"Thieves" of Istanbul stole "Prophet’s" Properties
Ottomans felt that the resistance in the city of Medina is useless; however, the governor Fakhri Pasha resisted and refused to surrender to the Arab forces besieged him. Before all lines of communication with the Levant via railway were cut off and after the Levant-Medina train movement began to break down in December (1917 A.D.), Germany advised the Ottoman government to withdraw from Medina because of its location at the end of supply Line. Consequently, the city of Medina was the most vulnerable to be attacked when the Allies forces spread in the Levant. Therefore, Anwar Pasha tried to convince Gamal and Tala’t that they must quickly withdraw from the city of Medina; then, Fakhri was ordered to withdraw accordingly. However, he refused to hand-over and withdraw and the government caved in to his opinion. The reason behind this is that they did not have a direct authority to implement Germany’s advice in the presence of the commander of the garrison, Fakhri Pasha, who did not care about the humanitarian catastrophe, which happened to Medina and its people, because of his commitment to his opinion.
Fakhri Pasha with his policy and his resistance on non-surrender prepared to commit a mass suicide, so he deliberately stole the deposits of the Prophet room and sent them to Istanbul. According to an Arab officer, Tahseen Qadri, who was a participant in the garrison of Fakhri Pasha, says regarding Properties Theft: “One dark night, Fakhri Pasha accompanied one of his relatives, officer Amin, and his companion to the Haram al-Sharif. I was worried, as I knew that the Prophet’s deposits will be transferred to Istanbul in wooden boxes, and there was a special train equipped with a large force for that purpose. At midnight, Fakhri Pasha oversaw by himself the transfer of the precious prophetic deposits to the train station. These deposits are of great moral value, as well as historical, religious and material value. Strangely enough though; no Islamic governments called for return of these deposits to their original place. For all I know, these deposits exist in Topkapı Palace, but they are not shown fearing the claims of Islamic governments. “
Arab successors did not commit it ... “Turkish” Sultans dared to do it.
The stolen deposits are Gifts sent to the Prophet room over the previous Islamic governments, when Medina was part of them, such as artworks, swords inlaid with diamonds and pearls, candlesticks, Chandeliers, Incense burners, desks, fans, Rosaries, golden lamps with diamond and sapphire, handwritten Quran book, precious manuscripts, which shall be estimated as billions of dollars in its time. According to a message presented by the Turkish Kandemir from Fakhri Pasha to the government listing the types of properties, it is proved that he left some silverware and things that are not expensive compared with diamonds and gold.
Fakhri stole primarily properties of high value from the Prophet’s room, leaving properties of less value as silverware. This proved that the material value overshadowed the moral value in this context. This confirms it was a real theft, and he has no right to take them and send them to Istanbul. What has been stolen belong to the state as a whole. They belong to the Prophet room, and the gifts in it throughout history; they took them just as thieves did.
The theft was not limited to the properties of the Prophet room only, but it extended it to stealing valuables from the Medina, Including ancient library assets, such as Aref Hekimat library, which contained about more than five thousand folders of valuable books, as well as Mahmoudian library. These books had been transferred to The Tekkiye Mosque in Damascus; they had not been transferred To Istanbul because of the difficulty of the war situation. As these books were the last shipping of the railway train, because after that the road between Medina and the Levant was completely cut off.
They stole the precious properties of the Prophet's room.
British and Japanese documents have been published asking the Turkish government to return the stolen deposits to their natural place aftermath of World War I, considering that incident was a burglary and theft. In Damascus, after the train stopped, unknown individuals stole many of its shipping, including what is currently in Al-Assad Library in Damascus. The article has been supported by British documents published by the Arab Independent newspaper, showing correspondence at that time and the responses of the Ottoman government during (1923 A.D.). This claims and correspondence had been continued after that, and the Turkish government has recognized them after the abolition of the Ottoman rule, but it refused to return them.
Therefore, the properties, which are still in Istanbul and other places, cannot be returned except by the official claim only. What happened was a real full-fledged theft, officially acknowledged by the Ottoman government and then Turkish government, as confirmed by Turkish sources who witnessed the robbery and theft
1) Jamal Pasha Al-safah diary , Translation: Ali Shukri (Beirut: Dar Arab Encyclopedia, 2004).
2) Randall Baker, Kingdom of Hijaz , Translation: Sadiq al-Rikabi (Amman: Al-Ahlya for Publishing and Distribution, 2004).
3) Feridun Kandemir, Defending Medina (the last Turks under the shadow of our Prophet peace be upon him) , Translation: Al Madinah Al Munawwarah Research & Studies Center (Al Madinah Al Munawwarah: D.n, D.t).
4) Sayar Al-Gamail, Tahseen Qadry Diary 1986-1892, the oldest military campanion of King Faisal I (Amman: Al-Ahlya for Publishing and Distribution, 2018).
5)Joanna Halabi, “11 British official documents and correspondence with Turkey recognition of transfering the treasures of the Prophet room to Istanbul, the Arab Independent newspaper”, 31 January 2020.