Fakhri Pasha - The Defender of Madinah

Fakhri Pasha or Umar Fakhr ud-Din Pasha (1868–1948) was the commander of Ottoman army and governor of Medina from 1916 to 1919. He was nicknamed “the Lion of the Desert” and “Tiger of the Desert” by the British for his patriotism in Medina

Background:

It goes without saying that Madinah is an exceptionally important city. It has only come under attack in very rare circumstances; one such occasion was the famous Battle of Uḥud when the Quraysh had intended to destroy the minority Muslim community of Madīnah...

Another occasion was the Battle of Khandaq (Trenches) – also known as Ahzab (Confederates) because along with the Qurayshi polytheists, local Jewish tribes and many other Arab tribes and groups came together to attack the Muslims in Madinah....

A further occasion was in the 12th Century when crusading Christians planned to exhume the blessed body of the Messenger of Allah (SAW) but were thwarted in their attempts by the great Muslim leader of the time, Nur al-Din Zenghi (raḥimahu Allāhu).

What we are able to establish from the above incidents is that those who have attacked Madinah have always been those who are the enemies of Islam & Muslims.

This brings us on to another attack which took place in the blessed city of Madinah during the reign of the Ottomans.

The Hijāz (which includes both Makkah and Madīnah) occupied a special place in the territories of the Ottoman Caliphate. This had to do with its spiritual authority and thus its great deal of prestige.

Arabia began to play a more important role for the Ottomans....

during the reign of the Caliph, ʿAbdulhamid & his Pan-Islamic policy in the 2nd half of the 19th century. The symbol of this policy the Hijaz Railway, main purpose was to establish a connection between Istanbul & Hijaz, the destination of the annual Ḥajj pilgrimage, & Damascus.

Another important reason was to improve the economic and political integration, unity and brotherhood of the distant Arabian provinces into the Ottoman state, and to facilitate the transportation of military forces.

The Sharif of Hijaz, Ḥussein b. ʿAlī, considered the...

the Hijāz railway a threat to his rule under Ottomans. Since July 1915 he had been engaging in negotiations with Sir Henry McMahon, the British High Commissioner in Egypt, where Hussein agreed that his Hashemite family would lead a nationalistic, Arab rebellion against Ottoman..

rule in return for British pledges of recognition of the Hashemite leadership over the ill-defined Arab Kingdom.

The Sharif was of importance to the British for several reasons, one of which was to tie down the Ottoman forces in the Hijaz preventing them from reinforcing....

the Palestinian front, which the British were hoping to reconquer that which they were unable to do since their defeat during the Crusades.

With the devilish deal completed, Sharīf Hussein declared the Arab revolt on 5 June 1917. Makkah and Jeddah were taken very quickly..

Madinah, proved to be more difficult &one man stood in their way. The offensive of the Sharifian troops on the railway near Madinah was not only repelled, but Ottoman forces even pursued their attackers under the command of Fahreddin Pasha, only arrived in Madīnah a week b4.

Ottoman garrisons of the isolated small train stations withstood the continuous night attacks and secured the tracks against increasing number of sabotages (around 130 major attacks in 1917 and hundreds in 1918 including exploding more than 300 bombs on April 30, 1918).

With the resignation of the Ottoman Empire from the war with the Armistice of Mudros between Ottoman Empire and Entente on 30 October 1918, it was expected that Fahreddin would also surrender. But he refused to do so and simply refused to accept the armistice.

The Al-Saud were also doing deals with the British who, in turn, were also promising them leadership of Arabia in return for their support in overthrowing the Ottomans.

Having lost trust in Sharīf Hussein the Ottoman government tried to replace him with his cousin—Ali Haydar..

Haydar was recalled not even a year after his arrival, and his farewell words to Fahreddin were:

“The protection of this Tomb [of the Prophet] is in the hands of Allāh, but you are His instrument. I leave it in your care. Be worthy of the trust”

One Friday in the spring of 1918, after prayers in Masjid al-Nabawi, Pasha ascended the steps of the pulpit, stopped halfway, and turned his face to the Prophet’s tomb and said loud and clear:
“Prophet of God! I will never abandon you!”
He then addressed the men:

“Soldiers! I appeal to you in the name of the Prophet, my witness. I command you to defend him and his city to the last cartridge and the last breath, irrespective of the strength of the enemy.

Officers of Ottoman army! O little Muhammads, come forward & promise me, before our

Lord and the Prophet, to honor your faith with the supreme sacrifice of your lives.”

Fahreddin Pasha had said that he had a vision in a dream that Prophet Muhammad had ordered him not to submit. 

In August 1918, he received a call to surrender from Sharif Husain of Mecca.

Fahreddin Pasha replied him in these words:
“Fakhr-ud-Din, General, Defender of the Most Sacred City of Medina
“In the name of Allah, the Omnipotent. To him who broke the power of Islam, caused bloodshed among Muslims, jeopardized the caliphate of the Commander of the Faithful

and exposed it to the domination of the British.
He related a dream to Hussein in which the Messenger of Allah (saw) had told Fahreddin to follow him. He ended with these lines:

“As I am now under the protection of the Prophet and most high commander, I am busying myself with.

strengthening the defences and the building of roads and squares in Madinah. I beg you not to trouble me with useless requests.”

He refused to hand over his sword even upon the receipt of a direct order from the Ottoman minister of war.
The Ottoman government was upset upon his

behavior and the Sultan Mehmed VI dismissed him from his post. He refused to do so and kept the flag of Ottoman Sultan high in Medina until 72 days after the end of the war. After the Armistice of Moudros the closest Ottoman unit was 1300 km away from Medina.

On the morning of 9 Jan 1919, a delegation from the Ottomans visited Madinah to persuade Fahreddin to accept the terms of surrender. Fahreddin had, however, retired to the Prophet’s tomb. There he was finally arrested by his own men and the siege was thus brought to an end.

Fahreddin was taken to Egypt as a prisoner of war & later exiled to Malta & held captive for two years. After his release in 1921, he was posted as an ambassador of Turkey to Afghanistan from 1922-1926. He retired from service in 1936 & died in 1948.

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