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 PAN-ISLAMISM is a religious-political ideology that was formed in the second half of the 19th century and became widespread in Muslim countries. Pan-Islamism was the official ideology of the Ottoman Empire in the reign of Abdul Hamid II and had a great impact on the domestic and foreign policy of the state. Thesis of Pan-Islamism, which was suggested by Muslim reformers Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1839-97) and Muḥammad Abduh (1849-1905) and their followers was based on the classical principles of Islam formed in the Middle Ages. The Priority of belonging to any of the Muslim religious communities in the late 19th century was formulated as follows: Islam is a supranational common form of all Muslim nations. By the division of the world into two parts dar al-islam (world of Islam) and dar al-harb (world of war) and the principle of turning “dar al-harb” into “dar-al-islam” through the holy war (Jihad) in the 19th century was defined by the Pan-Islamits in the following way: all the territories inhabited by the Muslims, should be released from the yoke of non-Muslims,  Muslims must unite into one global Islamic state - the Caliphate, which must be regulated by the laws of Sharia. 

If for the Muslim reformers of the late 19th century these ideas were primarily an ideological weapon that they needed to oppose the influence of the West, for Abdul Hamid II it became a religious-political-doctrine through which he justified the preservation of the Ottoman Empire and its transformation into a global Muslim state (until 1924 Turkish sultan was considered to be Caliph i.e. the spiritual leader of all Muslims).

Pan-Islamism was in reality aimed at protecting the interests of secular and spiritual feudals. Pan-Islamists believed that the obstacles in the way of ideas of Islamism should be eliminated. The Armenian people and their national-liberation struggle were one of such obstacles. 

In politics of the Pan-Islamists against the Armenians a considerable importance was also given to geopolitical factors, to the strategic importance of Armenia, as an outpost of the Christian world in Asia.

Pan-Islamism temporarily retreated, when the Young Turks, whose ideology was mainly based on the doctrine of Pan-Turkism, came  into power in the Ottoman Empire, but in the 30s of the 20th century, it became an influential religious and political force along with the establishment of "The Society of the Muslim Brothers"  in Egypt.

  The modern doctrine of Pan-Islamism subordinates man to Allah, praises the Islamic generality, its national and ethnic and hierarchical division opposes to a global Islamic state, to secular state - the divine supremacy.

There are many modern Islamic parties and groups who have chosen different options for their activities - from propaganda to terrorism and armed uprisings.

                                                                                                                          D. Hovhannisyan

Source –Encyclopedia “The Armenian Issue”, Yerevan, 1996.