without the consent of his consul. In the Ottoman Empire, where law and
justice are not at a premium, such protection was a wholesome and
necessary policy.

The revoking of the Capitulations was a terrible blow to all the
Europeans, meaning, as it did, the practical abolition of all their
rights. Upon the Arabs it acted like an intoxicant. Every boot-black or
boatman felt that he was the equal of the accursed Frank, who now had no
consul to protect him; and abuses began immediately. Moreover, as if by
magic, the whole country became Germanized. In all the mosques, Friday
prayers were ended with an invocation for the welfare of the Sultan and
"Hadji Wilhelm." The significance of this lies in the fact that the
title "Hadji" can be properly applied only to a Moslem who has made the
pilgrimage to Mecca and kissed the sacred stone of the Kaaba. Instant
death is the penalty paid by any Christian who is found within that
enclosure: yet Wilhelm II, head of the Lutheran faith, stepped forward
as "Hadji Wilhelm." His pictures were sold everywhere; German officers
appeared; and it seemed as if a wind of brutal mastery were blowing.

The dominant figure of this movement in Palestine was, without doubt,
the German Consul at Haifa, Leutweld von Hardegg. He traveled about the
country, making speeches, and distributing pamphlets in Arabic, in which
it was elaborately proved that Germans are not Christians, like the
French or English, but that they are descendants of the prophet
Mohammed. Passages from the Koran were quoted, prophesying the coming of
the Kaiser as the Savior of Islam.