Bueche,+Kent

Kent Bueche 3 Mr. Griffin / Historical Investigation November 9th 2010 ** A. Plan of Investigation  ** ** Q. **// To what extent were T.E. Lawrence’s reasons for being an advocate of pan- Arabism purely political? //   The purpose of this investigation is to determine not only the effect T.E. Lawrence had on the Arab Revolt, but the reasons behind Lawrence’s leadership. In order to evaluate the question, one must explore “Al-Lawrence’s” past, psyche and inner conflicts, and his egotism. This detailed, alternative analysis requires the investigation into Lawrence’s character and attempts to answer why he wanted Arab independence so badly, even while fulfilling his duty as a British officer. ** B. Summary of Evidence  ** ** C. Evaluation of Sources  ** ** Lean, David, dir. //Lawrence// //of Arabia//. Sam Spiegel. Horizon Pictures, 1962. Film. **  The 1962 British epic film // Lawrence of Arabia //, directed by David Lean, is based on T.E. Lawrence’s life and experiences in leading the Arab Revolt in the Middle East during World War I. The purpose of the film was not only to entertain – although it is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential pieces of cinematography – it was also to depict T.E. Lawrence as a true hero of pan-Arabism and leader of the Arab Revolt. The true value of this source is that provides an in depth look into who T.E. Lawrence was a person, with the major theme being “who am I?” and makes special note to his fairness to the Arab people. It gives a detailed account of his part in the Arab Revolt; beginning as a minor British officer and following his literal physical transformation into the man who would lead the Arab National Council. The limitations of this source are quite simply the basis and foundation of my research question – whether or not Lawrence helped the Arabs as much as he is portrayed in // Lawrence //// of Arabia. //The main limitation is that this // is //a movie, it was meant to entertain first and educate second. Many of the events are severely dramatized, and forces one to ask if this is T.E. Lawrence or Peter O’Toole. Also it being a British film, it is going to show the British in a more favorable light – they mention, but do not dwell, on Lawrence’s true knowledge of the complete betrayal of Sykes Picot and Balfour. Had this been an Arab film what was to be dramatized most certainly would have been different. ** Hawes, James, dir. //Lawrence// //of Arabia: The Battle of the Arab World//. PBS, 2003. Film. **  // The Battle for the Arab World //directed by James Hawes, in correlation with Public Broadcast Studios (PBS) was filmed in England and throughout the Middle East, and was released in 2003. The purpose of it is to chronicle the personality and role of T.E. Lawrence as the epicenter of the Arab Revolt – it serves as a personal drama rather than a documentary of the Middle East. It presents the facts as it attempts to educate the viewer of an idealized, deified man shrouded in controversy. The value of it is that it draws upon eyewitness accounts of Arabs, Westerners, and Lawrence himself. It concentrates on Lawrence the person, diving into his roots as a boy, not the celebrity personified in David Lean’s // Lawrence //// of Arabia. // This helps answer my essential question, which digs into these boyhood roots in search for the source to his pragmatic egotism. The limitation is that this, too, is a Western produced source and while PBS is notoriously credible and cites Arabs, it can never be a perfect source because it is by Westerners for Westerners. ** D. Analysis  ** Arabia: more blood has been spilled over these holy and controversial grounds than anywhere in the world. No one could have imagined the centuries upon centuries of hatred the crusades boiled up, and are at the heart of the War in the Middle East in more ways than most people realize. Not only has it pitted Jews, Christians, and Muslims against each other for the same land for years, it sparked the interest of a young boy in Oxford, England. To truly understand T.E. Lawrence’s motives for pan Arabism, one must explore the period before he became the deified international celebrity “Lawrence of Arabia”. As a young boy Thomas Edward Lawrence would be captivated by the ancient Crusades, of the heroic stories and battles for Jerusalem and the Holy Cities in the Middle East. In his twenties while studying at Oxford University, Lawrence would go himself to the Middle East, studying Crusader’s castles and soon got a job as an archeologist there, attempting to reinvent the past’s heroes of the land. Even while on the move with the guerillas of the Arab Revolt, Lawrence would pick a new base in an ancient Crusader castle Azreck and find himself once again “treading in the footsteps of his own heels” (Hawes). Lawrence would describe the castle as “steeped in knowledge of wandering poets, champions and lost kingdoms… the early Kings loved this place” (Lawrence). And when the British took Jerusalem, Lawrence – dressed in a borrowed British uniform, not his godly Arab garb – “hurried to be part of the celebrations. For the man who modeled his early life on the Crusaders, marching into Jerusalem with a Christian army, freeing it from Ottoman rule would be a crowning moment” (Hawes). While his love of history and the Crusades certainly played a part in Lawrence’s private reasons for being in the Middle East, this is part of a larger reason: Lawrence’s egotism. ‘Lawrence of Arabia,’ ‘Prince of Mecca,’ and ‘The Uncrowned King of the Desert’ all fitted his character and fed his ego nicely. All his life, from the Crusades to putting himself through endurance tests as a child – riding his bike for hours a day up the steep Oxford hills, just to prove he could do it (whether it was to himself or the world) – Lawrence wanted to be that romantic hero people talked about. When Frank and Will had died in the front lines of the war – // doing //something – in the East in 1915, the “motivation to do something must have been very great”, a major reason Lawrence was so eager to “embrace the risk” (Hawes). Romantic heroes, as Lawrence would have always read, push through even during the bleakest times, beyond what most people could take, // striving to do the impossible //, and it is for this characteristic that we place these individuals on a pedestal. Lawrence loved the idea of himself as a romantic hero – he wrote of his seemingly impossible attack on Aqaba – a notoriously well defended city, and to even get there they had to cross hundreds of miles of desert – “a pain, ebbing and flowing. The barren desert threatened to defeat us” (Lawrence). He got what he wanted – the “public was captivated by such a romantic character”; his celebrity status helped by Thomas Lowell, an American reporter who sensationalized “Lawrence of Arabia”. He had always wanted to be a hero, and he had gotten his chance. Lawrence was a “legendary man. He was a complex man. Sometimes, he put himself as a very ordinary and very poor, and very small man, and sometimes he inflated his image to an unbelievable size” (Hawes). It was about how Lawrence saw himself, however: the endurance tests, the miles across the desert, the war, just to help a foreign nation achieve their statehood. So was he doing it for himself, or for the British? If it is about how Lawrence saw himself, than it is both. Lawrence “saw himself as a bridge between the London and Mecca. When with the Arabs, Fiesal had dressed him in elegant Arabic clothing. It symbolized that he was one of them, it symbolized the British were with the Revolt. But for Lawrence, he just “enjoyed playing the romantic part, // a modern crusader //… it was serious practicality on one level, play acting at another” (Hawes). On the serious side, Lawrence was speculated to have a gay relationship with his “inspiration” and assistant, Selim Ahmed. Lawrence himself says in the beginning of his biography // 7 Pillars of Wisdom //, “To S.A… I loved you, so I drew these tides of men into my hands and wrote my will across the sky in the stars / To earn you freedom… that you eyes might be shining for me / When we came” (Lawrence). However, as much as Lawrence believed he was Arab, “when all was said and done, Lawrence was a British subject, serving the imperial needs. He was an officer” (Hawes). Indeed, Lawrence, despite the fact that he saw himself the way he was portrayed in the sensationalized news, Lawrence wrote of not telling Fiesal of Balfour and Sykes Picot, “better we win and break our word, and lose” (Lawrence). He also wrote that he “had to help the Arabs,” because it was “necessary to our quick and speedy victory in the East” (Lawrence). However, the purpose of this analysis is not to say that Lawrence did not want Arab independence – in fact quite the opposite, Lawrence lobbied hard in London, desperately attempting to make good on his word. It is however to explore whether or not Lawrence was an advocate of the Arab state purely because he was British officer, and they needed the Arabs to act as a second front in Turkey or because he was a 5’5” man with an ego much larger than himself, with roots back to his childhood seeded in the Crusades and a deep understanding for Middle Eastern culture through his studies, if one thing was sure, Lawrence of Arabia was destined to be a hero – by his own making. ** E. Conclusion  ** Why did an Englishmen become the epicenter of a Revolt in a foreign land? Was it purely political – just because the British needed a distraction for their imperial war? Was it an ego- inflator, a chance to prove himself, a way to live indirectly as the Crusader’s he so carefully studied? Or was it was a mix of all? It must be, because it all comes back to one thing: that Lawrence was tied to deeply to the land – the Crusades, the Holy Land, the heroism – and the culture – his knowledge of the people, specifically Selim Ahemed. It is important to understand why Lawrence of Arabia was such an advocate of pan-Arabism because it still applies today – without Lawrence of Arabia there might not have been an Arab Revolt, definitely not as a successful of one, and the Middle East today would be drastically different. Almost a century ago a war began that would lead to the creation of the modern Middle East. A it’s epicenter was an Englishmen, who’s role would become legendary. He would build vital alliances with the Arabs, and fight along side them in a war of liberation. It is his deep seated ties to the land of Arabia that willed him to help and it is the British government that allowed him to do so. ** F. Works Cited  ** Works Cited  Hawes, James, dir. //Lawrence// //of Arabia: The Battle of the Arab World//. PBS, 2003. Film.  Lawrence, Thomas Edward. //Seven Pillars of Wisdom//. New York: Doubleday Inc, 1926. Print.  Lean, David, dir. //Lawrence// //of Arabia//. Sam Spiegel. Horizon Pictures, 1962. Film.   ** Word Count: ** 2,197
 * 1095 – 1291: The Crusades
 * T.E. Lawrence born August 16 1888 in Wales, England.
 * As a child, Lawrence read often, mostly about the ancient Crusades, and loved heroic stories.
 * He grew up with two brothers, Frank and Will, both younger than he. However, as they grew up they were both taller than Lawrence, who would only ever be 5’5”.
 * Lawrence studied at Oxford University and in 1909 visited Syria and Palestine to research castles of the Crusades. A year later, after being noticed by Crusade scholars and notable historians, he joined an archaeological dig in Syria, where he stayed from 1911 to 1914, learning Arabic.
 * At the dig site Lawrence employed Selim Ahmed, or Dahoun (“little dark one”), an Arab water boy on the dig site who he trained as his photographer and helped Lawrence learn Arabic.
 * In 1914, Lawrence was part of an expedition exploring northern Sinai, carrying out reconnaissance under cover of a scientific expedition for the British.
 * WWI breaks out in 1914, and Lawrence became an intelligence officer in Cairo.
 * June 1916 Arab Revolt begins against Turkey, with the encouragement of the British.
 * Lawrence was sent to Arabia to see “if the revolt had a future” and became liaison officer and adviser to Feisal, son of the revolt's leader Sherif Hussein, and Lawrence's overriding aim became helping the Arabs achieve military success with guerrilla tactics, and eventually lead to self-governance.
 * 1916 Sykes Picot Agreement, French and British divide up Arabia between themselves, undermining British promises to Hussein and Fiesal.
 * In June 1917, the Arab forces won their first major victory, seizing Aqaba, a strategically important Red Sea port. Success continued as they gradually made their way north.
 * Lawrence celebrates victory in Jerusalem with British in British uniform, but otherwise the “uncrowned King of Arabia” wears traditional Arab prince-like garb.
 * 1917 Balfour Agreement, British agree to give Zionists land in Palestine further undermining British- Arab agreements.
 * After the fall of Damascus in October 1918, Lawrence left for London and then the Paris Peace Conferences to lobby for Arab independence, despite the fact that he was fully aware of both Sykes Picot and Balfour.
 * Lawrence was disillusioned by his failure to bring the Arabs self-rule, but was by now a celebrity, helped by the publicity efforts of American journalist Lowell Thomas
 * WWI ends 1918.