Chapter I: Foreword

Surely no one ever offered a volume to the public who was quite so deeply indebted to others, and I have long looked forward to the opportunity of expressing my gratitude. To do this I must turn back the pages of time to the days when, accompanied by my photographic colleague, Mr. Harry A. Chase, and two other assistants, I left America to gather information and secure a pictorial record of the various phases of the struggle that was then in progress all the way from the North Sea to far-off Arabia.

We had set forth early in 1917 and were expected to return at the end of a year or so to help in the work of stimulating enthusiasm for the Allied cause. The late Mr. Franklin K. Lane, secretary of the interior, suggested that I resign from the faculty of Princeton University in order to undertake this. To Secretary Lane, Secretary Daniels of the Navy Department, and Secretary Baker of the War Department, who were responsible for our becoming attached successively to the various Allied armies, I am indebted for the opportunities which enabled me to obtain the material for this volume. This was before a special appropriation had been set aside for such work; as a result of Secretary Lane’s suggestion, eighteen distinguished private citizens supplied the funds for the undertaking.

Mr. Chase and I have just concluded a three-year tour of the world, during which I have shown the pictorial record and narrated to several million people the story which we brought back of Allenby’s conquest of the Holy Land, and the hitherto unknown story of Lawrence and the war in the Land of the Arabian Nights. The generous praise and innumerable courtesies which have been extended to us during this tour have been received by us on behalf of these eighteen nameless gentlemen. For it is to them that the credit is due. In Europe, Americans are commonly regarded as mere worshipers of Mammon; yet these financiers are typical American business men, and if this book proves to be a contribution of value because it happens to be the only written fragmentary record of the most romantic campaign in modern history, then the credit belongs to these unselfish, anonymous gentlemen of Chicago. For had it not been for them, the story of Colonel Lawrence’s achievements in Arabia might never have been told, and might never have become widely known even among his own countrymen.

To Colonel John Buchan, who in those days was one of the mysterious high priests of the Ministry of Information, I am indebted for the permit that got me out to Palestine at the time when other missions were not allowed there, and at the time when Allenby, Britain’s modern Cœur de Lion, was leading his army in the most brilliant cavalry campaign of all time. I also am deeply indebted to the great commander-in-chief himself, and likewise to the chief of his intelligence staff, Brigadier-General Sir Gilbert F. Clayton. It was they who were responsible for our being the only observers attached to the Shereefian forces in Holy Arabia.

During the time that Mr. Chase and I were in Arabia, I found it impossible to extract much information from Lawrence himself regarding his own achievements. He insisted on giving the entire credit to Emir Feisal and other Arab leaders, and to his fellow-adventurers, Colonel Wilson, of the Sudan, Newcombe, Joyce, Dawney, Bassett, Vickery, Cornwallis, Hogarth, Stirling, etc., all of whom did magnificent work in Arabia. So to them I went for much of my material, and I am indebted to various members of this group of brilliant men whom General Clayton used in his Near Eastern Secret Corps. Eager to tell me of the achievements of their quiet, scholarly companion, they refused to say much about themselves, although their own deeds rivaled those of the heroes of “The Arabian Nights.”

To the Right Hon. Lord Riddell, and to Mr. Louis D. Froelick, editor of “Asia,” I am grateful for the encouragement which led me to believe that I should attempt the delightful task of recording what little I know of this romance of real life. I owe a special debt to Miss Elsie Weil, former managing editor of “Asia”; also to Captain Alan Bott, M.C., R.A.F. (Contact); to my colleague, Mr. Dale Carnagey, the American novelist; and to my wife—for it was their invaluable coöperation that finally enabled me to prepare this volume.

There are others infinitely better qualified than I to give the world a full account of the Arabian Revolution. For instance, Commander D. G. Hogarth, the famous Arabian authority who played a prominent advisory part, could easily do this. It is to be hoped that his archæological work and duties as curator of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford will not prevent him from preparing a final official history. But it is to Lawrence himself that we must look for the inside story of the war in the Land of the Arabian Nights.

Unhappily, no matter how much unselfish work a man does for his country, and no matter how modest he is, there are always people hovering about on the side-lines ready to tear his record to pieces. For instance, there are those who say that Lawrence has received altogether too much “publicity” through me. They piously declare that this is not in accordance with military ethics. There may be something in this, though I doubt it. But if there is, the blame should _all_ be mine.

There is no question that the praise I have given him has embarrassed him exceedingly. Indeed, had he realized when I was in Arabia that I one day would be going up and down the world shouting his praises, I haven’t the slightest doubt that he would have planted one of his nitroglycerine tulips under me, instead of under a Turkish train! However, not only did Lawrence little dream that I might one day be “booming him,” as he describes it, but it had never even occurred to me that I should be so doing. The conspirators who were largely responsible for my coming to England were Sir William Jury, formerly of the Ministry of Information, and Major Evelyn Wrench, of the English Speaking Union, and, more particularly, Mr. Percy Burton, the London impresario formerly associated with Sir Henry Irving, and Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson. It was Mr. Burton who came to me in New York and inveigled me into agreeing to appear for a season at Covent Garden Royal Opera-House, London, with my production, “With Allenby in Palestine and Lawrence in Arabia.”

Another “bazaar rumor” that has been going the rounds is to the effect that Colonel Lawrence has renounced Christianity and turned Mohammedan. This also is the offspring of some feverish imagination! From what I saw of Lawrence I rather believe that he is a better Christian than the most of us. In his introduction to a new edition of Doughty’s classic “Arabia Deserta” he says of that great Arabian traveler: “He was book-learned, but simple in the arts of living, trustful of every man, very silent. He was the first Englishman they had met. He predisposed them to give a chance to other men of his race, because they found him honourable and good. So he broke a road for his religion. They say that he seemed proud only of being Christian, and yet never crossed their faith.” The tribute he pays to Doughty might be applied equally appropriately to himself.

L. T.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I A Modern Arabian Knight

II In Search of a Lost Civilization

III The Archaeologist Turned Soldier

IV The Cult of the Blood of Mohammed

V The Fall of Jeddah and Mecca

VI The Gathering of the Desert Tribes

VII The Battle at the Wells of Abu El Lissal

VIII The Capture of King Solomon’s Ancient Seaport

IX Across the Red Sea to Join Lawrence and Feisal

X The Battle of Seil El Hasa

XI Lawrence the Train-Wrecker

XII Drinkers of the Milk of War

XIII Auda Abu Tayi, the Bedouin Robin Hood

XIV Knights of the Black Tents

XV My Lord the Camel

XVI Abdullah the Pock-Marked, and the Story of Ferraj and Daoud

XVII An Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth

XVIII A Rose-Red City Half as Old as Time

XIX A Bedouin Battle in a City of Ghosts

XX The Relative in My House

XXI Through the Turkish Lines in Disguise

XXII The Greatest Hoax Since the Trojan Horse

XXIII A Cavalry Naval Engagement and Lawrence’s Last Great Raid

XXIV The Downfall of the Ottoman Empire

XXV Lawrence Rules in Damascus, and the Treachery of the Algerian Emir

XXVI Tales of the Secret Corps

XXVII Joyce & Co., and the Arabian Knights of the Air

XXVIII Feisal and Lawrence at the Battle of Paris

XXIX Lawrence Narrowly Escapes Death; Adventures of Feisal and Hussein

XXX Lawrence Flees from London, and Feisal becomes King in Bagdad

XXXI The Secret of Lawrence’s Success

XXXII The Art of Handling Arabs

XXXIII Lawrence the Man

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

Colonel T. E. Lawrence, the Mystery Man of Arabia.

_Frontispiece_

The “Uncrowned King” of the Arabs on the Governor’s balcony in Jerusalem

General Ronald Storrs, Governor of the Holy City, and
modern successor to Pontius Pilate

Date-palms along the coral shore of Araby

Lawrence at headquarters in Cairo

The archaeologist and poet who turned soldier

Map of the region covered by this narrative

A Muezzin calling the faithful to prayer

Hussein I

Emir Feisal, now King of Mesopotamia (Irak)

In his white robes Lawrence looked like a prophet

The dreamer whose dreams came true

A Sheik of Araby

Shore-line at the head of the Gulf of Akaba

Sunset over the fort at Akaba

Sand storm rolling down on Khartoum

The last resting-place of the mother of us all

The Waldorf-Astoria of Arabia

The mosque of the Holy Kaaba

Colonel Lawrence and the author

Panorama of Akaba

Colonel Joyce

Lawrence’s mountain guns in action

Lawrence confers with Arab Nationalist leaders from Bagdad and Damascus

The author, with Lawrence in Arabia

Sheik Auda Abu Tayi, the Bedouin Robin Hood

A Bedouin encampment

Colonel Lawrence conferring with Commander D. G.
Hogarth, one of his advisers at the Arab Bureau in
Cairo

Colonel Joyce, Commander of the Arab “regulars”

Armored cars in Holy Arabia

A racing dromedary from India

A baby dromedary two hours old

An Arab thoroughbred

“Sidi” Lawrence and his “sons”

“Drinkers of the milk of war”

Feisal and Lawrence conferring with Bedouin sheiks

Sunset over the mountain of Edom

Our caravan approaching the “Lost City”

The narrow defile that leads to the “Lost City”

A rose-red temple carved like a cameo from the face of the
mountain

We rode into the auditorium on our camels

“Pharaoh’s Treasury” or the “Temple of Isis”

Looking out through the doorway of the temple, in the distance
we see the narrow defile through which we came
in entering the “Lost City”

An amphitheater hewn out of the mountain

The rock seemed to swirl like watered silk

The “Three-storied Temple”

Emir Feisal, center, with General Nuri to the left and
Colonel Lawrence to the right; Captain Pisani of the
French Mission standing directly behind the Emir

Field-Marshall Viscount Allenby of Jerusalem and King
Feisal of Bagdad

Malud Bey and his Arab cavalry

“The Tomb of the Roman soldiers”

The author sketched by James McBey, official artist for
Allenby’s forces in the Holy Land

An Arab Apollo

A peasant woman of Syria

Types of city head-dress for women

Where the hosts of Israel are said to have terminated the
passage of the Red Sea

A brigand from Jebel Druz

Lawrence would occasionally disguise himself as a gypsy
woman of Syria

“Shereef” Lawrence

A camel caravan in the Wadi Arabia

Bedouin “irregulars” ready for a raid on the Turks

Mr. Chase opening fire with his cinema camera from the
turret of an armored car

General Jafaar Pasha from Bagdad

Druses from the Hauran

Tallal El-Hareidhin of Tafas

A Syrian villager

Col. T. E. Lawrence

General Fakri Pasha, the Turkish Tiger who defended
Medina

The king-maker

Sunset in the land of the Arabian Knights

WITH LAWRENCE IN ARABIA

WITH LAWRENCE IN ARABIA