# Between Two Empires – The Arab Revolts Against the Ottomans in Mesopotamia

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/explaining-history-7091240/between-two-empires-the-arab-revolts-against-the-ottomans-in-mesopotamia
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/explaining-history-7091240/between-two-empires-the-arab-revolts-against-the-ottomans-in-mesopotamia.md
Podcast: [Explaining History](https://stenobird.com/podcast/explaining-history-7091240)
Published: 2026-07-15T16:03:06+00:00
Episode link: http://explaininghistory.org
Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/acast/s/explaininghistory/e/6a57af3ac152a357dbca5aca/media.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/explaining-history-7091240/episodes/between-two-empires-the-arab-revolts-against-the-ottomans-in-mesopotamia
Duration seconds: 1843

## Resource

In this episode of the Explaining History Podcast, we explore the complex dynamics of the Mesopotamian campaign during the First World War – where subject peoples, caught between the collapsing Ottoman Empire and the advancing British, navigated their loyalties with survival in mind.** Drawing on Eugene Rogan's masterful *The Fall of the Ottomans*, we examine the Arab rebellions that erupted in the Middle Euphrates region in 1915. The Ottomans, desperate to hold their empire together, attempted to enforce conscription among their Arab subjects – many of whom had no desire to die in a war they had not chosen. When Ottoman authorities clamped down on deserters, the shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala exploded in rebellion. The rebellion was not nationalist in the modern sense. The rebels did not seek independence; they sought autonomy from a distant Ottoman state that was extracting their young men and disrupting their lives. In Najaf, deserters holed up in the shrine city. When Ottoman soldiers violated local customs by searching under women's veils, the townspeople turned against them. The rebellion spread to Karbala, Al-Hilla, Samawah, and other towns, with rebels burning government buildings, destroying records, and driving Ottoman soldiers out. As the British advanced up the Tigris and Euphrates, local populations made pragmatic choices. Arab villages flew white flags to welcome the new conquerors. The Ottomans, meanwhile, faced a collapse of morale that led to mass surrenders – including at the town of Amara, where a single British steamer with a crew of eight sailors accepted the surrender of hundreds of Ottoman troops. We also explore the divided loyalties of figures like Ali Djaoudat, an Iraqi Arab officer who had served the Ottomans loyally but secretly sympathi…

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