"Lawrence in Arabia" by Scott Anderson
Above: "Lawrence in Arabia - War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East." Scott Anderson. 505 pages.
Back in Britain, Lawrence refused a Knighthood from the king.
I completed reading this book today.
T. E. Lawrence, one of the most recognized personalities of WWI, noted that his popularly acclaimed role in history, that of energizing the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire, was a "sideshow of a sideshow."
The main event. The four year long (1914 to 1918) standoff between the Entente and the Central Powers along four hundred miles of trench line in Belgium and France.
The sideshow. Britain's efforts to subdue the "down but not out" Ottoman Empire, ally (from October 1914) of the Central Powers.
The sideshow of the sideshow. The Arab Revolt and its role in assisting the British to subdue the Ottomans.
With a strong focus on T. E. Lawrence and the Arab Revolt, Anderson's book contextualizes the broader Middle East theater of WWI.
In addition to explicating the role of T. E. Lawrence, Anderson weaves much of his narrative around the exploits of three spooks.
Carl Prufer. A dandy, ladies man, who, in the early part of the war worked as a German spy in the Middle East to foment jihad amongst Muslim British troops. One of Prufer's paramours was the sister of Chaim Weizmann, the leader of the Zionist movement in Britain and later the first president of the state of Israel.
William Yale. A young American oil man with Middle Eastern experience who became the US State Department's representative in Egypt to work with the Brits, and later the Middle East advisor to US delegation at Versailles. Yale was never a "player" in the denouement of WWI in the Middle East... but, he managed to insinuate himself into positions where he could stay informed of events on the ground. His copious notes and unpublished memoirs have become an important source of information of the period.
Aaron Aaronsohn. An agronomist, Jewish settler in Palistine who started a Jewish spy network to work in concert with the British. More importantly, Aaronsohn became a vocal advocate for the growing Zionist cause to carve out a homeland in Palestine for Jewish migrants.
Though a sideshow, the Middle East theater was important for the British. The Suez Canal needed to be protected to guarantee the freedom of movement of Australian and Indian troops to the western front. Mesopotamia (Basra) had Ottoman controlled oil. And, the Turkish straits represented an opportunity for Britain to connect by sea to its Russian ally.
From its Egypt Expeditionary Force (EEF) base in Cairo, first General Murray, later replaced by General Allenby, and British military leaders plotted a strategy to beat the Ottomans in the Middle East.
In late 1914, the British ward off an Ottoman attempt to take the Suez Canal.
In early 1915, the British and the French undertake a failed, misbegotten attempt to force the Dardanelles (Gallipoli).
In mid 1916, the Brits try twice, and fail, to land an army in Palestine. Murray is fired and Allenby brought in.
Later in 1916, British troops make considerable progress marching up the Tigris River basin towards the Basra oil, only to outstrip their supply lines and leave, besieged, 2000 soldiers in Kut.
From the war's beginning in 1914, through 1916, T.E. Lawrence was a low level officer assigned to the Arab Bureau of the EEF in Cairo. By virtue of his considerable experience in the Middle East as an archaeologist, Lawrence became a useful instrument in assisting his superiors to deal with the intricacies of the Middle East.
For one, Lawrence was one of the British delegation to Mesapotamia (present day Iraq) which was charged with "buying, from the Ottoman's," with one million Pounds in gold, the release of the 2000 beseiged British soldiers at Kut. The effort failed. But, with each such experience, Lawrence grew his worth as a Middle East player.
Anderson recounts how Lawrence was able to identify Faisal, third son of Hussein, the reigning Bedouin tribesman, and ruler of the holy city of Mecca, in the western Arabian Hejaz, as a potential leader to bring together Arab fighters to mount a revolt against the Turks as an adjunct to EEF efforts to secure Palestine. As most people know, Lawrence's effort in working with Faisal to mount the Arab Revolt was wildly successful.
Even as late as Christmas 1917, things weren't going that well for the Entente. The Bolshevik revolution in Russia resulted in pulling Russia out of the war. This allowed Germany to shift several divisions of troops faced off against the Russians in the east, for a new assault on the Western Front. The US had entered the war, but it would be over six months before she could supply troops in any meaningful way. Italy had been beaten soundly by the Austrians on the Isonzo River. The French army had mutinied at Verdun in 2016 and hadn't recovered its full, fighting elan. A 2017 British thrust in Flanders (Passchendale) was roundly resisted, at great cost to both sides, by the Germans. The Entente line looked weaker than ever as the German reinforcements from the east began to arrive in the west.
The best news for the Entente in 1917 was British gains in the Middle East, helped in no small way, by T.E. Lawrence's and the Arab tribesmen's foray north in eastern Palestine, in concert with Allenby's thrust north, in the west, on Jerusalem and Damascus.
Lawrence was personally compromised however. He had come to support the idea of post war pan Arab independence in the Middle East shared by Faisal and Hussein. Enter players such as British silver spooner Mark Sykes, charged with mapping out a colonial, post war, post Ottoman Middle East, to be shared by the British with the French.
Lawrence was wired into Syke's efforts and the resulting mental torment arising from encouraging his Arab friends in their post war independence dreams and the knowledge that his own British superiors had other ideas, rendered him a tormented man for the rest of his life.
Today, it is universally acknowledged that the ham handed, cavalier way the Entente victors carved up the post WWI Middle East is at the root of many of the region's problems today.
One of the book's most interesting narratives follows Djemal Pasha, one of the three principal "Young Turks" who led the Ottoman Empire. Djemal was assigned to Jerusalem to be the chief Ottoman potentate for the Middle East.
Djemal used agronomist Aaronsohn to apply his scientific expertise to eradicate an infestation of crickets in Syria. Aarohsohn, however, had decided the likelihood of a Jewish Palestine was more secure by working with the British. Aaronsohn's close linkage with Djemal Pasha, while operating a spy ring in opposition to Dismal. The spy ring was eventually busted and Aaronsohn's sister and some close Aaronsohn associates were tortured and killed by the Ottomans. Aaronsohn, by that time, had escaped to Britain.
Another poignant Djemal Pasha narrative chronicles Djemal's role in the Armenian "relocation." Djemal, responsible for receiving many of the Armenian people who survived the forced march, was actually, in contrast to the brutality of his countrymen, compassionate towards the Armenians to those that survived the brutal forced march from Anatolia to Allepo.
Allenby, with the Arab's and Lawrence's help, having taken Jerusalem in 1917, took Damascas in early 1918. Some historians suggest that the 1918 allied victory in Damascus was the first domino that fell leading to the overall allied victory in WWI.
Lawrence became a folk hero on his return to Britain. Still, he could not countenance what he felt was the British betrayal of the Arabs by promising them post war freedom, but actualizing post war British and French colonialism...not to mention coming clean on the process to carve out of Palestine a homeland for the Jews.
Back in Britain, Lawrence refused a Knighthood from the king in the King's presence!
Lawrence died in obscurity (motorcycle accident riding his beloved Brough Superior) with no family and only a few close friends. Notwithstanding, he was honored with a state funeral at Winchester Cathedral.
I enjoyed the book. It provided great context to understanding the Middle East theater of WWI and contextually augmented my growing understanding of WWI in general. Reading the book also supplied depth to my own travel history. I have traveled extensively though most of the areas discussed in the book. I lived and studied in Cairo for a year, 1964. TIMDT and Mwah (sic) lived in Beirut, Lebanon for six months, during 1972.
Two relevant movies worth watching:
David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia," in most Top Ten Films of All Time lists. It's in my personal collection. I watch it two to three times a year.
"The Promise." A recent film of a love story set in WWI Turkey focussing heavily on the Armenian "Genocide." (Then again, for me, anything with Christian Bale is worth watching).