Resources: Articles, Books, Research Papers, Images, Audio and Video….

There are many research papers as well as books, videos and podcasts which deal with the Turkish struggle to defend their country against Western imperialism and the role of Indians, both Muslims and Hindus, in supporting their cause.

Apart from mobilizing the general public in large gatherings where the difficulties being faced by the Turks in the face of Western imperialism was highlighted, Indian leaders, including Gandhi, raised funds for the Turkish troops, as well as sent a medical mission to cure the injured soldiers in the 1st Balkan war.

Also notable was the Indian delegation that went to the UK and other European capitals to speak up for the Turkish cause.

The following online and offline resources are a good source of information to vindicate the active role played by people of the Indian subcontinent in supporting a great Eastern nation in their fight against Western imperialism. To add context, I have also included links to material on the History of the Ottomans, History of Islam in India, British rule in India, and the like.

Please see the section on Urdu Resources for content available in the Urdu language. I plan to add a section listing resource material in Turkish, once I learn the language myself.

  1. Mirat ul Memalik (“The Mirror of Countries”) is a historical book written in 1557 by Ottoman admiral Seydi Ali Reis about his travels in South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. The English translation is available here

  2. People’s Mission to the Ottoman Empire,  M.A. Ansari and the Indian Medical Mission

  3. The Khilafat Movement: Religious Symbolism and Political Mobilization in India, by Gail Minault

  4. The Khilafat Movement In India -1919-1924  By A. C. Niemeijer, Hague
  5. Silk Letter Movement (Reshmi Rumal Tehreek)
  6. Khilafat Movement in Malabar
  7. Khilafat Movement in Tamil Nadu
  8. Role of Memon Community during the Caliphate Movement
  9. A Short biography of Abdullah Haroon, Member of the Central Khilafat Committee
  10. A short biography of Khilafatwale Osman Sait of Bangalore
  11. Inside India, Outside of Kemalism: Analysis of Halide Edib’s Writings on Anti-Colonialism
  12. Muslims of British India and the Kemalist Reform in Turkey, Iqbal, Jinnah and Atatürk:
  13. What happened at Gallipoli
  14. Have We Forgotten Shibli
  15. The Victory Prayer of Ottoman Army at Gallipoli
  16. Turkey In The First World War
  17. Ottoman Dynasty Foundation Facebook Page

  18. Podcast of Dr. Ansari and the Indian Medical Mission to the Ottoman Empire (1 hr: 30 min)

  19. The Indian Khilafat Delegation at the Woking Mosque, 1920

  20. Pierre Loti, French Novelist who Loved Ottomans
  21. A full-length feature film in Malayalam on the ‘Mapillah (Moplah) Uprising’ in support of the Caliphate in Turkey
  22. Modern Turkish Historian discusses Turkey’s ties with subcontinent’s Muslims
  23. Al-Nanawtawi’s Islamic Political Ideology: Paradigms from Rudad, Sawanh Qasimi and other Selected Writings
  24. Tipu Sultan’s Relations with the Ottoman Empire
  25. A healing touch: How a team of Indian Muslims made history
  26. When Pashtun Soldiers refused to fight against Ottomans
  27. The Memorandum of Indian Muslims in Britain to the British PM on the Ottomans
  28. Remembering the Ottoman Empire’s Forgotten Indian Allies

  29. Muslim Merchant Capital and the Relief Movement for the Ottoman ..

  30. An Enquiry into the Structure of Pan-Islamism in India : The Phase of the Italo-Turkish and Balkan Wars, 1911-1913

  31. British Opinion and the Turkish Foreign Policy: (From Lausanne to Mosul: 1923-1926)

  32. Urdu Political Poetry during the Khilafat Movement

  33. The Moplah uprising in Malabar (1921-22)

  34. A clip from PayeThat, a popular TV Serial, showing Abdul Hamid II receiving a chest of jewelry and cash sent by Indian Muslims
  35. Scholars Recall Shibli’s Role during a Critical Period
  36. Video of Talk by Maulana Arshad Madani in Turkey about Maulana Al Nanawtawi
  37. The Indian Muslims Red Crescent Society’s Aid to the Ottoman State During the Balkan War in 1912 by Zuhal OZAYDIN of the Istanbul University Cerrapasa Medical School, Department of Deontology and History of Medicine, Turkey published in the Turkish Red Crescent journal
  38. Interview with Burak Akçapar, former Turkish ambassador to India, author of the book ‘People’s Mission to the Ottoman Empire’.
  39. The Moplah Rebellion Reconsidered: Islamic Insurrection in Southern India, 1921-1922
  40. Kerala BJP-RSS “distorting” history, Muslim family which helped Moplah rebels also “funded” India’s freedom struggle
  41. A Mosque, A Mandir and Me: Malegaon and the the Story of Hindu-Muslim Unity. How the Right-Wing distorted history.
  42. Revisiting Khilafat House in Mumbai
  43. The Image of ‘Turkey and Turkish Democracy in
    Iqbal’s  Thought ….
  44. The Alleged Armenian Massacres of 1915-16
  45. The Reaction of Indian People to the Abolition of Khilafat in Turkey
  46. Entrance of Turkey into WWI
  47. Gallipoli: a Turkish view
  48. Indian Muslim hero in Turkey’s liberation war
  49. Turkish leaders proudly remember Ottoman WWI victory in Iraq
  50. Turks still debate whether Treaty of Lausanne was fair to Turkey
  51. World War I: Gallipoli Campaign (Britannica)
  52. The long shadow of the Ottoman decline
  53. Podcast on “Shibli Nomani’s Urdu Travelogue of the Ottoman Empire”
  54. Podcast: Ottoman Ulema and the Second Constitutional Revolution
  55. Ottoman History Podcasts
  56. The Khilafah and the Indian Subcontinent
  57. The Turkish Victory that the British Wishes to Forget: Kut Al Amara
  58. Why we don’t hear about the 10,000 French deaths at Gallipoli
  59. Gallipoli Part I: Naval Attack on the Dardanelles
  60. Life as a Turkish POW after the Siege Of Kut
  61. Darus Salam recaps Indian Subcontinent help to Turkish national struggle
  62. The brotherhood of two societies goes back decades: Interview with Burak Akçapar (Author of the book on Indian Medical Mission to Ottoman Turkey)
  63. Abdul Hamid II ambitious Hejaz Railway route depicted on Google Maps
  64. Remembering Amjadi Begum (1885 – 28 March 1947)–Wife of Mohammed Ali Jauhar
  65. 8 Things You May Not Know About the Gallipoli Campaign
  66. Indian Muslim Contributions to the Turkish Red Crescent Society from their Archives (1912-1916).
  67. A contemporary Turkish news report on some unknown facts of the Indian Medical Mission to Ottoman Turkey (Right-click “Translate to English” on the webpage)
  68. An interesting article in a Turkish site on the Indian Red Crescent Society’s fountains and wooden mosque in Omerli. (You can easily translate the page in English).
  69. A short but succinct article on a die-hard supporter of the British, even if it meant opposing the Ottoman Khilafat. Perhaps, he regretted his decision in the last years of his life. But, how his end came to him is very painful.
  70. Burmese Kachin Soldiers deployed by the British to quell the Mappila Uprising, due to their experience in jungle warfare