Lawrence Of Arabia

By R. H. Kiernan

In a letter which I received from Lawrence on the day of his fatal accident, he wrote, Most children are fed up with the war and the inclination among its survivors to treat it as a matter of significance. I sympathize with them the last war is always a bore for the next generation. There is, of course, such a thing as hearing too much about those days in the conversation of ones elders, but it would be difficult to find anyone, young or old, who is not interested in the striking figure of Lawrence and in what he did in the Revolt of the Arabs. It is a tale of desert rides and raids, with battle, murder, and massacre, under molten skies or in bitter, driving gales and snow. Here I have indicated those scenes and also tried to show the man himself, his pair for tactics in the field, his more unusual gift of understanding the strategical results of his successes, the magnetism which drew the Bedouin to him, and the high soul and genius which transcended all these things But the story does not consist merely of thrills. In the maps, only the necessary places are marked which appear in the text, but the reader must study them, note the relation between places-particularly along the Pilgrims Railway from Damascus to Medina-and remember the scale, so that he will be able to estimate the distances between them. Without this the meaning of his marches, feints, and destructive raids cannot be realized. The better the map is known, the more the deadly game played by one of the most magnificent guerilla- leaders in the worlds history will be understood and appreciated. R. H. K.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: May 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9781473385771

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CAMPAIGN

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA

CHAPTER I

BRITAIN, TURKEY, AND THE ARABS

The Turkish Empire—Britain and Russia—Turkey’s new ally—Arab unrest—Hussein and his family—The Jihad, or Holy War—The Revolt begins.

I

ABOUT the middle of the nineteenth century, the Turkish Empire stretched across the Near and Middle East from Persia’s border to Albania, and possessed a shadowy authority in North Africa. With the central government at Constantinople, Turkish rule extended from the Black Sea to southern Arabia, and within the Empire’s frontiers there lived many Christian peoples, such as the Armenians in Asia Minor and the Bulgars and Serbs in the Balkans. Northward the might of Russia pressed against the frontiers, and Turkey often had cause to be uneasy. For one thing the Czar’s avowed desire and privilege was to protect the Christian subjects of the Sultan, who were often brutally treated by their Mahomedan rulers. This ill-treatment was by no means always due to intolerance of the Infidel—sometimes it rose out of greed for plunder where a Christian community was prosperous; and again because some of the subject peoples were very conscious of nationality, and chafed under foreign rule. The Greeks had already won their independence.

Turkey’s strong neighbour had another reason for anxiety and irritation, for this weak, ill-knit, backward, heterogeneous State lay across the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, Russia’s doorway to the Mediterranean.

So the Czar Nicholas of Russia, who greatly admired the English and their institutions, suggested that the Turkish Empire should be partitioned, Britain taking Egypt, and Russia setting up independent states in the Balkans, under her protection. Modern historians can see now that it would have been well for the world had Britain agreed, and that she might even have gone farther, allowing Russia to occupy Constantinople. But at the time when this excellent suggestion was made, general opinion in England regarded the Czar as a hopeless tyrant, and knew little of his honest intentions. Russian promises were considered deceptive and unreliable, and there was a fear that Russia would gain more power, wealth, and prestige in the Mediterranean.

Britain therefore supported Turkey, as in the Crimean War, against the Czar and his successors. During the Russo-Turkish War, though public opinion in Britain was horrified at the Bulgarian atrocities, it reacted adversely to Russia when the Czar’s troops invaded Turkish territory. British warships stood as guardians to Constantinople, the reserves were called out, and troops were moved from India to Malta. But the English people were often angered, disgusted, and horrified—angered by Turkish slackness in attending to financial commitments, disgusted and horrified by terrible massacres of Christians. Even when Russia turned her back on Constantinople and set herself to develop her Empire farther east, there were other Powers keenly interested in Turkey’s fate. Austria was nervous about her outlet for trade which ran by the Danube to the Black Sea. Germany saw possibilities for commercial expansion through Constantinople and the Middle East. The Turkish Government knew that one Power could be played off against the other, where all were suspicious. In the middle ’nineties, when the Turks glutted themselves with the plunder and massacre of Armenians, it seemed that their judgment was correct, for the Powers merely looked on.

But in the early years of the present century, Britain and Russia became more friendly, so that when war began in 1911, over Tripoli, between Italy and Turkey, the Turks looked in vain to their old protector, who, in fact, had already possessed herself of Egypt. By this time the Turkish Empire had been lessened by the Balkan peoples gaining their independence. But Constantinople had found a new ally. As British support waned, German influence grew. The Turkish Army was being trained by Germans, and German engineers were thrusting railways through Turkish territory.

Then, when the Great War began in 1914, Turkey after some hesitation threw in her lot with Germany. This was a heavy blow to Britain, for large numbers of troops had to be sent to Egypt, where the Turks might strike from Palestine and Sinai at the Suez Canal, on the main route to India and the East.

In an attempt to take Constantinople the British landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula. If they had succeeded a way would have been found to help Russia, now an ally, with supplies and munitions which were badly needed. But the full naval and military force of Britain was not applied at the outset of the attack, the Turks were allowed to concentrate their forces and strengthen their defences, and after efforts which displayed the greatest heights of heroism, the British had to evacuate the Peninsula.

The Turks were heartened by two further successes. In Mesopotamia they captured a British force at Kut-el-Amara. Of the prisoners taken there, more than half died through cruelty and neglect. At the southern extremity of the Turkish Empire, a large force attacked a small British force and drove it into Aden, at the entrance to the Red Sea. Indian troops were landed and the Turks abandoned the siege. But when the Indians left, the Turks remained in the vicinity, and for a long time constituted a threat to this important point.

Despite these victories, however, the Turkish Government knew well that unrest and rebellion were stirring throughout large areas of the Empire. In the desert and in the richer lands of the Mediterranean seaboard, wherever there were Arab subjects of the Turk, discontent smouldered, and there was a desire, sometimes keen, sometimes only vaguely felt, to throw off his rule; for to the Arab the Turk was a foreign conqueror and only an inferior type of Mahomedan. The uneasy Turk roused greater detestation and hatred among the Syrian Arabs by sending gendarmerie to punish the families of those suspected of disaffection. The punitive measures were thorough, and the Syrian Arabs were thoroughly cowed. There were Arab regiments in the Turkish Army, and these were sent off to far places like the Caucasus, away from districts where those of their own race were numerous, and finally the regiments were disbanded.

There were secret societies in Syria, Mesopotamia, and elsewhere, plotting to free the Arab peoples. When the Turks discovered members of such organizations they killed them by torture or hanging. But no torture, however dreadful, could wring from them the name of one of their leaders whom the Turks would have loved to convict of treason. That name was Feisal. Suspecting him, the Turks would sometimes take him to see the executions, but he showed no sign, and his men looked unwaveringly into his face with not the slightest sign of betrayal as they were hanged.

Feisal was one of four brothers—Ali, Abdulla, and Zeid were the others. They were the sons of the Sherif of Mecca, Hussein, a prince of the blood of Mahomed—which is the meaning of ‘Sherif.’ Hussein’s dream was that his family might some day head a great confederation of Arab states, liberated from the Turks and reviving something of the greatness remembered from the Arab Empire of the past. His title gave him great honour among the Arab peoples, and his rule radiated from the district which contained the holiest city of the Mahomedan world.

When the Great War began the Turkish Government hoped to proclaim a Jihad, or Holy War, against Britain. All Mahomedans would be called upon to attack the Infidel. But they realized that such a call would have more influence with Mahomedans if it were uttered from Mecca. There were millions of Mahomedans in the British Empire, and if they rose in rebellion Britain’s strength would be tested to breaking point. So they asked Hussein to proclaim the Jihad from the Holy City. Hussein dared not refuse too bluntly, but he pleaded his fear that the British Navy might bombard his ports if he did as the Turks wished. The Sherif, in fact, had no intention of helping the Turks.

The call to a Holy War proclaimed by the Turks had little effect. The Senussi Moslems of the desert west of Egypt took up arms, and in 1915 troops had to be held ready in Egypt under the threat of their attack. It would have been better policy to refrain from attack, and maintain the threat. They advanced on Egypt, were defeated, and the British troops were freed to act against the Turks.

In the years before the War the British authorities in Egypt were aware of the hidden seething of discontent among the Arabs throughout Syria, Mesopotamia, and Arabia, and much information was gained through spies and secret agents. Abdulla, the son of Hussein, had journeyed to Egypt, and had conveyed some of his father’s thoughts to Lord Kitchener. Now, when Britain and Turkey were at war, there were some who considered that the Arabs should be given assistance to revolt. Yet others feared that the Turks would make a heavy attack on Egypt and were loth to send into Arabia the guns, munitions, and troops which might be needed to defend such a vital point as the Suez Canal. In addition to this, a strong garrison, they urged, was necessary to discourage Egyptian seditionists. Those who thought an Arab rising should be supported, did not fail to realize that many difficulties would have to be faced in rendering such help.

II

In the first place there were problems arising from the nature of the land. Arabia is vast, of an area equal to England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, and a large part of the Balkans put together. This great territory contains only a small population—something between three and five million, or roughly half the number of London. There are great emptinesses, long deserts of sand and gravel, arid plateaux of basalt, limestone, red and grey granite, and extremities of heat in the summer—hot, dry, burning, or suffocating and clammy—with narrow gorges and rocky passes that concentrate the heat like ovens. In olden times the land supplied the Near and Middle East with such things as myrrh, frankincense, apes, peacocks, and many things which the country probably did not produce in quantity itself, for it grows and exports little. Yemen, in the south-east, produces coffee, but is outdistanced by the Brazilian product. Oman and many of the oases have the date-palm. But the produce carried by Arabs of old may well have been garnered by their bold sailors from many lands, for the peninsula has frequent ports, which encouraged the seafaring life.

Though the Arabs and men like Lawrence noticed it less than would the inhabitants of temperate countries, there is such a scarcity of water that even on an established route a man might ride two days and more between wells or pools. Food, too, is not plentiful, and the Arab of the deserts is fortunate if he has dates, camel-milk, water, and perhaps a little meat at the same time. For the most part he subsists on the smallest ration. The nomad Arabs have sheep and horses, but their most useful animal is the camel. The camel is the mainstay of their existence, and camel-breeding the reason for their nomadic life. There are great herds on the uplands, where the animals feed on the thorn and plants, moving from place to place as the thin pasture becomes exhausted. The Bedouin lead the herds to those districts where the winter rains have nourished vegetation and replenished the pools.

The camel affects every aspect of the Bedouin’s life. It is sold for purposes of travel and transport. It provides milk and can be eaten as meat. Its hair is made into cloaks, cords for headcloths, tents, and ropes. The dung is used for fuel, and the fat of the hump is highly valued.

In every way, the camel is supremely adapted to the desert life. The prickly thorn, whose spikes penetrate the leather of a shoe, he alone among animals can eat, and he delights in the cool, fleshy leaf. His ears are small, a protection against sand, and his large nostrils can be closed against the hot desert wind. Cushioned feet make his travelling easy, and the horny pads on knees and chest enable him to kneel comfortably. The arched back helps the camel to support his hump as well as loads of from six hundred to a thousand pounds in weight. There is a