In this episode, we take a deep dive into the early life of the Ottoman Empire and its impact on the Arab world, from the founding of the Arab Bureau to the fall of the empire and the rise of the modern state. We look at the relationship between the Ottomans and the Arabs, and how they influenced the development of Arab culture and identity.
00:00:00.000So then, about this point, his expedition with Storrs to Jeddah for the first time, this is sort of where Seven Pillars of Wisdom kicks in and the movie, Lawrence of Raiders, it's sort of around this point where the story, the main story, really starts.
00:00:18.100So in Seven Pillars of Wisdom, he spent the first bit of the book, he's setting up a lot of the things we've set up, just talking about the Ottoman Empire a bit and talking about the Arabs a bit.
00:00:27.680One last thing I want to mention before we just go into the story is this relationship between Arabs, true Arabian Arabs, and the sort of wider Arab world, if you like.
00:00:41.720So there's sort of the true Arabian, sometimes Bedouin, not always Bedouin, but the true Arabian Arabs.
00:00:48.460And then there's Arabic people of Mesopotamia and what became Transjordan and modern day Lebanon and Syria and stuff.
00:00:59.940So they see themselves sort of, it's a bit different.
00:01:04.200So the way you might say Scandinavian and Germanic and British people are all essentially the same ethnicity, let's say, and might share the same religion, but they're actually separate, actually fairly separate sort of identities, got different histories and all sorts of things going on.
00:01:24.260So there's that to mention, I think, is worth mentioning.
00:01:27.520Yes. This is one of the things that Lawrence talks about, isn't it?
00:01:30.720Because if the end goal is an independent Arab people, well, because of the Ottoman Empire, such a thing as a group of independent Arabs has not existed for centuries.
00:01:46.520And so what is actually, what can be the foundational myth, you know, that they can all tie themselves around, that they can feel they've got some loyalty to one another.
00:01:58.940And Lawrence comes to the opinion, I think this is one of the things he talks about when he's in the Arab Bureau.
00:02:03.040He says, if it is to be successful and stable, then it's going to have to fundamentally be based on Sunni Islam and it's going to have to have some sort of historical memory of the times before the Ottomans.
00:02:21.020There's going to have to be some renaissance of Arab history, Arab consciousness, you know, as a people, as a civilisation of their own, you know, before the Turks, which is obviously an enormously ambitious thing to undertake.
00:02:40.000One interesting line, very interesting line from Seven Pears of Wisdom, which always strikes me whenever I've read it, is it talks about how the Turks tried to,
00:02:49.100did their own version of colonialism, did their own version of colonialism, and that was extremely, extremely repressive and oppressive, extremely so.
00:02:58.800But the way, sort of the osmosis, the reverse osmosis was the case though.
00:03:03.760So Turkish words, you're supposed to only speak Turkish if you were in a colonial government or at universities and things.
00:03:12.000Any official cable and things should always be in Turkish, for example.
00:03:18.280They tried to repress Arabic, the language.
00:04:07.160Also, one thing to mention as regards to just a brief history before Lawrence arrives is, in particular, Prince Faisal, who's going to be a major character.
00:04:19.920The main character of Lawrence himself.
00:05:23.060And so Faisal is in, yeah, at Mecca with doing troop maneuvers with two of the three main
00:05:33.620young Turks having to pretend to be on their side.
00:05:38.240And I think it's Sheriff Ali of the Harith, who's obviously in the film, there is a Sheriff Ali played by Omar Sharif, but he's in the film.
00:05:49.280He's more of an amalgamation of several characters, but there was a historical Sheriff Ali of the Harith and he's there.
00:05:55.900And he says, why aren't we just killing them?
00:05:58.200You know, why aren't we just killing them now?
00:06:12.880The Turks, the young Turks get really suspicious that some things are missed.
00:06:17.280Fortunately, Faisal's able to, to get away.
00:06:20.520He's not held prisoner and yeah, so there's this whole subterfuge before Lawrence comes along and the Turks aren't quite aware of just that.
00:06:30.600So the Arab revolt, by the time Lawrence goes to Arabia, the revolt has already started.
00:13:18.920It's interesting that, so what Lawrence and Storrs and just the British, the first thing they're looking for to try and help to bolster this Arab revolt,
00:13:28.160before we start giving them naval artillery support and loads of money and on and on and on, is need a decent leader.
00:13:36.080Not just a decent leader, a charismatic leader, the old King Hussein in Mecca, he's not up to it, he's an old man and he's stubborn and he's not really a leader of men.
00:13:45.920What particularly Lawrence is looking for is, and the bar is set really high, he wants someone that's almost like a mythical, something from the past.
00:14:18.800The most important brother, he's sort of the most polished, the most educated, probably tactically, strategically, probably you would have thought the best.
00:14:37.320But when Storrs and Lawrence meet him, yeah, Lawrence and Storrs' opinion is that he's, yeah, something like too languid, too sort of relaxed and casual and off the cuff.
00:16:04.800Now, I don't know what your opinion is.
00:16:06.640And I'm sure a lot of it is just due to the fact that, basically, every time Lawrence writes about Faisal and the Seven Pillars, he's absolutely forming over him.
00:16:15.360You know, it's clear that Lawrence had the highest opinion of Faisal.
00:16:20.400And I suppose through the sheer force of his writing and the way that Lawrence tells it, you can't help but feel that way either.
00:17:00.500He says he looked quite European in his complexion.
00:17:04.280You know, I mean, obviously, Guinness is a bit more obvious, but, you know, it's still, it's interesting that Lawrence basically almost knows the moment that he sees him, that this is a man that he's looking for.