aPriL does feral sometimes 's Reviews > Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph

'Seven Pillars of Wisdom' by Thomas Edward Lawrence is a memoir of observations about World War I by Lawrence who worked in Syria and Palestine - Arabia - from 1914 to 1918.

Lawrence is considered a hero by most, and in my opinion, deservedly so. Some critics think he inflated his part in some events; others believe subsequent publicity after the publication of his memoir (several versions were published) inflated his participation. None of this backseat whinging changes the fact being in a war is horrible, and Lawrence was definitely fighting in the Arab war against the Turkish Ottomans who were allies of the Germans.

Military men go without food and adequate shelter. They see and do appalling killings of men, women and children. They watch close friends as well as themselves endure terrible injuries without medical care for days. They live with days - months - of anxiety, not knowing when they will be in battle, or if they will survive the horrors of war, and not knowing how things will end in any campaign. They never know when they will be resupplied, or rescued if under attack or when they will be given new instructions to move somewhere unknown for reasons unknown by an unfamiliar officer with more rank. Lawrence experienced all of this. But he also had a lot of talent - in languages, in stamina, in willpower. From reading his book, he was self-directed, able to think for himself, and willing to take enormous risks with the lives of people for whom he was responsible. If he disagreed with a strategy, he organized opposition by going to disparate groups (hundreds of leaders of various Arab tribes, English/French/Indian commanders) who normally couldn't agree on anything and convinced them to work together for a different plan. He also often faked it until he made it - something he admits to frequently in his book. He made command decisions often without real authority other than what he pretended as an irregular British officer, and he admits to bonehead failures and surprising (sometimes to him) successes.

For us, gentle reader, the most important aspect of Lawrence's book is he was a damn good writer! However, the book, which is almost like a diary but with chapters and few dates, does not go into the Big Picture of the war in Arabia, so below I have copied from Wikipedia a timeline which clarifies the on-the-street coverage Lawrence does in his book:

Lawrence's most important contributions to the Arab Revolt were in the area of strategy and liaison with British armed forces, but he also participated personally in several military engagements:

3 January 1917: Attack on an Ottoman outpost in the Hejaz
26 March 1917: Attack on the railway at Aba el Naam
11 June 1917: Attack on a bridge at Ras Baalbek
2 July 1917: Defeat of the Ottoman forces at Aba el Lissan, an outpost of Aqaba
18 September 1917: Attack on the railway near Mudawara
27 September 1917: Attack on the railway, destroyed an engine
7 November 1917: Following a failed attack on the Yarmuk bridges, blew up a train on the railway between Dera'a and Amman, suffering several wounds in the explosion and ensuing combat
23 January 1918: The battle of Tafileh, a region southeast of the Dead Sea, with Arab regulars under the command of Jafar Pasha al-Askari; the battle was a defensive engagement that turned into an offensive rout and was described in the official history of the war as a "brilliant feat of arms". Lawrence was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his leadership at Tafileh and was promoted to lieutenant colonel.
March 1918: Attack on the railway near Aqaba
19 April 1918: Attack using British armoured cars on Tell Shahm
16 September 1918: Destruction of railway bridge between Amman and Dera'a
26 September 1918: Attack on retreating Ottomans and Germans near the village of Tafas; the Ottoman forces massacred the villagers and then Arab forces in return massacred their prisoners with Lawrence's encouragement.

Lawrence made a 300-mile personal journey northward in June 1917, on the way to Aqaba, visiting Ras Baalbek, the outskirts of Damascus, and Azraq, Jordan. He met Arab nationalists, counselling them to avoid revolt until the arrival of Faisal's forces, and he attacked a bridge to create the impression of guerrilla activity. His findings were regarded by the British as extremely valuable and there was serious consideration of awarding him a Victoria Cross; in the end, he was invested as a Companion of the Order of the Bath and promoted to Major.

Lawrence travelled regularly between British headquarters and Faisal, co-ordinating military action. But by early 1918, Faisal's chief British liaison was Colonel Pierce Charles Joyce, and Lawrence's time was chiefly devoted to raiding and intelligence-gathering. By the summer of 1918, the Turks were offering a substantial reward for Lawrence's capture, initially £5,000 and eventually £20,000 (approx $2.1 million in 2017 dollars or £1.5 million). One officer wrote in his notes: "Though a price of £15,000 has been put on his head by the Turks, no Arab has, as yet, attempted to betray him. The Sharif of Mecca has given him the status of one of his sons, and he is just the finely tempered steel that supports the whole structure of our influence in Arabia. He is a very inspiring gentleman adventurer."


The fact Lawrence had a price out on his head is enough proof for me Lawrence did certainly play an important part in the war!


Lawrence had first explored Arabia, from Wikipedia:

In 1910, Lawrence was offered the opportunity to become a practising archaeologist at Carchemish, in the expedition that D. G. Hogarth was setting up on behalf of the British Museum. Hogarth arranged a "Senior Demyship" (a form of scholarship) for Lawrence at Magdalen College, Oxford to fund his work at £100 a year. He sailed for Beirut in December 1910 and went to Jbail (Byblos), where he studied Arabic. He then went to work on the excavations at Carchemish, near Jerablus in northern Syria, where he worked under Hogarth, R. Campbell Thompson of the British Museum, and Leonard Woolley until 1914.


Then, when World War I was declared:

In January 1914, Woolley and Lawrence were co-opted by the British military as an archaeological smokescreen for a British military survey of the Negev Desert. They were funded by the Palestine Exploration Fund to search for an area referred to in the Bible as the Wilderness of Zin, and they made an archaeological survey of the Negev Desert along the way. The Negev was strategically important, as an Ottoman army attacking Egypt would have to cross it. Woolley and Lawrence subsequently published a report of the expedition's archaeological findings,[40] but a more important result was updated mapping of the area, with special attention to features of military relevance such as water sources. Lawrence also visited Aqaba and Shobek, not far from Petra.

Following the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, Lawrence did not immediately enlist in the British Army. He held back until October on the advice of S. F. Newcombe, when he was commissioned on the General List. Before the end of the year, he was summoned by renowned archaeologist and historian Lt. Cmdr. David Hogarth, his mentor at Carchemish, to the new Arab Bureau intelligence unit in Cairo, and he arrived in Cairo on 15 December 1914. The Bureau's chief was General Gilbert Clayton who reported to Egyptian High Commissioner Henry McMahon.


In 1915 there was a new idea being talked about by the various leadership of the main tribes of non-Turkish Arabs. Arab leaders wondered if they could unite the hundreds of various small related desert tribes into individual countries, like Europe. The idea became an operative hope because of the war. Lawrence actively explored and promoted Arab freedom in the Arabian Kings' and princes' courts he visited within the Arabic-speaking Ottoman territories. Frankly, the Arab tribes were not the kind of people who enjoyed joining in anything, so these leaders were struggling not only with the Ottoman Turks and European powers, but with their own people. Lawrence was often acting unofficially on his own as an ambassador between Arab tribes, Arab princes, and his British overlords, as well as officially. He wrote of having bad headaches from this job of mediation between competitive tribes that he often assumed on his own initiative. Omg, MY own head hurt from reading about the petty and dangerous squabbles Lawrence dealt with constantly between leaders. And then there were the knife fights between individuals from different tribes in the field! It reminded me of a schoolyard monitor trying to keep neighborhood teenage gang members from shooting each other over petty insults and old grudges.

One of Lawrence's biggest disappointments after the war was the betrayal of the Arabs by the European war powers. They reneged on their promises to the Arab Kings to support their bid for creating Arab nations free from colonialism. He had made friends among the Arabs, and he felt like he had been put into the unwilling position of a Judas goat.

Besides describing the war missions of blowing up train tracks, bridges and of attacking Turkish camps, Lawrence describes Arab customs and ways of life in his memoir. He spoke fluent Arabic, so he was able to suss out what the tribes thought of each other and the British outsiders from an insider's viewpoint. He did not hesitate to live as Arabs did, eat as they did, dress as they did. Considering the harsh deserts (and rural poverty) they lived in, it was important he learned their ways to survive the huge swing of temperatures from summer to winter, the lack of water and available foodstuffs, the lack of roads, airports, navigable rivers, etc. He really had to learn how to ride and care for camels. He became an expert! But he really really pushed himself and the people assigned to follow him or be his guides into terrible environments that even the Arabs found daunting. There were awful bugs, and going without bathing for weeks and no food and water for days!

Because of a strong willfulness of character, he often went on these dangerous journeys alone looking for Turk encampments and good places to blow up, making maps. From many poetic descriptions of the land in his memoir I think he loved being in those isolated but beautiful rocky and sandy places with only a riding and a supply camel, no matter that he could meet Turkish soldiers or unfriendly Arabs. Because of the cultural individualism of Arab mentality, an Arab or tribe could switch allegiances because of perceived insults, whim or bribes. Lawrence navigated through all of the difficulties despite being a British foreigner.


Lawrence's parents were not married, but he was the second of five sons. He was born in Wales, but the family moved from there to Scotland and later England. As a bastard, he probably could never have married into a 'good' family. However, many of his friends believed him asexual. From reading his memoir, I think he may have been homosexual, but he definitely was not very active sexually, if so. I agree with many who think he was a masochist. There are reports he hired men to whip him after the war. I think these stories are true. He underwent unthinkable deprivations and sufferings in wartime service to his country, and he chose to serve in one of the most inhospitable places for humans to survive - Arabia. There is a famous incident of sexual torture and possible rape when he was captured by Turks while on a reconnaissance mission. He notes in this book "how in Deraa that night the citadel of my integrity had been irrevocably lost." In the chapters after this, Lawrence is noticeably less interested and very tired of the job he had been doing, mentioning more and more often he wanted to go home.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._E._L...

"I loved you, so I drew these tides of
Men into my hands
And wrote my will across the
Sky in stars
To earn you freedom, the seven
Pillared worthy house,
That your eyes might be
Shining for me
When I came

Death seemed my servant on the
Road, 'til we were near
And saw you waiting:
When you smiled and in sorrowful
Envy he outran me
And took you apart:
Into his quietness

Love, the way-weary, groped to your body,
Our brief wage
Ours for the moment
Before Earth's soft hand explored your shape
And the blind
Worms grew fat upon
Your substance

Men prayed me that I set our work,
The inviolate house,
As a memory of you
But for fit monument I shattered it,
Unfinished: and now
The little things creep out to patch
Themselves hovels
In the marred shadow
Of your gift."

-T. E. Lawrence

There are maps, appendixes of soldiers and their companies, tables of positions and movements, and indexes of places and people.