Jamal Pasha in the context of II Corps (Ottoman Empire)

The Great Famine of Mount Lebanon (1915–1918) (Arabic: مجاعة جبل لبنان, romanized: Majā'at Jabal Lubnān; Ottoman Turkish: Cebel-i Lübnan Kıtlığı جَبَلِ لُبْنَان قِیتْلِیࢰِی), also known as Kafno (Classical Syriac: ܟܦܢܐ, romanized: Kafno, lit. 'Starvation'), was a period of mass starvation on Mount Lebanon during World War I that resulted in the deaths of about 200,000 people, most of whom were Maronite Christians.

There were many reasons for the famine in Mount Lebanon. Natural as well as man-made factors both played a role. Allied forces (Great Britain and France) blockaded the Eastern Mediterranean, as they had done with the German Empire and Austro-Hungarian Empire in Europe, in order to strangle the economy and weaken the Ottoman war effort. The situation was exacerbated by Jamal Pasha, commander of the Fourth Army of the Ottoman Empire, who deliberately barred crops from neighbouring Syria from entering Mount Lebanon, in response to the Allied blockade. Additionally, a swarm of locusts devoured the remaining crops, creating a famine that led to the deaths of half of the population of the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate, a semi-autonomous subdivision of the Ottoman Empire and the precursor of modern-day Lebanon. Ottoman Mount Lebanon had the highest per capita fatality rate of any 'bounded' territory during the First World War.

The Conquest of al-Hasa was achieved by the forces of Ibn Saud with support from the Ikhwan in April 1913. The oasis of al-Hasa was conquered from an Ottoman garrison, which had controlled the area since 1871.

The Turks were worried by the strong forces that Ibn Saud had gathered in the area of pastures and wells between Riyadh and Kuwait. Jamal Pasha, the governor of Baghdad, threatened to send two battalions to Najd, saying that they would march from one end to the other. The emir of Riyadh answered daringly that he would soon make Jamal Pasha’s task easier by decreasing the distance the battalions had to cover before meeting him. Nadim Bey, the Turkish Mutasarrif of al-Hasa, sent his representative to Ibn Saud to discover his intentions. Ibn Saud claimed that he was going only to attack a tribe in Kuwait. Simultaneously he sent people to Hufuf to purchase a large amount of rice and dates. Through his agents in al-Hasa, the ruler of Najd learned of the location of the Turkish garrisons and established contacts with the local population. The Russian consulate in Basra reported back: