The Middle East has traditionally been overshadowed in the history of World War I, despite the fact that the long-term impact of the “Great War” is more visibly seen here today than in many other regions of the world.
A new wave of history books is putting the Middle East back into focus, however, highlighting its critical role during this period. Beyond the romanticized narrative of Lawrence of Arabia, many significant developments unfolded in the region, often overlooked in mainstream histories. Jonathan Wyrtzen’s “Worldmaking in the Long Great War: How Local and Colonial Struggles Shaped the Modern Middle East” (Columbia University Press, 2022) is the latest contribution to this growing field of literature.
Wyrtzen argues that World War I was a chaotic moment when multiple futures were, for a brief time, possible for the Middle East. His work spans the period from 1911 to 1934 and covers a vast geographic area from Morocco to Iran, challenging conventional narratives that present the region as a passive recipient of European colonial designs. The Rif Wars in Morocco, the Kurdish revolts, and the Great Syrian Revolt are all covered in detail.
The echoes of that early 20th-century turmoil are unmistakable in more recent conflicts. For example, Da’esh’s bulldozing of the Syrian-Iraqi border in 2013 was framed as a blow to the legacy of the Sykes-Picot Agreement. Even in Morocco, one of the most politically consolidated states in the region, there are lingering memories of the Rif Republic—a short-lived but significant anti-colonial entity.
This era of history is ripe for re-examination. It is often mistakenly asserted that Dien Bien Phu (1954) was the first time entrenched Western troops were decisively defeated by indigenous forces in the field.
This is simply not true as this book demonstrates. The Senussi victory at Gasr Bu Hadi (1915), where entire garrisons of Italian forces were overrun, is a case in point. Similarly, Arab victories during the Rif Wars in Morocco against French and Spanish forces, and Syrian resistance against French colonialism, are key examples of earlier indigenous successes.
Religious movements were at the core of many of these anti-colonial struggles. For instance, the Sheikh Said Rebellion in Anatolia attracted the attention of Winston Churchill as a significant geopolitical issue. In Libya, the Senussi movement fused Sufi and traditional Sunni practices to resist Italian colonial forces, including troops later led by Mussolini. Elsewhere, Mussolini had broader ambitions in the Middle East, and as Wyrtzen notes, his government sought strong ties with the Imamate in Yemen to bolster their influence.
The book’s chapter on Syrian affairs (pp. 145–180) is particularly compelling, covering French colonialism in depth rarely seen in English-language works. Conversely, the story of how Ibn Saud consolidated control of Saudi Arabia and suppressed the Ikhwan (the “Brotherhood”) is well-trodden territory but is effectively retold by Wyrtzen (pp. 205–230).
The scope of the book could have been expanded to include the greater Middle East, incorporating regions like Somalia and Afghanistan. For example, at the end of World War I, Afghanistan fought the Third Anglo-Afghan War (1919), asserting its independence from the United Kingdom.
Meanwhile, in Somalia, the uprising led by Muḥammad ibn ‘Abdallāh Hassan—dubbed the “Mad Mullah” in colonial propaganda—was a quintessential interwar conflict. This rebellion had far-reaching consequences, influencing Somali resistance movements into the modern era. Notably, during the height of the East African campaign of World War I, German forces contemplated a desperate assault on Kenya, mistakenly believing that Muḥammad ibn ‘Abdallāh Hassan’s forces were preparing an invasion of Kenya as well.
Wyrtzen’s book fits into a broader historiography that places the Middle East not on the fringes of World War I but at its very center. The most influential of these texts is Sean McMeekin’s “The Russian Origins of the First World War” argues that Moscow’s ambitions to seize Istanbul (Tsargrad) and parts of the Ottoman Empire played a critical role in sparking World War I from the tinder of colonial ambition.
The enduring popularity of Lawrence of Arabia’s memoirs and the later film adaptation has perpetuated the characterization of the Middle Eastern theater as a romantic sideshow. However, even as European powers slugged it out in the trenches, all was not quiet on the Middle East and North African Front.
Wyrtzen excels at delving into obscure diplomatic cables and overlooked historical documents, revealing moments when history could have taken dramatically different turns. His argument that local actors played a critical role in shaping the region’s modern borders and political dynamics challenges long-held assumptions about the period. “Worldmaking in the Long Great War” is a must-read for those interested in colonial studies, the Middle East, or the great “What Ifs” of history.
