The Great Arab Revolt

Podcast Transcript

One of the most significant and long-lasting outcomes of the First World War didn’t take place in Europe.

It was a reshuffling of the political order in the Arabian Peninsula and the Levant.

During the war, various Arab tribes joined together to free themselves from centuries of Ottoman Rule.

The legacy of the rebellion can still be seen in the map of the Middle East today.

Learn more about the Great Arab Revolt on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

The Great Arab Revolt of 1916 to 1918 stands as one of the most consequential upheavals in Middle Eastern history, fundamentally reshaping the political landscape of the Arab world and leaving reverberations that continue to influence the region more than a century later.

This rebellion against Ottoman Turkish rule represented both a nationalist awakening and a moment of betrayal that would color Arab politics for generations to come.

To understand the revolt, you first have to understand the position of the Arab provinces within the Ottoman Empire by the early twentieth century.

For four centuries, Arabic-speaking lands from the Arabian Peninsula to the Levant had been incorporated into the Ottoman state, with varying degrees of autonomy and local governance.

While Arabs had long been part of the Ottoman system, serving in its administration and military, a growing sense of Arab identity began to emerge in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, fueled by cultural renaissance movements, increased literacy, and exposure to European nationalist ideas.

The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 initially raised hopes among Arab reformers who believed it would lead to greater representation and equality within the empire.

However, the Committee of Union and Progress, which came to dominate Ottoman politics, increasingly pursued policies of Turkification that alienated Arab subjects.

Arabic was marginalized in favor of Turkish in administration and education, and Arab officers in the Ottoman military faced discrimination. This heavy-handed centralization created deep resentment among Arab elites and intellectuals who had previously been content living under Ottoman rule.

The outbreak of World War One in 1914 brought these tensions to a crisis point. The Ottoman Empire’s alliance with the Central Powers and its declaration of jihad against the Allies placed Arab populations in an increasingly precarious position.

The war brought economic hardship, conscription, and harsh military governance to the Arab provinces. When Ottoman authorities discovered Arab nationalist societies and executed Arab leaders in Damascus and Beirut in 1915 and 1916, hanging them in public squares, many Arabs concluded that their future lay outside Ottoman rule.

At the center of the revolt stood Hussein bin Ali, the Sharif of Mecca and a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad through the Hashemite line. Hussein held one of the most prestigious positions in the Islamic world as the guardian of Islam’s holiest cities, Mecca and Medina.

His religious authority and lineage gave him unique legitimacy to challenge Ottoman claims to leadership of the Muslim world. Hussein had long chafed under Ottoman oversight and harbored ambitions for greater autonomy, if not independence, for the Arab lands.

Hussein’s sons would prove instrumental in the revolt’s execution. Faisal, the third son, emerged as the revolt’s military and diplomatic face, leading Arab forces in the field and serving as the primary liaison with British advisors.

Abdullah, the second son, also commanded forces and later became a key political figure.

Ali, the eldest, remained closer to the Hijaz to defend the holy cities, while Zeid, the youngest, participated in military operations.

Each son would go on to play significant roles in post-war Arab politics, with Faisal eventually becoming king of Iraq and Abdullah becoming the founder of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

The revolt cannot be understood without examining British wartime strategy and the complex web of promises made to various parties.

Britain, facing Ottoman opposition and seeking to protect its imperial interests stretching from Egypt to India, saw value in fomenting an Arab rebellion that would tie down Ottoman forces and potentially secure the eastern flank of the Suez Canal.

The British High Commissioner in Egypt, Sir Henry McMahon, entered into a famous correspondence with Hussein in 1915-1916 that appeared to promise Arab independence in exchange for an uprising against the Ottomans.

The McMahon-Hussein Correspondence has been debated and parsed ever since, with disagreements over exactly what territories were promised to Hussein.

Hussein understood the letters to promise Arab independence across the entire Arabian Peninsula, Greater Syria, and Mesopotamia, with a few exceptions that he interpreted narrowly.

The British later claimed that these exceptions were broader and that they had never promised Palestine or parts of Syria to Arab control.

Simultaneously, Britain was making entirely different commitments. The Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, negotiated secretly with France and with Russian assent, divided the Arab territories of the Ottoman Empire into British and French spheres of influence, with only limited areas of Arab independence.

This agreement fundamentally contradicted the spirit, if not the letter, of what had been promised to Hussein. Additionally, the Balfour Declaration of 1917 committed Britain to supporting the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine, adding another layer of conflicting obligations that would plague British policy and Middle Eastern politics for decades.

The revolt officially began on June 10, 1916, when Hussein’s forces attacked the Ottoman garrison in Mecca. The initial phase focused on the Hijaz, the western coastal region of Arabia containing the holy cities.

Arab forces, composed of Bedouin tribesmen and regular army units that defected from the Ottoman military, succeeded in taking Mecca but faced greater difficulty in capturing the fortified city of Medina, which remained in Ottoman hands throughout the war.

The port city of Jeddah fell to the rebels, providing crucial access to British naval support and supplies.

The most famous aspect of the revolt became the northern campaign toward Damascus, particularly due to the involvement of T.E. Lawrence, the British officer known as Lawrence of Arabia.

Lawrence, an archaeologist-turned-intelligence officer, became Hussein’s liaison and advisor to Faisal’s forces. His role has been romanticized and exaggerated in popular culture, but he did play a significant role in coordinating British support, advising on guerrilla tactics, and managing the campaign’s complex tribal politics.

While Lawrence’s role in the rebellion has been exaggerated, his story is nonetheless really interesting and will be the subject of a future episode.

The Arab forces adopted a strategy of mobility and guerrilla warfare that proved remarkably effective against Ottoman lines of communication.

Rather than engaging in costly direct assaults on fortified positions, the rebels focused on raiding the Hijaz Railway, the vital supply line connecting Damascus to Medina and the holy cities.

These raids forced the Ottomans to disperse their forces along hundreds of miles of track, tying down troops that might otherwise have been used against British forces in Palestine and Mesopotamia.

The destruction of bridges, culverts, and locomotives became the Arabs’ signature tactic, and the railway was never fully operational again during the war.

As General Edmund Allenby’s British Egyptian Expeditionary Force advanced through Palestine in 1917 and 1918, Arab forces operated on the British right flank, securing the desert approaches and capturing the key port of Aqaba in July 1917.

The seizure of Aqaba stands as one of the most audacious and strategically significant operations of the Arab Revolt, transforming what had mainly been a regional uprising in the Hijaz into a campaign that could directly support British operations in Palestine.

Aqaba occupied a position of immense strategic value at the northeastern tip of the Red Sea, where the coasts of what are now Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia converge.

The town controlled the only significant port on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Aqaba and sat at the terminus of the Hijaz Railway’s western branch.

More importantly, it guarded the southern approaches to Palestine and the Sinai Peninsula, and its possession would allow Arab forces to threaten the Ottoman right flank as British forces under General Allenby prepared to advance from Egypt into Palestine.

From the Ottoman perspective, Aqaba was a fortress that could only be seriously threatened from the sea, where its guns commanded the approaches to the harbor.

The Turks had fortified the seaward defenses and maintained a garrison they believed sufficient to repel any naval assault. The landward approaches through the harsh desert of the Wadi Araba and the interior mountains of what is now southern Jordan seemed so forbidding that the Ottomans left them only lightly defended.

This assessment of the terrain was entirely reasonable by conventional military standards, but it failed to account for the capabilities of Bedouin forces operating in their native environment.

The climax of the revolt came with the capture of Damascus on October 1, 1918. Arab forces under Faisal entered the city in coordination with Australian cavalry units, just ahead of Allenby’s main force.

For the Arabs, this moment represented the culmination of their struggle and the supposed fulfillment of promises of independence. Faisal established a provisional Arab government in Damascus, appearing to realize Hussein’s vision of an independent Arab kingdom.

The joy of victory proved short-lived. Despite Arab expectations, European imperial interests quickly reasserted themselves. The Sykes-Picot Agreement, which had been exposed by the Bolsheviks after the Russian Revolution, became the template for post-war arrangements rather than the promises made to Hussein.

At the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, Arab representatives, including Faisal, found themselves sidelined as Britain and France negotiated the division of the former Ottoman territories.

The San Remo Conference of 1920 formalized the mandate system, placing Syria and Lebanon under French control and Palestine, Transjordan, and Mesopotamia under British administration. France forcibly expelled Faisal from Syria in 1920 after he had been proclaimed king by a Syrian congress.

Britain, feeling some obligation to its wartime allies and seeking stability in its own mandates, arranged for Faisal to become king of the newly created state of Iraq in 1921, while his brother Abdullah became Emir of Transjordan, later the kingdom of Jordan.

These arrangements were pragmatic solutions that partially compensated the Hashemites but fell far short of the independent Arab state they had been led to expect.

Hussein himself refused to accept treaties that recognized British and French mandates, leading to a rupture with Britain. His position became untenable when Abdulaziz ibn Saud, the leader of the Wahhabi movement in central Arabia and a rival for power in the peninsula, conquered the Hijaz in 1924 and 1925.

Hussein was forced into exile, eventually dying in Amman in 1931. The Saud family established the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, fundamentally altering the political geography of the Arabian Peninsula and ensuring that the Hashemites would not rule over the holy cities.

The Great Arab Revolt and its aftermath have profoundly shaped the Middle East in ways that remain visible today. The creation of the modern state system in the region, with borders drawn largely by European powers, stems directly from the post-war settlements.

The borders of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia all trace their origins to this period. Palestine, whose status remained ambiguous and contested due to conflicting British promises, became the site of an enduring conflict between Arabs and Jews that continues to this day.

Like many people, my interest in the Great Arab Revolt began with the movie Lawrence of Arabia. While it isn’t totally accurate, it is a great movie.

When I arrived in the Middle East for the first time, visiting some of the sites that were associated with the Arab Revolt was high on my list. I actually spent a week in Aqaba and later visited the Hijaz in Western Saudi Arabia.

Even though many of the sites weren’t of historical note per se, being in the desert and spending several nights in the desert gave me a better feel for what the rebels went through.

The Great Arab Revolt is really the genesis of almost all the modern issues, good and bad, in the Middle East today. It all began because of a desire to break free to Ottoman rule in the midst of World War I.