I was in 7th
grade in 1991 when the first Gulf war started. Allied air forces were
targeting Iraqi military with all their precision guided munitions in
conjunction with latest target acquisition systems. I was traveling
to Peshawar in public transport and heard people discussing the war.
They were saying confidently that due to the shrine of Hazrat Abdul Qadir
Jilani RA in Baghdad (Iraq), the US and Allied bombs are not
exploding. They believed in the miracles. Later on, we came to learn
that Iraqi military has been expelled from Kuwait and now Allies are
going into Iraq itself and that Iraqis have suffered serious losses.
People of low development have shown such behaviour in almost all
parts of the world, regardless of their religion. Belief in miracles,
witchcraft and superstition induce naive and credulous men to become
cannon fodder. A General does not depend upon miracles for success of
his campaign. He calculates and plans for everything that he needs to
have before going to the battle. One reason that the mutinies and
numerous armed movements of the Indian Muslims against the British
power in India (1757-1947) did not succeed is that calculating and
experienced British Generals were fighting against locals led by
priests (or baba), pirs and fakirs (a hermit) who relied upon
miracles and divine intervention for success. Lets take a tour of the
military history for some case studies.
Kamikaze Winds of
Japan
The China-Japan enmity is
perhaps as old as the civilization of China itself. Towards the end
of the 13th century, when the Mongol prince Kublai Khan
had become the King of China, he prepared an expedition against
Japan. A great naval fleet was sent towards Japan but due to strong
storm winds, the whole Chinese fleet was dispersed and Japan could
not be conquered. Interesting, this happened once again, hurricanes
preventing the Chinese fleet from landing on Japan. Japanese called
these as “heaven-sent or Kamikaze” brought by the God of Wind.
Later on during the Second World War, the name Kamikaze was given to
the pilots flying suicide missions against US Naval fleet, giving
them a divine aspect. It was of course a desperate measure and could
not turn the tide of the war.
Cape of Good Hope
(South Africa)
Prince Henri The
Navigator of Portugal (1394-1460) could not be the king because he
was not the eldest son but was entrusted with an important task by
his father, that is, to explore navigation in the open seas. The
ultimate goal for explorers of that time was to circumnavigate Africa
and go across the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) en route to Asia.
Rumours and superstition prevented sailors to go south of the Cape
Bojador. It was said that ships drown and are sucked into a gigantic
hole in the ocean near the Cap, that people get burnt from heat, that
there are dangerous sea animals in those waters etc. It was also
believed that Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean are not linked and
there is no sea route to the east across Africa. These rumours were
planted by Venician traders so that they can maintain their monopoly
on the trade with Indies and Africa [1]. A daring captain of Prince
Henri finally crossed the Cape Bojador in 1456 and in the year 1487,
the Cape of Good Hope was reached too (Southern most tip of Africa).
The discovery of the sea route to Orient opened the way for military
conquests too.
Magicians against The
Spanish Conquistadors
After the conquest (or
reconquest) of the Arab Spain (Andalusia) in 1492, the mighty Spanish
military machine turned itself to other destinations and adventures,
including occupying territories in the Central Europe (The
Netherlands) and the newly-discovered Continent of America. These
soldiers, called Conquistadors, concentrated on the South America. In
the year 1519, the Conquistadors, led by Hernan Cortes, invaded the
kingdom of Aztecs. The King of Aztecs believed in the powers of his
magicians. When the Spanish Army invaded his country, he sent his
royal magicians against the invading Army. The magic spells were of
no use against the experienced Spanish Knights and the kingdom was
conquered.
Akhoond of Swat
(British India , 1794-1877)
Akhoond Abdul Ghaffur or
Saidu Baba was a prominent religious leader of Swat of his time and
widely known to perform miracles. While he is known for his
conciliatory, peaceful and non-interference policies, he did
participate in a few wars against the Sikhs and the British. Despite
his spiritual prowess, he did not succeed in his confrontations with
the Sikhs and the British.
The following excerpt is
taken from [2]. “Swat itself is a considerable province of
Afghanistan, bordering on India, and just southwest of the Pamirs.
The Akhoond was not, however, its civil ruler. At any rate, he was
not nominally so. The title Akhoond merely means "teacher,"
and he was, primarily, a religious teacher and nothing more. He lived
in the town of Saidu, and he reached manhood and began to teach the
people more than half a century ago, when Dost Mohammed was Ameer of
Cabul. An intense fanatic and a mystic, he exerted a marvelous sway
over the people of Swat, who like all the Afghan tribes, are nervous,
imaginative, and given to mysticism. So he became not only their
spiritual prophet, but their military leader as well. He led the
hosts of Islam against the Sikhs, in the days when Dost Mohammed
planned to conquer all India, and many are the stories told of his
prowess. Nor did he fight alone against the Indians, but in 1863 he
led the Afghans in their battle with the British at Umbeyla, and made
himself the most feared man in all the Afghan empire.
When not busy in the
wars, the Akhoond was always to be found at Saidu. From sunrise to
sunset he sat in his mosque, reproving the erring, comforting the
mourners, encouraging the faithful, and cursing the obstinate
unbelievers. Disputes of every sort were brought to him for
settlement. Troubles of all kinds were brought to him to be made
right. Hundreds of miracles were performed by him every day. The sick
were made well in an instant. A man would come, lamenting that his
horse was lost, and would find it the next moment at the door of the
mosque. A carpenter was bewailing that a beam was three feet too
short for the needed purpose, and in a twinkling it grew to exactly
the length required. A visitor in the city wished to return speedily
to his home in Constantinople, thousands of miles away. He was bade
to close his eyes, and the next moment opened them in his home.
To tell the people of
Swat that these things were not so, would have been equivalent to
telling them that light was darkness. No wonder, then, that the
Akhoond was a power in the land, and that Ameer after
Ameer sought his
assistance. Shere Ali was the last. When he began his last struggle
with the British, he begged the Akhoond to lead his armies as of old.
But death stepped in, and the Akhoond passed into history. Yet still
his virtues abide. The mosque in which he taught is the holiest place
in all Swat, and miracles are daily wrought there. The Akhoond's son
does not succeed him as a teacher, but he inherits the worldly
possessions of the Akhoond, and these are enough to make him the
richest man in all Swat”.
Sartor Fakir or Mad
Fakir of Swat (British India, 1897)
In the aftermath of the
defeat of the Mujahideen and their allies in the Umbeyla campaign of
1863, including the Akhoond of Swat, an agreement was signed between
Swatis and British. It was agreed that British would not annex Swat
and in return the Swat's Yousafzais would not molest the British
subjects or indulge in anti-British activities[3]. This agreement was
adhered to for some thiry years untill after the Chitral expedition
of 1895, when the British needed to build a road to Chitral that had
to cross Swat. To safeguard the route, posts were established at
Chakdara and Malakand. After some initial resistance in 1895, the
people of Swat accepted the British posts. The priests like Hadda
Mullah (Hajab-ud-din), however, were preaching Jihad against the
British. Reinforced by preachings of The Sartor Fakir (Sa'dullah
Khan), the masses rose in rebellion in 1897. It is said that the
Fakir came from Buner and gradually gathered following by preaching
to the local population. He declared a holy war on the unbelievers
and claimed that he has support of the heavens. Before an attack on
the Malakand post, he promised that enemy bullets shall be turned
into water through divine intervention and thus they would not be
harmed. Incidentally, the rebels suffered their heaviest losses in
that attack. The people themselves were blinded by their ignorance,
credulity and fanaticism whereas their leaders did not know how a war
was fought and won. An excerpt from the book [3], “Amongst the many
miracles with which he was credited was one which bears a close
resemblance to well-known Biblical instance. Every man of his
following brought him daily a handful of rice, as is the custom when
visiting a holy man. Of this, the Mullah, with considerable acumen,
took advantage, stating that he would feed his followers, who
numbered several thousands, out of the contents of a small jar which
he kept outside his abode, and it apparently never occurred to the
people that they were but receiving back their own offerings”.
Mahdi of Sudan (Sudan,
1899)
Towards the end of the
19th century, Sudan was ruled by Egypt and Egypt itself
was under the British control. Sudanese rebelled against their
masters under the leadership of a religious figure known as Mahdi or
“the expected saviour”. Here again, full use was made of the
miracles and divine or heavenly support to recruit the local youth.
These beliefs were reinforced by the initial minor successes against
the British Army. In a battle with the British, the Mahdi received
some wounds and these were instantly hidden from the eyes of locals
because it would have meant that the Mahdi does not have the divine
protection [4]. From [4], “Mahdi
retired to a mountain in Kordofan to which he gave the name of Jebel
Masa, that being the mountain whence 'the expected Guide' is declared
in the Koran sooner or later to appear”. It was in this campaign
that the British General, Lord Kitchener made widespread use of
machine guns for the first time, killing the Sudani Negros by the
thousands. In the words of Winston Churchill [4], “In savage
warfare, in a flat country, the power of modern machinery is such
that flesh and blood can scarcely prevail, and the chance of a battle
are reduced to minimum”.
Boxer rebellion
(China, 1900)
After the Chinese defeats
in the First and Second Opium Wars in 1820s and 1840s and the Arrow
War in 1850s, European colonial powers gained important concessions
in China. They declared special areas or cantons inside China that
were out of bound for the Chinese authorities. They opened up several
ports for their trade with China and in addition the missionaries
intensified their activities. In response, the Chinese peasants
staged a mutiny against the European imperialism and this resulted in
Boxer Rebellion (1900). The boxers were an irregular militia, apart
from the regular Chinese Army. To recruit young men into their cause,
boxers spread the rumours that they were bullet-proof. Such claims
beguiled the youth into joining the boxer ranks but did not prove to
be valid and did not help to gain victory either. After the failure
of Boxers, even the Chinese queen turned against them. Both the
Chinese royal authorities and Allied Army started persecution of the
rebels. As expected, Japan had helped the Allies against China in
both the Arrow war in 1850s (Allies : British and French) and
expedition against Boxers in 1900 (Allies : Europeans, Russians,
Americans and Japanese).
Mullah Fazlullah of
Swat (Pakistan, 2007)
During a military
operation of Pakistan Army against the Taliban militants of Swat in
2007-2008, Mullah Fazlullah, the Commander of Swat Taliban, escaped
capture due to strong winds blowing at that time. He interpreted the
winds as “divine intervention” from the heavens and proof that
God is on his side[5]. Events proved that this favour did not last
for long and he had to escape to Afghanistan. The same analogy to
divine winds was used earlier by the Fakir Ippi of Waziristan during
the British period when he was being chased by the troops and managed
to escape capture.
[1] Prince Henri Le
Navigateur, Les Découvreurs (DVD).
[2] Golden Days for Boys
and Girls, Volume XIII, No. 51, November 12, 1892.
[3] A Frontier Campaign :
A Narrative of the Operations of the Malakand and Buner Field Forces,
Lieutenant Fincastle and Lieutenant Eliott-Lockhart, 1898.
[4] The River War : An
Account of the Reconquest of the Sudan, Winston Churchill, 1902.
[5] I am Malala, Malala
Yousafzai and Christina Lamb, 2013.
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