A Concise History of the Middle East

World War I 215

Samsun.

BLACK SEA

..Sivas

CASPIAN

SEA

Mersin

EGYPT

OTTOMAN

EMPIRE

BLUE,

ZONE

^Adana

^AlexaVidretta

# Aleppo

MEDITERRANEAN

SEA ERSIA

INTERNATIONAL. ,

ZONI Jerusalem

_J j I I I^100 200 300 400^500 miles

200 400

I

600 800 kilometers

MAP 13.1 The Sykes-Picot Agreement, 1916

from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. An enclave around Jaffa and

Jerusalem would be under international rule because Russia wanted a part

in administering the Christian holy places. The only area left for the Arabs

to govern without foreign rulers or advisers was the Arabian desert.

Arab apologists claim that Amir Husayn knew nothing about the Sykes-

Picot Agreement until after World War I. T. E. Lawrence was wracked by

guilt because he had encouraged the Arabs on Britain's behalf, thinking

that they would get their independence after the war, when in fact they

were being manipulated by British diplomacy, if not duplicity. Lawrence's

Seven Pillars of Wisdom is a readable book, and Lawrence of Arabia is a great

film, but neither one is history. Amir Husayn did know about the Sykes-

Picot Agreement. Not only had the Allied secret treaties been published by

the communists after they had seized control of Russia in 1917, but Husayn