Jafar Al-Askari - World War I and The Arab Rebellion

World War I and The Arab Rebellion

When World War I broke out, Ja’far first fought on the side of the Ottomans and the Triple Alliance in Libya. His campaign started in Dardanelles, after which he received the German Iron Cross and was promoted to General. After his promotion he was sent to command the Senoussi Army in Libya. At the Battle of Agagia Ja’far was captured by the British led forces and incarcerated in a citadel in Cairo with his friend and later brother-in-law Nuri as-Said. Ja’far made one escape attempt by fashioning a rope out of blankets to scale the citadel walls. During this attempt, the blanket broke and Ja’far fell, breaking his ankle leading to his being captured by the guards. According to his obituary, Ja’far offered to pay for the blanket as he was on friendly terms with his captors.

Some time after his escape attempt (either while recovering or on parole), Ja’far learned about the nationalist Arab Revolt against the Ottomans led by the Hashemite leader of the Hijaz, Hussein bin Ali, the Sharif of Mecca. This Revolt had been sponsored by the British forces and the Triple Entente so as to open up an extra front inside the Ottoman Empire in order to bleed them from internal rebellion. In exchange, the British had promised to create an Arab country led by Husayn. This promise is embodied in the Husayn-McMahon Correspondence. Upon reading about the Arab Revolt and due to an increasing hostile Ottoman approach to Arab affairs (his friend Salim Al-Jazairi was executed along with other prominent Arabs for nationalist activities by another Ottoman general, Jamal Pasha), Ja’far decided that this was precisely in line with beliefs he had and decided to switch sides from the Ottomans to the Hashemite Revolt forces along with his friend Nuri as-Said. At first Sharif Husayn was hesitant to let Ja’far, a former general in the Ottoman army, join his forces, but eventually relented and Ja’far was invited by Husayn’s son, Amir Faisal, to join in the fight against the Ottoman Empire. Ja’far fought under Amir Faisal throughout this period up until the fall of the Ottoman Empire, including Faisal’s assault on Damascus in 1918.