At last we have James Barr’s talk available as an audio file that you can listen to here, while browsing some of his 28 photos or after downloading it using the link below. Thanks again to James for his time and his generosity with these photos. Now go out and buy his book Setting the desert on fire!

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Download the MP3 audio file (13.9MB)

   

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Our installation is almost complete now and we will open tonight. This week a few of us have done a lot of media interviews, so it looks to be attracting a good deal of attention already.

We released some edited film footage taken by Harry Chase for Lowell Thomas during his short stay with Lawrence and the Arabs in 1918. It was provided by the Imperial War Museum as it comes from their collection. You can view this footage and read a press report on the ABC’s website here.

An interesting thing about this footage is that Lawrence appears to be wearing a black “aba” (a long, loose sleeveless outer garment of aba or fine silk worn by Bedouin Arabs). You can see one of his abas in the exhibition and this one now belongs to the Memorial. I think it is beautifully displayed, for the first time in our history, along with an “agal” (a cord that secures a headdress). Both were given to the Memorial by the widow of artist Stuart Reid, who’s work is featured in the exhibition.

Lawrence aba belonging to the Memorial

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Today I was informed of another related blog, being maintained by an archaeology project team in Jordan: The Great Arab Revolt Project. I’ve also provided a link to the project’s home page on our links page. The blog contains some great images of the areas covered by the Arab Revolt in Jordan and also some interesting insights that the team has gained from their digs such as this one from a post on 6 November:

. . . Ottoman defensive tactics during the First World War were sophisticated and likely to have been effective. The stereotype of a corrupt and incompetent army seems increasingly less likely on the evidence of modern conflict archaeology.

A force of nearly 5,000 from the Turkish Maan garrison was encountered by elements of the 5th Australian Light Horse Regiment at Ziza on 29 September 1918. This dramatic painting, Ziza by H. Septimus Power, depicts the unique event where members the Australian Light Horse for one night shared food and fire with soldiers of the Turkish Army and joined forces with the Turks against Arabs from the Beni Sakhr tribes.

H Septimus Power’s Ziza 1935 oil on canvas

The extraordinary event at Ziza occurred towards the end of Major General Chaytor’s successful campaign east of the Jordan. The Maan garrison was hopelessly cut off and had been fleeing northwards to Amman. On the morning of the 29 September 1918, their hasty defensive position at Ziza station was contacted by two squadrons of the 5th Light Horse Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel Donald Cameron. Thousands of Beni Sakhr tribesmen had gathered in the hills surrounding the Turkish Garrison, threatening to strike against them. The Turkish commander wanted to surrender but was unwilling to lay down their arms to the small Australian force since that might mean their annihilation by the Arabs. General Chaytor himself came forward late in the afternoon to consult with Cameron about the situation and decided that the Turks should remain in their trenches and keep their arms until stronger reinforcements arrived the following morning. The 7th Light Horse Regiment assisted in the defence of the position overnight and this unlikely coupling of Turkish and Australian troops stood guard until daylight. By the next morning the New Zealand Mounted Rifle Brigade had arrived and it was safe to disarm the Turks and formally take them prisoner.

The original official surrender document, signed by “Ottoman Company Commander at Djezir, Ali Housain,” Commander of the Ziza Garrison, ceding troops, guns and other stores to the Australian Forces, is held at the Australian War Memorial and will be on display in the exhibition.

A detailed narrative account of the surrender at Ziza written by Donald Cameron can be read in the appendices of the war diaries for the 5th Australian Light Horse here. Cameron notes in the war diary that the Turkish forces, although having great superiority of numbers, were terrified of the Bedouins and seemed “worn out”.

Further reading:

Damien Fenton, ‘Standoff at Ziza’ Wartime, 2003, Issue 24. View PDF file here.

H S Gullett, The Australian Imperial Force in Sinai and Palestine, 1914–1918 Volume VII – (10th edition, 1941). Chapter 42, pp 724-727.

The political background to the entry into Damascus is complex and murky. Yet, only by identifying the underlying web of forces involved, can sense be made of what happened as control of the city passed from the Turks to the Allies.

It is clear that parts of the 10th Australian Light Horse Regiment were the first troops formally to enter Damascus when they passed through on their way to secure the Homs road and that Major Olden was handed the city by the acting governor, Emir Said, a member of the influential al-Jaza’iri or Qadir family. But within hours this unexpected turn of events was overshadowed by the political need for Damascus to be seen to be liberated by the Hashemite army led by Feisal that had fought its way north from the Hejaz.

An article published in 2005 by the British historian Dr Matthew Hughes of Brunel University reviews and updates the evidence supporting this view which was first identified more than 40 years ago by Professor Elie Kedourie of the London School of Economics. Both show that, as part of a wider Imperial policy originating in London, the British were keen to establish the Hashemites in a strong position in central Syria to destabilise French claims to this area enshrined in the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement. Independently the Hashemites wanted to move their power-base from the distant and sparsely populated Hejaz to Syria and establish themselves as the legitimate and natural heirs to Turkish rule there. In this respect the British and Hashemites were equal partners of self-interest. read on

Well, our little exhibition team did all go to watch Lawrence of Arabia in period costume as planned. There will soon be some very embarassing photos and perhaps some film footage displayed on this blog, so keep an eye out for them.

I thought that I’d give you my perspective of the film as the curator of our exhibition. (My apologies, for this is a long post and there are no images!) For me, looking again at this film after spending so much time immersed in everything Lawrence, was an eye-opener in many ways and I recognised and understood more clearly some aspects of the film that probably led to the many accolades it received in 1963. I read recently in Malcolm Brown’s Lawrence of Arabia, the life the legend that he believed the film was ‘in numerous respects more Hollywood than history’. On the whole I don’t really think that is the case, but I suppose it depends on your perspective. Sure enough, there are many factual, chronological and even geographical errors in the film and those can easily be found in a number of critiques elsewhere on the web. Most criticisms are summarised in Wikipedia and Lawrence’s authorised biographer Jeremy Wilson also details them here. I am not debating those observations.

I believe, however, that the film is a masterpiece of film making and, for those who are not interested in reading any of the many books written about Lawrence during the First World War, it does leave you with all the essential parts of the story. A rather enigmatic young English officer with some knowledge of the Middle East is sent by his superiors to assist the Arab Army and becomes a close adviser to Emir Feisal during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire. I am sure that the story told by the film has inspired many people to read more about Lawrence and it probably also inspired further biographies about him. Why?

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Ninety years ago, on 23 October 1916, the momentous first encounter took place between Captain TE Lawrence, a relatively junior British intelligence officer from Cairo, and Emir Feisal, the 33 year old third son of Sherif Hussein of Mecca.

Earlier that year, in June, Hussein had initiated a revolt of the Arabs living in the Hejaz against Turkish rule. Early operations had gone well, with both Mecca and Jidda quickly secured. But momentum waned when the Arabs failed to capture Medina and concerns rose among the British authorities in Egypt and the Sudan about the state of the revolt.

On 13 October Lawrence and Ronald Storrs, the Oriental Secretary to the British civilian administration in Cairo, left to visit the Hejaz and report back on how things were progressing. Lawrence’s position was curious. He still worked for the Military Intelligence Department in Cairo and technically took leave to go to Arabia. Foremost in his mind was the desire to establish which of Hussein’s four sons was likely to prove the most capable and dynamic leader of the Arab forces during the revolt.

Lawrence and Storrs arrived in Jidda on 16 October and had a meeting with Emir Adbullah, Hussein’s second son. Three days later Lawrence travelled north to Rabegh and spoke to Emir Ali, the Sherif’s oldest son, and to Emir Zeid, the youngest brother. None of them appeared to Lawrence to possess the right combination of personality and insight to lead the Arabs to victory. Already he had a vision of an independent, post-war Arabian state and to achieve this he knew it was essential to find precisely the right man. read on