What role did the Arab population play in World War I

Mavi Boncuk

What role did the Arab population play in World War I?

During the First World War, the Turkish dominated Ottoman Empire sided with the Central Powers against the Allies, allowing the Emir of Mecca to seize the opportunity to liberate the Arab lands from Turkish rule by allying himself with the British and the French.

In March 1915 Britain attacked Gallipoli, south of Istanbul, in an attempt to divert the Ottoman Turks support for Germany. The campaign was a disaster to the British Army with horrendous losses, but the setback provided the impulse for the idea of bringing the vast Arab-speaking areas of the Ottoman Empire under British control after the war. The British government called on its agents with contacts in the Arab-speaking countries to make an effort to detach the Arabs from the Turks, leading to contact with Hussein. Although the Hussein-McMahon correspondence seeming to promise Arab independence after the war was not legally binding on either side, on June 5, 1916, Sharif Hussein launched the "Arab Revolt" and in October declared himself "King of the Arabs."
Sharif Hussein bin Ali (1853-1931), Emir of Mecca and King of the Arabs, was the last of the Hashemite Sharifians that ruled over Mecca, Medina and the Hijaz in unbroken succession from 1201 to 1925. His objective in undertaking the Great Arab Revolt was to establish a single independent and unified Arab state stretching from Aleppo (Syria) to Aden (Yemen).

T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) was sent by the British from Cairo, where he was a military intelligence officer, to Mecca on a fact-finding mission. Ultimately Lawrence became the British liaison officer to the Arabs. His account of the revolt is chronicled in in his classic books, "Seven Pillars of Wisdom, A Triumph" and "Revolt in the Desert." These thrilling books have been found lacking in credibility, in fact a fabrication, when examined by historians.

Hussein's Hashemite Army was divided into three bodies, each commanded by one of his sons: The Southern Army under Amir Ali, with its HQ in Rabigh; the Eastern Army under Amir Abdallah with HQ at Wadi Ais; and the Northern Army under Amir Faysal, poised at Wajh with its inland forward operational base at Bir Jaydah, some 50 miles due West of the Hijaz Railway.

On July, 6 1917 Faysal's army (with T.E. Lawrence) captured Aqaba, perhaps the most spectacular success of his forces - one that marked a "turning point" in the Arab campaign, threatening the flank of the Turkish Army operating against the British in Palestine and in the Sinai. On September 19 the battles of Megiddo began, leading to the annihilation of the Turkish 7th and 8th Army. After the battles of Megiddo the British and Arab troops moved rapidly forward to the North. Between the September 30 and October 1, 1918 Damascus was captured, followed by the capture of Homs (15 October), Hama (17 October), and Aleppo (25 October).

Unfortunately, the aid given to the Allied campaign against the Turks by the Arab Revolt was minor; Lawrence once described it as "a sideshow of a sideshow." The Sherif Hussein did send out his call for an Arab rising throughout the Ottoman Empire, but in fact no such rising took place. There was no mutiny by Arabs anywhere in the Turkish Army; on the contrary, the Arabs fought enthusiastically in the cause of their Turkish overlords. In spite of efforts at persuasion by Faisal and Lawrence, the Arabs of Syria had refused to join the war effort.

Even the actual share of victory that is appropriate to credit to various fighting forces is controversial. The British Commonwealth armies carried the burden of conventional fighting and were essential to overcome the Turkish army and the strongholds around cities. There was also a small but significant French Army Unit attached to the Arab Revolt. Arab forces were often allowed to enter a city in a ceremonial fashion so that the victory could be credited to them, after British Commonwealth regulars had cleared the way. Damascus, in particular, was actually surrendered to the Australian commander and then required British troops to quell a rebellion against Faysal. Lawrence arrived late in a Rolls-Royce, but had himself photographed on horseback and wrote fictionalized accounts that glorified his own role and that of his Arab cohorts. Eventually a Sherifian administration was installed, and the fiction was then promoted that the Arabs had captured Damascus.

The London Daily Telegraph of 3 October, 1918 states:
...news of the fall of Damascus ... On the last night of September a force of cavalry rode into the city and took possession of it: and the fact that its captors were all of the Australian division is not the least fantastic detail...

Palestine was excluded from this scramble to claim territory by "right of conquest". No effort was made by the Sherifian forces on either side of the Jordan to interfere in Palestine generally or Jerusalem. These events were just one year after the publication of the Balfour Declaration; apparently Arab leaders felt no urge to oppose or obstruct the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine.

Summarizing the Arab contribution to World War I, from the 1955 "biographical enquiry" by the British writer Richard Aldington that demolished the reputation of Lawrence:
To claim that these spasmodic and comparatively tiny efforts had any serious bearing on the war with Turkey, let alone on the greater war beyond is ... absurd.