In 1914, a handful of Orientalists were traveling through the southwestern reaches of the fading Ottoman Empire, seemingly engaged in innocuous pursuits. They were not. An American, William Yale, claiming to be on a grand tour, was actually scouting for oil on behalf of the Standard Oil Company of New York. A German, Curt Prüfer, supposedly updating a Baedeker’s guide, noted British outposts along the Nile while cruising south. Aaron Aaronsohn, a Jewish agronomist, was planting the seeds of Zionism, and Thomas Lawrence of the Palestine Exploration Fund was quietly preparing for war on behalf of the United Kingdom. The Ottomans were on the cusp of a decision that would “bring on their own doom and unleash forces of such massive disintegration that the world is still dealing with the repercussions a century later.”
Lawrence grew up in Oxford, read history at Jesus College, and toured Syria while researching his thesis. Yale applied to Socony’s foreign service upon completing college. Prüfer came of age in a newly unified Germany where Wilhelm II encouraged what some have called “a toxic nationalist mythology.” His remarkable ability to pick up languages, including both Turkish and Arabic, led to work at the German embassy in Cairo. By his twenties, Aaronsohn was a renowned agronomist who sought to demonstrate that Palestine could support a far larger population, as it had in the past, than it did in the early twentieth century.
When the Ottoman Empire joined the war, Lawrence was sent to Cairo to join a military intelligence unit, where he began to argue for the advantages of encouraging an Arab revolt. For Aaronsohn and Palestine’s Jews, Muslim hostility, Turkish looting, and deportations threatened their very existence. Major Prüfer was assigned to work with the Turks on an assault on the Suez Canal. The Germans and Turks successfully crossed the 120-mile-wide Sinai and, in January, reached positions only a few miles from the canal. The British repelled them by moving warships into the waterway.
During a major locust infestation, Aaronsohn traveled the length and breadth of Syria and Palestine and came to two conclusions: there was no future for Jews under Arab sovereignty, and the region was largely undefended. He sent his brother to speak with the British in Egypt. At about the same time, Yale achieved an important goal for Socony—obtaining drilling concessions in Arabia. Throughout 1915, both sides tried to secure the support of Emir Hussein, the guardian of Mecca and Medina. Britain prevailed by promising independence for Arabia. In June 1916, Faisal committed to a revolt against the Turks.
The Arab revolt was somewhat slapdash and got off to a poor start. In October, the British Oriental secretary traveled to Medina, with Lawrence tagging along out of sheer boredom. He eventually persuaded Hussein’s eldest son to allow him to travel inland and assess the situation.
At a little over two-fifths of the way through the book—just as the narrative seemed ready to wander into another diversion about the other three minor characters, without Lawrence and Faisal yet meeting or a shot being fired—and knowing this author’s tendency to roam widely around a subject, I reluctantly stepped away. I have been fascinated by Lawrence since I first saw the 1962 film, one of the half-dozen movies I admit to having watched probably six times. I have learned a great deal about the Middle East since I was thirteen years old and am still amazed at how badly the British and French mishandled this part of the world more than a century ago. When they eventually stepped back from their roles as imperial powers, the United States jumped in and clumsily stirred the pot a bit more. I would have liked to read the details of the Hejaz revolt and perhaps gain some insights into the Paris Peace Conference, but I do not have the staying power.
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