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Also Hans Kannengieser in his "Gallipoli - Significance and course of the campaign, Colonel Hans Kannengieser (p.134-135) realises the importance and influence of the imams & mufti's :
The Turkish
soldier was easily contented and modest, it did not even occur to him not to
accept the authority of his superiors. He followed his leader
Unconditionnally, also ahead into the enemy. Allah wills it. He is deeply
religious and sees his life as the first step to a better one. Directly
under the detonating grenades, shortly before the battalion enters a fight, the
Imam, the army chaplain, normally delivers an address. The impression
gained is always a strange one, particulary when, at the appropriate moments
one can hear an Inshallah (may Allah grant it) from many hundreds of deep mail
voices resound solemnly across the wastelands.
One evening,
the jackals were howling already, I found the address rather long. The
Last updated : 13/09/06
battalion was urgently needed at the front. However, I was careful not to interfere. It would have been ill received from a Christian. The imams were often splendid people who had a great and good influence on the men and would take up a command, if all officers had fallen, even the command of a battalion.
During the
Gallipoli Campaign, battalion imams and regimental muftis carried out a number
of very important functions. Continuously with the troops, they served to
raise the morale, encourage shaken soldiers to resume fighting and at times
even took part in front line fighting. Going round between the firing line
and headquarters, enduring the burden of trench life, burying the dead,
praying over them, writing and reading letters and talking to the wounded;
these spiritual leaders were unforgettable figures of the campaign
"Gallipoli Battlefield Guide", (Istanbul
2006), Gürsel Göncü & Şahin Aldoğan, p. 133