Combatants of Muslim Origin in European Armies in the Twentieth Century Far From Jihad

During the two World Wars that marked the 20th century, hundreds of thousands of non-European combatants fought in the ranks of various European armies. The majority of these soldiers were Muslims from North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, or the Indian Subcontinent.

How are these combatants considered in existing historiography? Over the past few decades, research on war has experienced a wide-reaching renewal, with increased emphasis on the social and cultural dimensions of war, and a desire to reconstruct the experience and viewpoint of the combatants themselves. This volume reintroduces the question of religious belonging and practice into the study of Muslim combatants in European armies in the 20th century, focusing on the combatants' viewpoint alongside that of the administrations and military hierarchy.

Xavier Bougarel is a Researcher in the Marc Bloch Centre, Berlin, Germany.

Raphaëlle Branche is Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Rouen, France.

Cloé Drieu is a Researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, France.

Introduction
Part I – Army and the State Facing Religious Diversity
1. Defenders of Islam and Western Civilisation? Pro-Muslim Propaganda in France and Germany, 1914-1918 (Michelle Mann, Brandeis University, USA)
2. Muslim Military Affairs Officers: Informants or Go-Betweens? The Case of the French First Army
(Claire Miot, Institute for Social Sciences of Politics (ISP), Paris, France)
3. Islam, a 'Convenient Religion'? The Case of the 13th SS Division Handschar (Xavier Bougarel, Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin, Germany)
4. Between Non-Russian Nationalities and Muslim Identity: Perceptions and Self-Perceptions of Soviet Central Asian Soldiers in the Red Army, 1941-1945 (Kiril Feferman, Moscow State University for Humanities, Moscow, Russia)
5. Feeding Muslim Troops during the First World War (Emmanuelle Cronier, University of Picardy, Amiens, France)
Part II – Faith and Religious in Wartime
6. There Is No Doubt that This Is Not an Ordinary War, but a Very Great One: Understanding Muslim Religious Practices and Identity from World War Two (Mujadad Zaman, University of Cambridge, UK)
7. Muslim Askaris in the Colonial Troops of German East Africa (Tanja Bührer, Centre for Global History, Oxford / German Historical Institute, London, UK)
8. 'Allah Might Provide the Fuel': Muslim Sailors in British Colonial Navies, from the Second World War to Independence (Daniel Owen Spence, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa)
9. Turkic Muslims in the Russian Army 1914-1917 (S.M.Iskhakov, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow)
10. Haunted by the Jinns: Muslim Soldiers Failing to Fight during the Second World War, and the Military Establishment's Responses (Julie Le Gac, Institute for Social Sciences of Politics (ISP), Paris)
Bibliography
Index

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.