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“Thomas Edward Lawrence AKA Lawrence of Arabia”

1) Life of Lawrence:

Thomas Edward Lawrence, known as “Lawrence of Arabia”, was a military icon

during World War I who through his valor, genius mind and by being a desirable person

of doing the impossible made him a legend of 20th century.

His early life was quite independent starting from his birth which was a result of

an illegal affair between his mother; a mistress of his father, Sir Thomas Chapman.

Unlike his four brothers, he was physically unattractive due to his short height but was

unique in his thinking and behavior. He had high willing power with strong perception of

doing and achieving everything at his own hands. He received Honor’s degree from

Oxford in History subject and since then started having interest in the Arabs and their

culture. Later he worked in a museum in northern Syria as an archeologist assistant from

1910-1914 to learn more about the language and behavior of the Arabs (Browne n.p.).

Then there came the time of World War I that totally changed the course of

history and life for Lawrence in every way. He got appointed as a lieutenant in the

British army and in 1915 became a part of the Military Intelligence Department in Cairo.

In 1916, he was promoted to post of captain but found the office work boring. His dream

was to assist Arabs against their Turkish enemies. It came true through his very first

secret mission to arrange an escape for Maj. Gen. Townshed and his men captured by

Turkish. After its completion, he wrote impressive reports on Arabs nationalism that
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made his superiors to send him to another mission (Browne n.p.) - a mission to assist

Arabs.

He got appointed as a liaison officer to Prince Faisal and assists him and his army

in every way to fight back the Ottoman armies and conquer the Madina and other

important cities of Arabia. The situation of the Arabs, known as Bedouins was quite

depressing. They had no sense of discipline and were always ready to start fighting

without making a proper planning. On the other hand, their head, Feisal was a cool

tempered and patient leader who knew all necessary skills and tactics (Browne n.p.).

Since, he needed someone to assist him in managing the Bedouins army, so Lawrence did

so in every possible way. He, using his skilled guerilla tactics, designed strategies that

impressed the Arabs.

After that, a sequence of triumphs started emerging under Lawrence’s leadership

and Arab’s army. They together captured the coastal town of Wejh and intended to

conquer beyond Syria, Madina and Damascus. Lawrence’s goal was to positively involve

the Arabs through their terrain knowledge and courage and strike at the Turkish supplies

center i.e. the Hejaz Railway by conquering Red sea port of Aqaba. He tactfully consulted

several Arab’s tribal heads to assist them in doing so and got their approval. Through then

a continual progress of conquering Syria, Aqaba and finally Damascus, he finally

achieved the goal of attaining a free land for Arabs. From that moment, he was called by

the Arabs “Urens” i.e. “Lawrence” (Browne n.p.).

On one side he was making victories one by one for making Arab’s dream of

independence possible, while on the other hand, the British and French made a diplomatic

agreement known as “Sykes-Picot” in which they decided to establish Jewish rule in Arab

(Browne n.p.). Lawrence also assisted Arab in this time. He went to peace conference in

Paris by being an interpreter of Feisal and spoke for the rights of Arabs. He refused his
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military titles. His struggles worked out in form of appointing Feisal as the king of Iraq.

Till that time, he also started writing his famous book “Seven pillars of wisdom” and later

wrote few others. He got fame through a journalist Lowell Thomas who started writing

about his victories. Despite of that, Lawrence avoided the life of fame and chose to lead

anonymous life. He later joined RAF under a false name and after retirement got his life

ended in a motorcycle accident in 1935.

In short, his life spanned from being a famous person but ending at being

dismayed by it. Nevertheless, he was a man of true abilities who looked ordinary but

achieved the extra-ordinary.

2) Works in general:

Apart from a heroic life and actions, he works were based on two fields i.e. first

writing and secondly his correspondence. He wrote a number of books, journals, letters,

periodicals etc. his correspondence was based on his vast range of acquaintances and the

impressive letters he wrote describing his interests and character (Wilson, n.p.). Each of

these is described here under:

 His first masterpiece book was “seven pillars of wisdom” in which he

described the time he spent with Arabs while assisting Feisal against

Turkish. Later he wrote “Revolt in the desert” which got published

after his death. He also wrote a short book named “The Mint” in which

he described his years spent by serving in Royal Air Force (RAF). He

also translated some famous stories such as “The Forest Giant” and

“The Odyssey of Homer” (Wilson, n.p.).

 The character and behavioral study of Lawrence can easily be made by

reading “The Letters of T. E. Lawrence” that were published firstly in

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1988 (Wilson, n.p.). He had acquaintances with famous writers such as

Bernard Shaw and many other artists, archeologists, tourists and civil

personalities.

3) His book – Seven Pillars of Wisdom:

This book is indeed a written form of the war time that Lawrence spent in

Arabia. He narrated all the events, his mental and physical conditions at various

points, the habits of Arabs and their leaders and the role of British government in that

entire scenario.

The book begin by describing his utmost desire of achieving something

beyond the imaginations; to present himself as a helping guide to the people who

desperately needed freedom and thus tried to his best what he really hoped for. Those

introductory lines are:

“I loved you, so I drew these tides of men into my hands

and wrote my will across the sky in stars

To gain you Freedom, the seven-pillared worthy house,

that your eyes might be shining for me

When I came (“T. E. Lawrence: quotes” n.p.).”

It moves on describing his personal interaction and negotiations with the prince Feisal

and the difficulties they had to face while training the rebellious tribes of Arabs and

Bedouins who lack the ability of decision making and war skills. As he quoted in his

book:

“We had been hopelessly laboring to plough waste lands; to make nationality grow in

a place full of the certainty of God… Among the tribes our creed could be only like the
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desert grass – a beautiful swift seeming of spring; which, after a day’s heat, fell dusty

(“T. E. Lawrence: quotes” n.p.).”

But Lawrence using his guerilla tactics moved them toward fighting courageously for

their land’s freedom. He taught them how to be disciplined and seek their freedom. As he

said:

““In peace-armies discipline meant the hunt, not of an average but of an absolute;

the hundred per cent standard in which the ninety-nine were played down to the level of

the weakest man on parade…. The deeper the discipline, the lower was the individual

excellence; also the more sure the performance (“T. E. Lawrence: quotes” n.p.).”

He continued helping them in attacking Turkish troops, designing strategies for

targeting places to be conquered and hence lead those toward victory when finally

conquered Damascus. Throughout these years, he cloaked himself into the identity of

Arabs and doing nothing but all for their cause and needs. As he said in his book:

“I had dropped one form and not taken on the other, and was become like

Mohammed's coffin in our legend, with a resultant feeling of intense loneliness in life, and

a contempt, not for other men, but for all they do (“T. E. Lawrence: quotes” n.p.).”

He also points out the selfish act signed between the British and French and felt

ashamed for he thought of himself as helping out the Arabs and later taking them toward

another imprisonment. As he quoted:

“Yet when we achieved and the new world dawned, the old men came out again and

took our victory to remake in the likeness of the former world they knew. Youth could win,

but had not learned to keep, and was pitiably weak against age. We stammered that we

had worked for a new heaven and a new earth, and they thanked us kindly and made their

peace. (“T. E. Lawrence: quotes” n.p.)”

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In nutshell, the theme of his book is more than of an autobiography. It is rather his

travelling experience molding into a self-participation in a revolt ending up in peace of the

conquerors, but fameless-life’s desire of the assistant i.e. Lawrence himself!

4) Views about Arabs:

Lawrence viewed Arabs as a narrow minded people who had morality and

intellectual but only in terms of civilization, not in form of proper actions. According to

him, this was their “lack of public spirit” that made their qualities diminish in form of

failure in achieving their goals (Lawrence 21). However, the Arabs maintained their

civilization alive by practicing their culture, maintaining Arabic as their national

language, saving their literature and orienting their minds according to it. They lost their

geographical, racial and political background. As quoted by Lawrence:

“A first difficulty of the Arab movement was to say who the Arabs were (Lawrence

14).”

But they never compromised ever on their national language. This high spirited

nation do had low grip on their ideas but never on their conduct.

Lawrence also was contended with them since they had firm belief on him.

According to him:

“Arabs believe in persons, not in institutions (Lawrence 23).”

Arabs always believed in knowing the truth. They knew only belief and unbelief.

They were too extremists. At one time they are the cool-tempered just people and at other

end they are deadly enough to kill anyone forcing them to compromise against their wills.

However, they were not creative at all. They had no taste for arts or handicrafts or any

sort of architectural knowledge. They lacked a mind of management and thus had no

industrial setup. They had no desire of learning about life secrets. They never mourned on
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deaths and considered suicide as a sinful act. He considered them as a confused nation

(Lawrence 21).

Lawrence named them as “people of stars” and “unstable as water” (Lawrence

26). He looked upon Arabs as people who have no proper way of thinking. They were

dull-minded, depressed people who had no sense of ruling (Lawrence 25).

5) Views about Islam:

According to Lawrence, Islam was embedded in the hearts of the Arabs. This

religion was based on the teachings of the holy book of Islam i.e. “Koran” which was

written in Arabic language. It was the utmost duty of each Arab, the Moslem to recite;

and daily practice and understands their sacred book.

The Arabs had a strong belief in their religion. They believed in a God and firmly

believed that God lives within them. According to Islam, the people always need a

“Prophet” to guide them through life. Arabs told that forty thousand prophets were sent

out of which they only recorded at least 100. According to their religion, the Prophets

were mostly born in crowded places. They used to lead the initial part of their sacred life

in wilderness, loneliness i.e. in desserts and once they consider themselves ready, they set

out to preach the followers (Lawrence 22).

They were too much inspired by their Prophets. If they are led toward any quest

for getting “riches on earth” then they would go that far, but it they encounter their

Prophet meanwhile who is very down to earth and wise, they would leave everything for

him by just his inspiration (Lawrence 25).

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6) Views about Orientalism:

Orientalism is basically the knowledge about culture, language and people of

Asia. The life of T. E. Lawrence clearly depicts that he had keen desire of studying

Asians and visiting their places. He had totally orientalist views about Arabs. According

to Lawrence:

“They were a limited, narrow-minded people, whose inert intellects lay fallow in

incurious resignation (Lawrence 21).”

He considered them as people having no taste for war tactics. He commented on

their firm belief on their religion but never having desire to question the roots of it. He

considered the inhabitants of the deserts i.e. Bedouins as people living a shallow life. He

pictured them as dependent souls on himself only who cannot decide or even move a step

forward without his guidance. In one occasion, he also presented the leaders as greedy

ones who do everything for sake of money. Moreover, he also presented Turkish people

in much negative way. He considered them as people having no ability to articulate on

their own (Llora n.p.).

7) Conclusion – Edward Said’s views about Lawrence”

Edward Said is author of “Orientalism”. “Orientalism, in Said’s formulation,

is principally a way of defining and ‘locating’ Europe’s others” (Ash and Ahluwalia

48).

His views contradicted to those of T. E. Lawrence who, according to Edward

was purely an orientalist. He considered Lawrence as an imperialist who negatively

depicted the Arabs just for highlighting his role toward achieving the freedom for the

Arabs. His main contradictions toward Lawrence are as follows:

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 Lawrence presented himself as a leader – preacher of war tactics and

pictured Arabs as tribe’s men having no decision power and positive

attitudes.

 He showed Arabs leaders as greedy men who do tasks in demand of

money. On other hand, he showed himself as a generous man who

rejected all rewards from the government after the completion of this

mission.

 He highlighted the lack of knowledge of archeology in Arabs and thus

presented himself a guider who can only show them how to articulate

the creation of their new state (Ash and Ahluwalia 60).

 Lawrence pictured Arabs as furious people always engaging in killing

and blood shed of people.

 He seemed to have personal hatred for Turks, that’s why he never

mentioned a single positive deed or aspect about them in his book.

It can be seen that Said was against this Lawrence’s encoded and comparison version

of Orientals i.e. the Arabs with himself. In this way, it seemed as Lawrence wanted the

readers to view Arabs, their religion and culture as a deviation and inferior status (Ash and

Ahluwalia 62). According to Edward Said:

“The Oriental was always like some aspect of the West; to some German Romantics,

for example, Indian religion was essentially an Oriental version of Germano-Christian

pantheism. Yet the Orientalist makes it his work to be always converting the Orient from

something into something else: he does this for himself, for the sake of his culture.” (Ash and

Ahluwalia 62)
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In other words, Said was against the negative scrutinized version of Arab society as

explained by Lawrence. One must respect the other nation’s civilization. He forced that care

should be taken while describing Orients and Orientals because this might lead toward a

political issue or conflict. He emphasized that it is up to the orientalist that “how the

Orientalist ‘makes the Orient speak, describes the Orient, renders its mysteries plain for and

to the West (Ash and Ahluwalia 63).”

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Works Cited

1- Ash, Croft, and Pal Ahluwalia. Edward Said. 2nd ed. N.p. n.d. Print

2- Browne, O’Brien. “T. E. Lawrence: the enigmatic Lawrence of Arabia.” History

net.com (2006). N.p. Web 1st Dec. 2012.

3- Lawrence, T. E. “Seven pillars of wisdom.” Wordsworth editions limited, 1997. Print.

4- Llora, Miguel B. “Homage to Edward Said.” Mllora.com. 5 July, 2012, Web 1st Dec.

2012.

5- “T. E. Lawrence: quotes.” Goodreads n.p. n.d. Web. 1st Dec. 2012.

6- Wilson, Jeremy. “T. E. Lawrence as Writer.” T. E. Lawrence studies. N.p. n.d. Web.

1st Dec. 2012.