Combatants of Muslim Origin in European Armies in the Twentieth Century: Far from Jihad

Cover page
Halftitle page
Title page
Copyright page
Contents
List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
	What do we mean by ‘combatants of Muslim origin’?
	Native soldiers and imperial order
	Islam, forms of loyalty and resistance
	Islam in European armies: Between institutionalization and practice
	A Muslim experience of war?
	Notes
1 Algerians in the French Army, 1914–1918: From Military Integration to the Dawn of Algerian Patriotism
	France enrols Algerians in the army
	France in the eyes of Algerians: A harsh climate
	The ‘human climate’: How the soldiers were welcomed
	Feelings of exile, between nostalgia and identity
	Incorporating the French army: Between tragedies and integration
	Identity claims, call for jihad and ‘loyalism’
	Algerians in the French army at war: Respected soldiers
	The military order: More egalitarian than the colonial order?
	In Algeria: Hopes of a better tomorrow, and disillusions
	Conclusion
	Notes
	Bibliography
2 Feeding Muslim Troops during the First World War
	The pre-war experience of food management in imperial forces
	The challenge of preserving religious dietary requirements in wartime
	Preserving food practices to enforce discipline and invigorate morale
	Setting up separate food lines for meat
	The faithful’s dilemma about dietary laws: ‘Has God dispensed us all?’30
	A massive presence of traditional food practices in wartime narratives
	Adaptation to lower food standards and tensions
	Conclusion
	Notes
	Bibliography
3 Muslim Askaris in the Colonial Troops of German East Africa, 1889–1918
	The Arab coastal elite
	The ‘Sudanese-askaris’12
	‘Heathens’ becoming Muslim askaris
	Muslim politics contested
	Muslim loyalty on trial: The Mecca letters
	German global strategies and the dynamics of the First World War
	Conclusion
	Notes
	Bibliography
4 Turkic Muslims in the Russian Army: From the Beginning of the First World War to the Revolutions of 19171
	Turkic Muslims in the Russian Army immediately prior to the First World War
	Russian Muslims fighting in the First World War
	The revolutions of 1917: A growth in political awareness
	Conclusion
	Notes
	Bibliography
5 Between ‘Non-Russian Nationalities’ and Muslim Identity: Perceptions and Self-Perceptions of Soviet Central Asian Soldiers in the Red Army, 1941–1945
	Introduction
	Historical background
	The Great Patriotic War
	The Soviet–German propaganda war for the hearts and minds of Central Asian soldiers
	Conclusion
	Notes
	Bibliography
6 Islam, a ‘Convenient Religion’? The Case of the 13th SS Division Handschar1
	Creation of the 13th SS Division and the role of the Bosnian Muslim elite
	Islam in the 13th SS Division: From the ideological project to the ordinary religious life
	SS imams: Between ideological radicalization and relative autonomy
	Conclusion
	Notes
	Bibliography
7 The Officer for Muslim Military Affairs in the First French Army, 1944–1945: An Agent of Control or an Intermediary?
	From the Corps of Arabic Military Interpreters to the Corps of Officers for Muslim Military Affairs: Expertise, control and protection
	The AMM officer in the French Liberation Army: A protector of Muslim combatants, or an intelligence agent?
	Conclusion
	Notes
	Bibliography
8 Haunted by Jinns: Dealing with War Neuroses among Muslim Soldiers during the Second World War
	‘Primitivism’ and ‘fatalism’ among Muslim combatants
	Religion, culture and race
	Conclusion
	Notes
	Bibliography
9 ‘Allah Might Provide the Fuel’: Muslim Sailors in British Colonial Navies, from the Second World War to Independence
	Race and recruitment
	Discrimination and protest
	Nationalism and decolonization
	Conclusion
	Notes
	Bibliography
Glossary
Index