Imagine if you will.
You are in one of the most holiest places on Earth,
the Enlightened City – Medina.
You sit in the Prophet's Mosque.
The whispers of the worshippers recitation of the Quran sing down the halls of the great masjid.
The Prophet and his loyal companions rest in their tombs greeted by millions of their followers.
You are in total peace and serenity.
Suddenly an announcement is made, that an army surrounds the Holy City
and they are here to take it away from you.
You are outnumbered, cut off from any support.
How scared would you be?
Not for yourself, for the Prophet and his beloved city?
What would you do?
Would you run or would you fight?
This is exactly the situation one ottoman commander faced in 1918 in the final chapters of the World War I.
He would stay and defend Medina
even after his superiors told him to abandon the city.
So who was his commander
and why was he so ready to sacrifice himself and his men for the Holy City?
Let's find out.
Fahreddin Pasha was born in Ruce in 1868.
He and his family had moved to Constantinople in 1878
after the devastation of the Russo-Turkish War.
By the time the World War I machine was in full rage, Fahreddin had taken part in battles across Libya, the Balkans
and he was even the commander of a division stationed in Gallipoli.
But these battles and campaigns weren't the only reasons why Fahreddin achieved legendary status.
You see, after the Young Turk Revolution the rise of Turkish nationalism
had further alienated the Arabs, ruled in those Ottoman provinces.
This revolution was marked by extraordinary social
and political transformations which greatly affected the Arabs.
The Arabs were clearly not happy with these changes
and so they staged a Revolt.
The Arabs and their leader Sharif Hussein bin Ali were moving towards Medina.
So the Ottomans needed someone they could trust to do their job and defend Medina.
So in 1916 Fahreddin Pasha was deployed to Medina
as its defender and governor.
From when Fahreddin arrived in Medina in May,
it was a cat and mouse game between him and the British-backed rebellious Arabs.
The first thing that the Pasha had done upon arrival was to make sure that the Sacred relics
and manuscripts in the city were sent safely to Istanbul
so that no one would seize them in fear of destruction.
About 500 manuscripts are currently kept in Medina library of Topkapi palace in Turkey.
Fahreddinhad taken defensive measures within the city
but Sharif Hussein was quick to destroy railway
and telegraph lines around the holy city in June.
However when the Arabs attacked the outpost of Medina
they were unsuccessful and repelled back.
Unlike the unpopular governor of Hijaz,
who had lost the city due to the insurgency of the local Arabs.
Fahreddin was popular amongst the locals of Medina.
He had developed a close relationship with the Arabs in the region
and even took them into his service.
But the odds were still greatly against the commander
as the rebels had already seized cities outside Medina with rapid speed.
Nonetheless he remained loyal to the cause of defending the Prophet city,
despite being surrounded.
He never gave up.
Fahreddin and his troops were cornered and cut off.
He now has no access to aid, food and military supplies.
Also given the fact that the fortress that he's protecting
is stranded in the middle of the desert, this does not make his situation any better.
He and his troops suffered from hunger, thirst and deadly diseases.
All these led to a call for desperate measures and on how desperate they were.
So the Pasha issued the command on June 7th, 1918 about eating grasshoppers.
Yes, you heard that correctly.
He told his men to eat grasshoppers.
Famously he said,
"What is different from a sparrow and a grasshopper?
There are no feathers of it, but it has wings like a sparrow and flies like it.
Feeds on plants, eats clean and fresh things
and it enjoys both tobacco and lemon".
The main food of Bedouins is the grasshopper.
And they owe their health and fitness to the grasshoppers they eat.
Reportedly he had doctors analyzed the grasshoppers
and even recommended four different ways of preparing the less than appealing grasshoppers.
While Fahreddin was enjoying his grasshopper meals,
the Ottoman Empire had accepted defeat
and surrendered its provinces on October 30, 1918 including Medina.
Fahreddin was ordered to deliver Medina and surrender.
The commander did the unthinkable,
when he refused to surrender the Holy city and instead chose to defend it.
So for the next 72 days after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire
Fahreddin Pasha was fighting his own battle for Medina, the city of the Prophet.
Besiege took a toll on both sides. Fahreddin needed all the help he could get.
He would be seen praying constantly and besieging Allah.
In a friday sermon after the prayers in the Prophet's mosque
Fahreddin addressed his troops, "Soldiers, I appeal to you in the name of the Prophet, my witness,
I command you to defend him and his city to the last cartridge and the last breath,
irrespective of the strength of the enemy, may Allah help us and may the prayers of Muhammad be with us".
He then looked at the tomb of the Prophet and said,
"O Allah's Prophet, I will never leave you"
Unfortunately, Fahreddin Pasha would see his darkest days
when his superiors would send his replacement Ali Najib
to negotiate surrender to the British and the Arabs.
They were adamant on the Pasha surrendering the city.
So Ali agreed to hand over Fahreddin.
Ali went to Fahreddin to see how he was doing,
not knowing that Ali had organized the capture of the commander.
Fahreddin had described this as his most painful day when they seized, tied and delivered him to the British.
On January 27, 1919 he was then taken to Egypt as a prisoner of war
and then exiled on August 5th to Malta and held captive for two years.
He was freed on April 8, 1921 and would later pass away on November 22, 1948.
Fahreddin proved to the world his unwavering love for the Messenger
and the Deen of Islam despite his superiors or enemies.
He defended the Prophet city and mosque
even after he was told not to do so by his own sultan
because he loved the Prophet and feared his beloved would land in the hands of the enemy.
During the siege in 1918, he received the call to surrender from Sharif Hussein with Mecca.
Fahreddin's reply was that proof to the world,
he said,
May Allah reward Fahreddin Pasha for his unwavering support for the Prophet
and the religion of Islam.
Ameen.
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