[INCITING "HOLY WAR" AMONG MUSLIM ENTENTE PRISONERS OF WAR] El Dschihad: Zeitung für die muhammedanischen Kriegsgefangenen (al-jihād) [Jihad: a newspaper for Muslim prisoners of war]. No. 40 ("Russische Ausgabe", August 19, 1916).

Berlin: [Nachrichtenstelle für den Orient], 1916. Folio (47 × 32 cm). Single bifolium lithographed to recto and verso; [4] pp. Decorative header in Arabic, printed title in German, contents lithographed in Russian. Horizontal crease; some foxing and toning to edges; else very good. Item #55168

A rare document of the multi-lingual output of newspapers printed by Prussian authorities for Muslim prisoners of war in the south of Berlin, primarily at the "Halbmondlager" (Crescent Moon Camp) at Wünsdorf (today a part of Zossen). Different print runs were issued in Arabic, Russian, and Tatar for the journal "El-Jihad"; the Hindi and Urdu editions of the related "Hindostan" newspaper; as well as a Georgian-language edition. The present issue is in Russian. The newspapers were issued in Berlin between March 1915 and October 1918 by the Intelligence Bureau for the East (Nachrichtenstelle für den Orient), founded in 1914 and initially directed by Max von Oppenheim (1860–1946), a diplomat and archaeologist who was driven by the idea of radicalizing Muslim POWs in order to win them for a Holy War against the colonial powers of Britain and France. In 1916, the Bureau was taken over by Eugen Mittwoch, a prominent German Jewish Orientalist. The contributors included some of Germany's leading Eastern Language specialists of the period.

Oppenheim had urged Mehmed V, the Ottoman ruler and self-styled Caliph of all Muslims to call for a "Holy War" against the Entente, and to thereby unite various Muslim populations throughout the Middle East, Asia, North Africa, and India against Germany's own enemies. The Caliph obliged shortly after the Ottoman Empire entered the conflict in 1914. As a result, the Bureau published propaganda leaflets urging Muslim Entente soldiers at the front to switch sides, while also working to improve the image of Muslims among the German populace through a specially printed journal. Attempts were made to entice captured soldiers to shift allegiances, too, by providing an unusually high standard of living at the "Halbmondlager" and making concessions to religious customs, such as the construction of the first mosque ever built in Germany and a Muslim cemetery. A second camp, the so-called Weinberglager, housed soldiers of the Tsarist Army, including those from the Caucasus, for whom a Georgian-language version was published. All in all, 83 issues appear to have been printed of the various editions of the newspaper.

As of June 2025, KVK, OCLC show holdings of the various versions at three institutions outside Germany, all of them in North America.

Price: €800.00

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