are perhaps a hundred thousand saints in the Ottoman Army; I will not draw my sword against it. I will not join you." He continued: "Those people left me, drew their swords, and the futile Bitlis Incident occurred. A short time, later, the First World War broke out, and the Army took part in it in the name of religion, it undertook the Holy War. A hundred thousand martyrs from the Army attained the rank of sainthood, and confirming what I had said, signed their diplomas of sainthood with their blood..."

• Outbreak of the First World War and the Proclamation of Holy War

It seems likely that the outbreak of War in November 1914 saw Bediuzzaman back in Istanbul. According to Esref Kuscubasi, initially Bediuzzaman thought the Ottomans should remain neutral, "but on the War breaking out, he took up arms and hastened to the front."

Three days after the Ottomans, together with Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, had declared war on the Triple Entente, that is, Britain, France, and Russia, they proclaimed it a Holy War. Their aim in this was to call on all Muslims throughout the world to unite under the banner of the Caliphate, and rid the Islamic lands of the imperialist yoke of Europe. That they should have done so is understandable when it is remembered that, as has been mentioned, the movement for Islamic Unity or `Caliphate Policy', to which Sultan Abdulhamid had attached such importance, had been continued by the CUP after the Constitutional Revolution. And despite the rise of nationalism among even some of the Muslim peoples of the Empire, the Caliphate continued to be a potent means of mobilizing Islamic feeling, and a point round which Muslims would rally. It is also interesting to note the terms in which the British Prime Minister of the time, Lloyd George, saw the war with the Ottomans. Cemal Kutay quotes him as saying: "...the Crusaders