Setting the Desert on Fire
T.E. Lawrence and Britain's Secret War in Arabia, 1916-18
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
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'Packs as much punch as one of Lawrence's train-blowing explosives' - Sunday Times
'Barr's cogent, vividly written book puts Lawrence centre stage but does not lose sight of the uprising's larger historical context' - Financial Times
'[Barr] introduces fresh materials to give new context to Lawrence and the present difficulties in Iraq' - The Times
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The full story behind the desert revolt made famous by T.E. Lawrence in Seven Pillars of Wisdom and the film Lawrence of Arabia
It is 1916. The Allies are struggling in the Great War. The Ottoman Sultan calls for a pan-Islamic jihad against all non-Muslims except Germans. But Sharif Husein, ruler of the holy city of Mecca, is smarting under Turkish rule, fomenting Arab nationalism and lobbying the British to support him. It seems to the British a good idea secretly to encourage an Arab revolt.
Setting the Desert on Fire is a masterly account of this key moment made legendary by T. E. Lawrence, but here filled with a wide range of characters including the British Prime Minister Lloyd George, whose desire to capture 'Jerusalem by Christmas' had consequences that reverberate to this day.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
British historian Barr re-examines World War I s 'Great Arab Revolt led by the legendary Lawrence of Arabia in this exhaustively researched and vividly narrated history. Thomas Edward Lawrence was a young British intelligence officer when he undertook to organize Arab resistance to the Ottoman Empire, a German ally. The Turkish (Ottoman) sultan was also the caliph "spiritual leader of Muslims worldwide "and the British feared that his call for jihad threatened their eastern empire. To secure Arab support against the Turks, the British offered them a hazy declaration of future independence. Led by Lawrence, an eccentric amateur who adopted the flowing robes of his desert allies, the Arabs began a guerrilla campaign against the Hijaz Railway, the Turks supply line between Damascus and Medina. Lawrence s driving obsession was to capture Damascus and foil French ambitions in Syria. As the war in Europe was ending, the Arabs occupied Damascus and Lawrence installed an Arab government. Upon the war s conclusion, Middle Eastern matters were peripheral. Britain then yielded Syria to France, denying Arab independence and initiating a new legacy, of increasingly bitter relations. Barr expertly navigates an intriguing landscape of shifting alliances and labyrinthine politics peopled with eccentric characters to demystify a fascinating legend. illus.
