296 DESTINY DISRUPTED
World War I and the Arab Revolt
the British might help him forge it. The British gladly let him think they
could and would. They sent a flamboyant military intelligence officer to
work with him, a one-time archeologist named Colonel Thomas Edward
Lawrence, who spoke Arabic and liked to dress in Bedouin tribal dress, a
practice that eventually earned him the nickname "Lawrence of Arabia."
Looking back, it's easy to see what a pot of trouble the British were
mixing up here. The Hashimites and the Saudis were the two strongest
tribal groups in the Arabian peninsula; both hoped to break the Ottoman
hold on Arabia, and each saw the other as its deadly rival. The British were
sending agents into both camps, making promises to both families, and
leading both to believe that the British would help them establish their
own kingdom in roughly the same territory, if only they would fight the
Ottomans. The British didn't actually care which of the two ruled this re-
gion: they just wanted immediate help undermining Ottoman power, so
they could beat the Germans back home.
As it turned out, the Hashimites led the way in helping the British.
They fomented the Arab Revolt. Two of Hussein's sons, working with
Lawrence, drove the Turks out of the region, clearing the way for the