Government. and doing what it can to subjugate all Moslem nations [...]

The British translated it and published it in their intelligence bulletin, but its publication in India and Egypt was forbidden. Ḥaydar meanwhile secured the allegiance of the tribes around Medina by bribery.

After the Ottoman forces almost captured Mecca in August 1916, they settled down to a siege in Medina. In March 1917 the government ordered the troops withdrawn, but Fakhri Pasha convinced Ḥaydar to get the order revoked. Ḥaydar himself left Medina for Damascus that month. He continued to hold the title Emir of Mecca until the office was abolished by imperial decree in 1919.