The news, and the prospect of loot that might soon be gone, now so quickened the time-sense of the Arabs that they began trickling northward during the night. Only a small proportion had been able to get a drink from the water-tanks at Habban, for the animals had come first. The men, indeed, covered the last fifty miles on half a gallon of water and no food. But no physical pangs could check them now. When dawn broke, Feisal and his assistants rallied the contingents ready for the final advance, and attack if necessary, for it was uncertain whether the garrison was still holding out. Fragments of it were soon met, trying to escape, but only one put up a show of resistance.
No further shot greeted the Arabs as they crested the last ridge, and they found the little town in the possession of the Arab landing party, which had lost a score of men killed. By European standards it was a cheaply won victory, but Lawrence had become so imbued with Arab standards that the news made him rather uneasy because of the way its ripples would be likely to spread through all the families bereaved. Bloodless victories were the kind that the Arabs appreciated, as an inspiration to further ones, and Lawrence’s understanding of this need marked a stage in the evolution of his theory of irregular warfare.
Nevertheless, the capture of Wejh proved a turning point for good in the evolution of the Arab Revolt. From that moment the danger of Mecca waned, and a new danger to the Turkish garrison of Medina loomed on the horizon. For the moment it was only a potential danger, as Wejh was one hundred and fifty miles from the railway life-line, but it had the practical effect of an actual stroke without the cost of it. The initiative passed definitely to the Arabs. British aircraft and Arab spies reported a general reflux of the Turkish troops towards Medina. Zeid was emboldened to advance, and found the defiles of Medjiz and El Ghair abandoned.
A large part of the Turkish Hejaz force was drawn off bit by bit to guard the railway. A detachment of about five thousand, known as the 2nd Composite Force, was formed at Tebuk, an important station three hundred miles north of Medina. Another, called theo 1st Cmposite Force, was formed at Ma‘an from battalions of the Turkish 7th Division brought down from Syria—another entry to the credit account of the Wejh move. This force, originally about three thousand strong, later rose to seven thousand. Every unit of force drawn north brought compound interest to the Arab cause, augmenting the adherents of the Sherif as the Turk’s power of retaliation diminished. Moreover, these Turkish forces could no longer be concentrated. They had to be parcelled out among the many stations on the line, posted in wire-surrounded block houses. Instead, merely, of division of one into three, it meant multiple subdivision.
Such were the results that flowed from this driving of a wedge into the lank of the railway zone on which the Turks depended. Hitherto the Arabs had knocked at the pointed end of the railway, and hurt themselves in the effort. Now they had exposed its vulnerable length. The almost bloodless move to Wejh had pierced no vital organ, won no decisive battle, but it had changed the Turks at Medina into a beleaguered garrison although they suffered no actual siege.
INTERLUDE
The Art of Handling Arabs—and Others
The domestic sequel to Wejh was less happy than the strategic. Relations between the Arabs and the British military mission passed through a difficult phase, during which the issue balanced on a knife-edge—not merely proverbial. That improvement came and prospect widened was due to Feisal’s example of tact, to the proof given by several of the British Officers that they were capable of holding their own in Arab tests of endurance, and to Lawrence’s subtly extending influence—especially with Feisal.
The weeks that followed the capture of Wejh had given rise to many awkward incidents, and an ominous atmosphere. The Arab chiefs were so quick to suspect interference that they were ever ready to resent the presence of infidels. Many of them behaved as if the British officers were their servants, and set an example of rudeness that was imitated by their followers, as well as by their slaves. When a remonstrance was made to Nasir he replied, “Don’t forget that until a month ago we never had a European in this country; if we had, we should have shot him. You must give us time to get used to it.” On another occasion, when Newcombe asked questions of an envoy from Jauf, the Arab contemptuously remarked that he had not come to meet a Hair, but to see Feisal.
When this and other instances of contemptuous behaviour came to Feisal’s ears he assembled his followers and spoke to them straightly, telling them not to forget when dealing with a British officer that he had come far to help them, deserved respect, and should be treated as one of themselves. Better still, Feisal set the example himself. Thus, gradually, the British officers came to be tolerated and even, in varying degree, appreciated.
Nevertheless, there was a long way to go between this equality and the ascendency which one among them later attained. At this time Lawrence still kept in the background—in the conference tent as well as outside. Although he was already in Feisal’s confidence he paraded it so little that many of the Arabs who came to Feisal’s camp ignored his presence or treated him with scant respect. To some of his own countrymen, bred in the tradition of British superiority and commissioned dignity, his indifference to slights that made their blood boil was a source of perplexity. Astonished at his unruffled manner when slaves brushed past him or spat in his presence,1 they were inclined to ascribe his capacity “to eat humble pie” to his upbringing, to his own “Street Arab” past. But on the memory of some of the more discerning was engraved a picture of Lawrence “sitting mute, giving no orders but using his influence, watching everything that passed and weaving his schemes.”
When the campaign moved north, his method would change—and he would come out more into the open. Not only because his own prestige had grown, but because none of the Sherifs, save Feisal, carried the weight in the north that they did in the Hejaz. Lawrence’s journey north in May, which culminated in the capture of Aqaba two months later, would mark the transition.
But from his earlier experience he evolved a theory of the art of handling Arabs which he wrote out in the form of “Twenty Seven Articles”—as a confidential guide to newcomers from the British Army who might wish to profit by that experience. It is so illuminating, not least on his own mind, as to be worth reproducing in extract:
The “Twenty Seven Articles”
Handling Hejaz Arabs is an art, not a science, with exceptions and no obvious rules. . . .
A bad start is difficult to atone for, and the Arabs form their judgments on externals that we ignore. When you have reached the inner circle in a tribe, you can do as you please with yourself and them.
Learn all you can about your Ashraf1 and Bedu. Get to know their families, clans and tribes, friends and enemies, wells, hills and roads. Do all this by listening and by indirect inquiry. Do not ask questions. Get to speak their dialect of Arabic, not yours. Until you can understand their allusions avoid getting deep into conversation, or you will drop bricks. . . .
In matters of business deal only with the commander of the army, column, or party in which you serve. Never give orders to anyone at all, and reserve your directness and advice for the CO., however great the temptation (for efficiency’s sake) of dealing direct with his underlings. . . .
Win and keep the confidence of your leader. Strengthen his prestige at your expense before others if you can. Never refuse or quash schemes he may put forward; but ensure that they are put forward in the first instance privately to you. Always approve them, and after praise modify them insensibly, causing the suggestions to come from him, until they are in accord with your own opinion. When you attain this point, hold him to it, keep a tight grip of his ideas, and push him forward as firmly as possible, but secretly, so that no one but himself (and he not too clearly) is aware of your pressure.
Remain in touch with your leader as constantly and unobtrusively as you can. Live with him, that at mealtimes and at audience you may be naturally with him in his tent. Formal visits to give advice are not so good as the
constant dropping of ideas in casual talk. When stranger sheikhs come in for the first time to swear allegiance and offer service, clear out of the tent. If their first impression is of foreigners in the confidence of the Sherif, it will do the Arab cause much harm.
Be shy of too close relations with subordinates. Continual intercourse with them will make it impossible for you to avoid going behind or beyond the instructions that the Arab C.O. has given them on your advice, and in so disclosing the weakness of his position you altogether destroy your own.
Treat the sub-chiefs of your force quite easily and lightly. In this way you hold yourself above their level. Treat the leader, if a Sherif, with respect. He will return your manner and you and he will then be alike, and above the rest. Precedence is a serious matter among the Arabs and you must attain it.
Your ideal position is when you are present and not noticed. Do not be too intimate, too prominent or too earnest. Avoid being identified too long or too often with any tribal sheikh. To do your work you must be above jealousies, and you lose prestige if you are associated with a tribe or class, and its inevitable feuds. . . .
Magnify and develop the growing conception of the Sherifs as the natural aristocracy of the Arabs. Inter-tribal jealousies make it impossible for any sheikh to obtain a commanding position, and the only hope of union in nomad Arabia is that the Ashraf be universally acknowledged as the ruling class. The Arab reverence for pedigree and the Prophet give hope for the ultimate success of the Ashraf.
Call your Sherif “Sidi” in public and private. Call other people by their ordinary names, without title.
The foreigner and Christian is not a popular person in Arabic . . . Wave a Sherif in front of you like a banner and hide your own mind and person. If you succeed, you will have hundreds of miles of country and thousands of men under your control, and for this it is worth bartering the outward show.
Cling tight to your sense of humour. You will need it every day. A dry irony is the most useful type, and repartee of a personal and not too broad character will double your influence with the chiefs . . . Do not cause a laugh at a Sherif except amongst Sherifs.
Never lay hands on an Arab; you degrade yourself. You may think the resultant obvious increase of outward respect a gain to you; but what you have really done is to build a wall between you and their inner selves. It is difficult to keep quiet when everything is being done wrong, but the less you lose your temper the greater your advantage. Also then you will not go mad yourself.
While very difficult to drive, the Bedu are easy to lead, if you have the patience to bear with them. The less apparent your interference the more your influence. They are willing to follow your advice . . . but they do not mean you or anyone else to be aware of that. It is only after the end of all annoyances that you find at bottom their real fund of goodwill.
Do not try to do too much with your own hands. Better the Arabs do it tolerably than that you do it perfectly. It is their war, and you are to help them, not to win it for them. Actually also, under the very odd conditions of Arabia, your practical work will not be as good as, perhaps, you think it is.
If you can, without being too lavish, forestall presents to yourself. A well-placed gift is often most effective in winning over a suspicious sheikh. Never receive a present without giving a liberal return. . . . Do not let them ask you for things since their greed will then make them look upon you only as a cow to milk.
Wear an Arab headcloth when with a tribe. Bedu have a malignant prejudice against the hat, and believe that our persistence in wearing it . . . is founded on some immoral or irreligious principle . . . If you wear a hat your new Arab friends will be ashamed of you in public.
Disguise is not advisable . . . At the same time if you can wear Arab kit when with the tribes you will acquire their trust and intimacy to a degree impossible in uniform. It is, however, dangerous and difficult. They make no special allowances for you when you dress like them. You will be like an actor in a foreign theatre, playing a part day and night for months, without rest, and for an anxious stake. Complete success, which is when the Arabs forget your strangeness and speak naturally before you, counting you as one of themselves, is perhaps only attainable in character: while half success (all that most of us will strive for; the other costs too much) is easier to win in British things, and you yourself will last longer, physically and mentally, in the comfort that they mean. Also then the Turk will not hang you, when you are caught.
If you wear Arab things, wear the best. Clothes are significant among the tribes and you must wear the appropriate, and appear at ease in them. Dress like a Sherif, it they agree to it.
If you wear Arab things at all, go the whole way. Leave your English friends and customs on the coast and fall back on Arab habits entirely. It is possible, starting thus level with them, for the European to beat the Arabs at their own game for we have stronger motives for our action, and put more heart into it than they. If you can surpass them you have taken an immense stride towards complete success, but the strain of living and thinking in a foreign and half understood language, the savage food, strange clothes, and stranger ways, with the complete loss of privacy and quiet, and the impossibility of ever relaxing your watchful imitation of others for months on end, provide such an added stress to the ordinary difficulties of dealing with the Bedu, the climate, and the Turk that this road should not be chosen without serious thought.
Religious discussions will be frequent. Say what you like about your own side and avoid criticism of theirs, unless you know that the point is external, when you may score heavily by proving it so. With the Bedu, Islam is so all-pervading an element that there is little religiosity, little fervour, and no regard for externals. Do not think from their conduct that they are careless. Their conviction of the truth of their faith, and its share in every act and thought and principle of their daily life is so intimate and intense as to be unconscious, unless roused by opposition. Their religion is as much a part of nature to them as is sleep or food.
Do not try to trade on what you know of fighting. The Hejaz confounds ordinary tactics. Learn the Bedu principles of war as thoroughly and as quickly as you can, for till you know them your advice will be no good to the Sherif. Unnumbered generations of tribal raids have taught them more about some parts of the business than we shall ever know. In familiar conditions they fight well, but strange events cause panics. Keep your unit small. . . . The more unorthodox your proceedings, the more likely you are to have the Turks cold, for they lack initiative and expect you to. Don’t play for safety.
The open reason that Bedu give you for action or inaction may be true, but always there will be better reasons left for you to divine. You must find these inner reasons . . . before shaping your arguments for one course or another. Allusion is more effective than logical exposition; they dislike concise expression. Their minds work just as ours do, but on different premises. There is nothing unreasonable, incomprehensible, or inscrutable in the Arabs. Experience of them and knowledge of their prejudices will enable you to foresee their attitude and possible course of action in nearly every case.
Do not mix Bedu and Syrians, or trained men and tribesmen . . . Arab townsmen and Arab tribesmen regard each other mutually as poor relations, and poor relations are much more objectionable than poor strangers.
In spite of Arab example, avoid too free talk about women. It is as difficult a subject as religion, and their standards are so unlike our own that a remark, harmless in English, may appear as unrestrained to them, as some of their statements would look to us, if translated literally.
Be as careful of your servants as yourself. . . .
The beginning and ending of the secret of handling Arabs is unremitting study of them. Keep always on your guard; never say an unnecessary thing: Watch yourself, and your companions all the time: Hear all that passes, search out what is going on beneath the surface, read their characters, discover their tastes and weaknesses and keep everything you find out to yours
elf . . . Your success will be proportioned to the amount of mental effort you devote to it.
* * *
1 Lawrence has enlarged upon this point for my education, remarking that the officers’ astonishment showed that they “knew more about the manners of Egypt than of Arabia. The slave was only behaving before me as in his master’s presence. Arab grandees habitually play with their slaves. I was glad to be accepted as natural.
“Arabian slaves are privileged persons, and rank next to children. A slave, for instance, can eat with his master, and usually does. A servant, never. A slave can sleep with his master—a servant must sleep outside the door. A slave can call his master by name—a servant, not.”
1 The Arab plural of “Sherif.”
CHAPTER VIII
SPREADING RIPPLES
February–March, 1917
Feisal’s success brings in fresh allies—Operations against the railway are begun—Political friction and French ambitions—Lloyd George urges an advance into Palestine—Despite weak opposition, the advance is slow to mature—“they turn the desert into a workshop and call it war”—The delay brings a threat of Turkish withdrawal from Medina to reinforce Palestine—A call to Lawrence—And a chance for reflection
THE capture of Wejh opened a new horizon in both the political and military spheres. The former received attention first, largely owing to Lawrence’s sage advice, pressed with emphasis, that it would be best to enlarge their political base of action before beginning military action—so that the subsequent operations could be of wider range and yet more secure.
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