page_title: Niedermayer–Hentig Expedition
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Niedermayer–Hentig Expedition / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: 35th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and 114th caliph of Islam, Mehmed V.Türkçe: Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun 35. padişahı ve 114. İslam halifesi, V. Mehmed ReşadFrançais&#160;: 35e Sultan de l'Empire Ottoman et 114e calife de l'islam, Mehmed VDeutsch: 35. Sultan des Osmanischen Reiches und 114. Kalif des Islam, Mehmed V.Español: 35. Sultán del Imperio Otomano y 114. califa del Islam, Mehmed V.Português: 35. Sultão do Império Otomano e 114. califa do Islão, Mehmed VItaliano: 35. Sultano dell'impero Ottomano e 114. califfo dell'Islam, Mehmet VNederlands: 35. Sultan van het Ottomaanse Rijk en 114. Kalief van de İslam, Mehmet VDansk: 35. Sultan af det Ottomanske Rige og 114. Kalif af İslam, Mehmed VSuomi: 35.Sultan Ottomaanien Valtakunnan ja 114. Kalifi İslamin, Mehmed V.Svenska: 35. Sultan av Osmanska Riket och 114. Kalifen av İslam, Mehmet VPolski: 35. Sułtan Imperium Ottomańskiego i 114. kalif İslamu, Mehmed VNorsk nynorsk: 35 år. Sultanen av det Ottomanske Riket og 114. Kalifen av Islam, Mehmet V.Azərbaycanca: Osmanlı İmperatorluğunun 35. padşahı və 114. İslam Xəlifəsi, V. Məmməd RəşadAfrikaans: 35. Sultan van die Ottomaanse Ryk en 114. Kalief van Islam, Mehmet VRomână: 35. Sultan al Imperiului Otoman și 114. Calif al İslamului, Mehmed V.Русский: 35. Султан Османской империи и 114. Халиф Ислама, Мехмед VΕλληνικά: 35. Σουλτάνος ​​της Οθωμανικής Αυτοκρατορίας και 114. χαλίφη του Ισλάμ, Μεχμέτ Ε'Հայերեն: 35. Սուլթան Օսմանյան կայսրության եւ 114. կրոնապետ իսլամի,Մուհամմեդ V中文: 35。皇帝奥斯曼帝国和114。伊斯兰教哈里发 穆罕默德五世日本語: 35。オスマン帝国のスルタンと114。イスラム教のカリフ,メフメト5世한국어: 35.오스만 제국 및 114의 술탄. 이슬람의 칼리프,메흐메트 5세العربية: 35. سلطان الدولة العثمانية و 114. الخليفة للإسلام محمد الخامسעברית: 35. סולטן של האימפריה העותומנית ו114. ח'ליף האיסלאםמהמט החמישי Title: Sultan of Turkey Medium: 1 negative&#160;: glass&#160;; 5 x 7 in. or smaller. Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ggbain-13752 (digital file from original negative) Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication. Call Number: LC-B2- 2776-6 [P&amp;P] Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 &#160; United States https://www.loc.gov/index.html Notes: Title and date from data provided by the Bain News Service on the negative. Forms part of: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress). General information about the Bain Collection is available at https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/ggbain/ Additional information about this photograph might be available through the Flickr Commons project at https://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/3819817499
context_page_description: The Niedermayer–Hentig Expedition, also known as the Kabul Mission, was a diplomatic mission to Afghanistan sent by the Central Powers in 1915–1916. The purpose was to encourage Afghanistan to declare full independence from the British Empire, enter World War I on the side of the Central Powers, and attack British India. The expedition was part of the Hindu–German Conspiracy, a series of Indo-German efforts to provoke a nationalist revolution in India. Nominally headed by the exiled Indian prince Raja Mahendra Pratap, the expedition was a joint operation of Germany and Turkey and was led by the German Army officers Oskar Niedermayer and Werner Otto von Hentig. Other participants included members of an Indian nationalist organisation called the Berlin Committee, including Maulavi Barkatullah and Chempakaraman Pillai, while the Turks were represented by Kazim Bey, a close confidante of Enver Pasha.
  Britain saw the expedition as a serious threat. Britain and its ally, the Russian Empire, unsuccessfully attempted to intercept it in Persia during the summer of 1915.
context_section_description: In August 1914, World War I began when alliance obligations arising from the war between Serbia and Austria-Hungary brought Germany and Russia to war, while Germany's invasion of Belgium directly triggered Britain's entry. After a series of military events and political intrigues, Russia declared war on Turkey in November. Turkey then joined the Central Powers in fighting the Entente Powers. In response to the war with Russia and Britain, and further motivated by its alliance with Turkey, Germany accelerated its plans to weaken its enemies by targeting their colonial empires, including Russia in Turkestan and Britain in India, using political agitation.
  Germany began by nurturing its pre-war links with Indian nationalists, who had for years used Germany, Turkey, Persia, the United States, and other countries as bases for anti-colonial work directed against Britain. As early as 1913, revolutionary publications in Germany began  referring to the approaching war between Germany and Britain and the possibility of German support for Indian nationalists. In the war's early months, German newspapers devoted considerable coverage to Indian distress, its social problems, and British colonial exploitation.
  German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg encouraged this activity. The effort was led by prominent archaeologist and historian Max von Oppenheim, who headed the new Intelligence Bureau for the East and formed the Berlin Committee, which was later renamed the Indian Independence Committee. The Berlin Committee offered money, arms, and military advisors according to plans made by the German Foreign Office and Indian revolutionaries-in-exile such as members of the Ghadar Party in North America. The planners hoped to trigger a nationalist rebellion using clandestine shipments of men and arms sent to India from elsewhere in Asia and from the United States.
  In Turkey and Persia, nationalist work had begun by 1909, under the leadership of Sardar Ajit Singh and Sufi Amba Prasad. Reports from 1910 indicate that Germany was already contemplating efforts to threaten India through Turkey, Persia, and Afghanistan. Germany had built close diplomatic and economic relationships with Turkey and Persia from the late 19th century. Von Oppenheim had mapped Turkey and Persia while working as a secret agent. The Kaiser toured Constantinople, Damascus, and Jerusalem in 1898 to bolster the Turkish relationship and to portray solidarity with Islam, a religion professed by millions of subjects of the British Empire in India and elsewhere. Referring to the Kaiser as Haji Wilhelm, the Intelligence Bureau for the East spread propaganda throughout the region, fostering rumours that the Kaiser had converted to Islam following a secret trip to Mecca and portraying him as a saviour of Islam.
  Led by Enver Pasha, a coup in Turkey in 1913 sidelined Sultan Mehmed V and concentrated power in the hands of a junta. Despite the secular nature of the new government, Turkey retained its traditional influence over the Muslim world. Turkey ruled Hejaz until the Arab Revolt of 1916 and controlled the Muslim holy city of Mecca throughout the war. The Sultan's title of Caliph was recognised as legitimate by most Muslims, including those in Afghanistan and India.
  Once at war, Turkey joined Germany in taking aim at the opposing Entente Powers and their extensive empires in the Muslim world. Enver Pasha had the Sultan proclaim jihad. His hope was to provoke and aid a vast Muslim revolution, particularly in India. Translations of the proclamation were sent to Berlin for propaganda purposes, for distribution to Muslim troops of the Entente Powers. However, while widely heard, the proclamation did not have the intended effect of mobilising global Muslim opinion on behalf of Turkey or the Central Powers.
  Early in the war, the Emir of Afghanistan declared neutrality. The Emir feared the Sultan's call to jihad would have a  destabilising influence on his subjects. Turkey's entry into the war aroused widespread nationalist and pan-Islamic sentiments in Afghanistan and Persia. Th
caption: Mehmed V, the Sultan of Turkey, was then regarded as the Caliph by a substantial part of the Islamic world.
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