This is not a straightforward biography of the legendary TE Lawrence. Written by explorer and former British army officer and demolition specialist, Ranulph Fiennes, the author attempts to draw parallels between his tour of duty in Oman. Fiennes spent the last two years of his army career seconded to the Sultan of Oman’s Armed Forces. At the time, Oman was experiencing a growing communist insurgency supported from neighbouring South Yemen. After familiarisation, he commanded the Reconnaissance Platoon of the Muscat Regiment, seeing extensive active service in the Dhofar War. He led several raids deep into rebel-held territory on the Djebel Dhofar, and was decorated for bravery by the Sultanate.
In the waning years of the Ottoman Empire, amid the chaos of World War I, a young British scholar and adventurer named Thomas Edward Lawrence—better known as TE Lawrence or “Lawrence of Arabia”—found himself thrust into one of the most dramatic uprisings of the 20th century: the Arab Revolt.
Born in 1888 in Wales, Lawrence was an unconventional figure from the start. As a student at Oxford, he developed a passion for medieval history and archaeology, which led him to the Middle East in 1910. There, he worked on excavations in Syria and learned Arabic, immersing himself in the region’s cultures and landscapes. This pre-war experience would prove invaluable, giving him a rare understanding of Arab tribes and their grievances against Ottoman rule.
When World War I erupted in 1914, Lawrence enlisted in the British Army and was posted to military intelligence in Cairo, where he contributed to mapping efforts and analysed Ottoman strategies in the Middle East. The British, locked in a brutal stalemate with the Ottomans (who were allied with Germany), saw an opportunity to weaken their enemy from within. In June 1916, Sharif Hussein bin Ali, the Emir of Mecca, launched the Arab Revolt, aiming to overthrow Ottoman control and establish an independent Arab state. Hussein’s sons, including Prince Faisal, led the tribal forces in guerrilla warfare across the Hejaz region. Lawrence’s involvement in the Arab Revolt began that same year when he was dispatched on intelligence missions to Mesopotamia and Arabia.
Frustrated by the British military’s rigid hierarchy, he lobbied his superiors to actively support the revolt, arguing that arming and coordinating with Arab fighters could divert Ottoman resources from the main fronts. In October 1916, Lawrence met Prince Faisal in the desert and was immediately struck by his leadership potential. He recommended Faisal as the key figure for British alliance, and soon after, Lawrence was assigned as a liaison officer to Faisal’s forces in the Hejaz.
Adopting Arab robes to blend in and earn trust, Lawrence became deeply embedded in the revolt. When he led Arabs into battle, he spoke Arabic, dressed like an Arab and even got himself involved in tribal politics. At one point, he had to play reluctant executioner while settling a deadly dispute within his tentatively organised forces. Fiennes himself went through the same trauma when he had to shoot a man at close range. Both the author and TE Lawrence faced similar moral dilemmas in a different age, not knowing whether some “innocent” civilians could be threats to the team. TE Lawrence wrote that the Arabs had no corporate spirit, mutual trust or bond. That was why groups had to be relatively small; best for raids, sabotage missions and not massive long haul expeditions. Nevertheless, TE Lawrence managed to recruit a force of 500. Most of his missions were successful with minimal casualties. He knew the ground and the tactics better than the commanders.
Lawrence also organised supply lines, provided British gold and weapons, and trained fighters in sabotage tactics. He treated the Arabs like his friends and partners. He understood why they lacked drive and a sense of urgency. This was not the case for his superiors like Colonel Newcombe who was constantly frustrated with delays and procrastination.
In the capture of Wejh, a strategic point from which they could disrupt Ottoman supply lines, the colonel became impatient with the Arabs’ move towards the objective and began attacking without TE Lawrence and his team. Lawrence was appalled with the colonel’s callousness and disregard for Arab losses. He had planned for a forced surrender and minimal casualties but Newcombe seemed oblivious to losses on the Arab side. Lawrence got into altercations with his superiors and was expecting to be relieved of his duties.
Nevertheless, his superiors felt he could contribute and allowed him to stay as an advisor to the Arab guerillas. He had certainly found his calling. His compatriots described his endurance as phenomenal, able to ignore hunger, thirst and the lack of sleep. One of his boldest contributions was the 1917 capture of Akaba, a strategic Red Sea port. Leading a small force across the unforgiving Nefud Desert, TE Lawrence orchestrated a surprise attack from the landward side, catching the Ottomans off guard and securing a vital base for the revolt. This victory elevated his status and allowed the Arabs to push northward.
Over the next two years, Lawrence coordinated hit-and-run raids on the Hejaz Railway, disrupting Ottoman supply lines and tying down thousands of troops. He endured hardships alongside the Bedouin warriors—extreme heat, thirst, and brutal skirmishes—fostering a genuine bond with Faisal and the tribes. Lawrence championed the idea of an independent unified Arab nation, but he was haunted by his knowledge of the secret 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement, which divided the Middle East between Britain, France, Russia, betraying promises of Arab independence. Of course, things were not that simple. There were traitors even within the TE Lawrence circle. Both British and Arabs were secretly negotiating with the Turks. Lawrence was disgusted and wrote nasty letters to Mark Sykes. He questioned the objective of his mission but remained steadfast. Who could he trust? The author drew a parallel with how he was disillusioned with his mission after Marxist radio revealed that he was fighting for a dictator. He resolved to resign from the Sultan’s forces but was persuaded that the people of Oman hated the Marxists more as they were going to destroy their religion and way of life. Fiennes stayed on.
Lawrence wrote about how he had been “degraded” in the Turkish town of Deraa. Interestingly, he found the torture and sodomy pleasurable. He was known to have asked handsome Arab teenagers to pose naked for him. TE Lawrence struggled with his sexual orientation, deriving pain and excitement from it at the same time.
As the British were preparing to capture Gaza, Lawrence was introduced to American journalist Lowell Thomas by General Allenby as Colonel Lawrence. Here was a legend that the American public would love. Thomas would follow Lawrence on his expeditions and by then, it became impossible to avoid large scale battles with the Ottomans. Fiennes wrote that in 1969, he was horrified that the Marxists he was fighting had put a bounty on his head. He feared not only the enemy but his own soldiers. Lawrence had the luxury of a mixed tribe and personal bodyguards.
Another factor emerged during this time – Zionism and the dream of the Jewish people to return to their biblical home in Palestine. Unfortunately, Lawrence saw the Balfour Declaration as another knife in the Arabs’ back. The Russians publicised the Sykes-Picot Agreement to discredit the Tsar. The Turks used it and the Balfour Declaration to persuade the Arabs to end their revolt and not be played into the hands of the European powers. It took a lot of reassurance from the British to persuade the Arabs to fight on. The biggest challenge it seemed, was for Faisal to instill the concept of a nation to the diverse Arab tribes. As Lawrence and his men marched towards Damascus, they were not guaranteed safe passage by Arab tribesmen. He felt lost, switching between his duo identities of Arab leader and British officer. Lawrence was hanging on to the hope that once they had captured Damascus, the various Arab communities would rally around King Hussein or Prince Faisal. But even between father and son, there were doubts. Ministers resigned and Hussein made his younger brother his heir to the throne.
By 1918, Lawrence and Faisal’s forces had advanced to Damascus, entering the city alongside British General Allenby’s troops as the Ottoman Empire crumbled. After just 48 hours, he left, never to return. He fought and he won, but he doubted the value of his mission. At the post-war Paris Peace Conference dashed Lawrence’s hopes; the Arabs received limited sovereignty and colonial mandates reshaped the region. Disillusioned, Lawrence declined knighthood, withdrew from public life when he returned to Oxford, enlisting anonymously as “John Hume Ross” in the Royal Airforce as an aerial photographer and writing his memoir, *Seven Pillars of Wisdom* (1926), which immortalised the revolt’s heroism and his own complex and somewhat contradicting role in the whole saga. Meanwhile in America, Lowell Thomas made millions writing and telling the story of Lawrence of Arabia.
Lawrence’s involvement in the Arab Revolt was driven by a mix of romantic idealism, strategic acumen, and personal affinity for the Arab cause, though debates persist about the extent of his influence—some credit him as a pivotal leader, others see him as one among many British advisors. In the end, his efforts achieved no real results for the Arabs. The British handed Syria to the French and took Palestine for themselves. His story, amplified by the 1962 film *Lawrence of Arabia*, remains a tale of adventure, betrayal, and the enduring quest for self-determination in a fractured world. TE Lawrence died in a motorcycle accident in 1935.