Noble Blood - The Myth and Making of Lawrence of Arabia

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

Most people know of the famous "Lawrence of Arabia" thanks to the iconic imagery of the Oscar-winning film. But far fewer people know of the real man behind the myth, who fought for Britain and for the Arab Revolt during World War I and became a folk hero in the process. Support Noble Blood:— Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon— Noble Blood merch— Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Vodam. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot.

But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, The cat, just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck.

Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeart Radio and grim and mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. There are a few different Thomas Edward Lawrence's. The first Thomas Edward Lawrence is the one the public. knew. He first became famous in his own lifetime, thanks to a popular lecture series about his contributions during World War I. He later had a full-length feature film made about him that went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Maybe you've heard of it. Lawrence of Arabia. He was a hero who made

sacrifices and put himself through hardship all in the name of Arab sovereignty and for the love of his fellow soldiers. The second Thomas Edward Lawrence is the one that he personally chose to present to the world. He wrote an autobiography that was well received by the public. In it, he exaggerated somewhat about his accomplishments, but he was also honest about the nuances behind his motivations for fighting in the Middle East to begin with. This Thomas Edward was friends with George Bernard Shaw and advised Winston Churchill briefly. Perhaps the least known, Thomas Edward Lawrence, is the real one. This one grew up somewhat ashamed of his unwed parents and acted out against his mom because of it.

He might have been queer, maybe even asexual, but he never declared his interests one way or another. He had big hopes and dreams for himself, and even though he accomplished so much, he didn't necessarily feel as though he lived up to his goals. This Thomas Edward was only truly known by one person, himself, if at all. Of course, in reality, all of these different Lawrencees are the same person. They're all the famous Lawrence of Arabia. But being so famous with so many people, even himself, interpreting and translating his story for the world, there were so many different versions of T.E. Lawrence. Most of us know him as the swashbuckling hero from the famous 1962 film.

The striking image of his face outfitted with a white head covering against the desolate Wadi Rum Desert might be the first thing you imagine when you hear Lawrence of Arabia. Even six decades after the movie's premiere and almost a century after the man, death, Lawrence of Arabia as a character remains prominent in our culture. His image persists in collective memory, even if we've forgotten why he was in Arabia to begin with, or whether or not he was even a real person. So who was Lawrence of Arabia? Who was the real man behind the hero. Behind every great man, every name widely known and recognized, is the real person full of flaws, nuances, and mortality. In this episode, we'll explore the real man and the real history

behind the famous Lawrence of Arabia, T.E. Lawrence. If it's possible to know the real man at all. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood. Like a few other great figures we've covered on Noble Blood, Lawrence was not actually destined from birth to become an important historical actor. In fact, quite the opposite. Lawrence was the illegitimate son of Thomas Chapman, a minor Irish noble with the title of Baronet of Killowah Castle in County Westminster, Ireland, and Sarah Chuner, the governess of Thomas's daughters with his first wife. Thomas never claimed his baronetcy in Ireland, and instead left his first family and lived out of wedlock with Sarah and the five boys they would have together.

T.E. Lawrence was their second child, born in 1888, and of his siblings, Lawrence was the most mischievous and strong-willed, traits that would benefit him later in life during his time in the Middle East. What originally took Lawrence to Arabia was actually an interest in archaeology, a fascination that blossomed in his teenage years while he was living in Oxford. Biking around Oxford and the surrounding countryside, Lawrence and his friends would collect archaeological artifacts. They would then submit their findings, typically glass fragments or rubbings of medieval tombs, to the Ashmelian Museum.

Lawrence took his archaeologically driven cycling to the next level when he was in college at Oxford University, when he toured France by bike to research medieval castles. Continuing to venture further from home and into the region that he would later become almost synonymous with, Lawrence then undertook a three-month walking tour of Syria studying Crusader castles. Just like everyone here at Noble Blood, Lawrence was a bit obsessed with the Middle Ages, as evidenced by his various tours across the Mediterranean, as well as his extensive knowledge of medieval clothing. For that reason alone, we have to love him a little bit. Lawrence became a working archaeologist in 1910,

when a keeper at the Ashmolean Museum named D.G. Hogarth, who had noticed Lawrence, his aptitude back when he was just a teenager biking around Oxfordshire, hired him to join a dig in northern Syria. Once hired, Lawrence participated in digs in this area of northern Syria as well as in Egypt for four years. During this time, he developed a working knowledge of the Arabic language, as well as a cursory understanding of Middle Eastern political dynamics and how foreign actors tried to sway locals. The knowledge of Arab politics and the Arabic language that Lawrence gained working in the region was what set him up for the job that would launch his career. As a British archaeologist, Lawrence fell into the population of people that the British Empire utilized as informal international spies. Collecting intel was of paramount importance on the eve of World War I as the Ottoman Empire, over six centuries old at this point, was disintegrating.

Just as the power dynamics in Europe were tenuously kept in balance during the early 20th century, so too were the dynamics of colonial holdings in the Middle East. Britain in particular was wary of Russia and Germany threatening the, quote, jewel of the empire, India, as well as their Egyptian colony, which included all-important access to the Suez Canal. So with the Ottoman Empire, which at least in theory controlled the majority of the Middle East, waning in power, the British looked to gather intel on the local tribes inhabiting the region and the efforts by other European nations to shore up power in the vacuum. Lawrence first formally entered this thinly veiled line of work just months before the out-examination

outbreak of World War I when he joined a British team surveying the Sinai Peninsula. This endeavor was ostensibly to look for archaeological signs of the Israelites' exile in the desert after fleeing Egypt. But in reality, the British military wanted to chart the region in anticipation of potential military maneuvers against the Ottomans. But Lawrence wouldn't be long for this project. Once the team traversed the peninsula and reached the city of Akaba on the tip of the Red Sea, he was kicked out of town by the project's Turkish military supervisors for disobeying rules. As evidence, by being kicked out of this survey project, being an agent of the British Empire proved somewhat difficult for the independently minded Lawrence.

But that project was just the beginning of the United States. of his work with and for the British government. Naturally, the outbreak of World War I drew Lawrence into service, and it was due to his service that T.E. Lawrence would become Lawrence of Arabia. But even in this time of war, when patriotism surged and people banded together

under their imperial and national flags, he struggled to reconcile his beliefs and convictions with those of his. imperial employer. While most accounts of World War I focus on the eastern and western fronts of the war in Europe, the eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Theatre of War was just as important, particularly to the British Empire. With the outbreak of war and the Ottomans officially entering the war on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary, protecting the Suez Canal,

became a matter of massive military importance for the Brits. In taking on the Ottoman Turks, the British appeared to adhere to the old phrase, The enemy of my enemy is my friend. At this time, there was a growing movement of Arab nationalism sweeping across portions of the Ottoman Empire. Unified under the rule of Sharif Hussein, the Emir or Prince of Mecca, a conglomerate of Middle Eastern Arabs was amassing, looking to carve out from the Ottoman Empire a Muslim Arab sovereign nation. Once World War I broke out, it was actually Sharif Hussein who quickly approached the British about an alliance. He would lead Arab soldiers against the Ottomans if the British committed to the creation of an autonomous Arab state after the war.

The British took a long time to respond to this offer. They weren't thrilled about committing to an Arab state in the region, but they really needed whatever support they could get against the Turks. Eventually, needing to save face after a disastrous Gallipoli campaign, the British accepted the terms tentatively, and Sharif Hussein launched the Arab revolt officially in June 1916. From that point on, the British attempted to aid the Arabs against the Turks, by providing advice, weapons, and men,

but struggled to provide that support without undermining their own long-term goals in the region. When they agreed to support the Arabs, they hadn't mentioned that they had already made an agreement with France, called the Sykes-Picot Agreement, that essentially carved up the Ottoman Empire,

leaving pieces for the French and the English, and almost nothing for the Arab state, state, hence the difficulty in supporting the Arab revolt wholeheartedly. It was in that context, the outbreak of the Arab revolt and the British efforts to channel and control the movement that T.E. Lawrence evolved into Lawrence of Arabia. In the early years of the war, while the British were still negotiating with Sharife Hussein in Mecca, T.E. Lawrence was stationed in Cairo, for the Arab Bureau, making maps and writing military bulletins. The Arab Bureau, led by Lawrence's mentor,

the man who had actually discovered him back as a young boy, the archaeologist D.G. Hogarth, was an arm of the British Army. The purpose of the Arab Bureau was to collect and distribute intel and propaganda throughout the Arab world during the war. As such, through his work at the Bureau, Lawrence was tapped into the ongoing battle against the Turks. He was also aware of the

struggle of the Arab people to establish their own state in the aftermath of the Ottoman Empire's disintegration. In 1916, after the Arab revolt launched, things weren't looking too good for the British and the Arabs. The British had been routed at the city of Kut, south of Baghdad, and the Arab army had been unable to take Medina, the second holiest site in Islam, and in Ottoman stronghold. In order to bolster British and Arab efforts, Lawrence, who had been to the Middle East before and had some command of the language, was deemed the best person to undertake a fact-finding mission for British intelligence.

He traveled to the coast of the Arabian Peninsula, also known as the Hajjahs, so that he could meet and evaluate Sharif Hussein's sons. The hope was that one of them could be the, quote, prophet, the galvanizing figurehead to lead the Arab army to victory. Traversing the Red Sea on a boat and then the desert on camelback, Lawrence met each of the sons and concluded that Shriif Hussein's son Faisal was the man for the job. Once he met with Faisal in the desert of the hijazz, there was no going back. for Lawrence. He had dipped his toe into the Arab revolt and felt compelled to dive headfirst back into it as an advisor to Prince Faisal. Lawrence was sympathetic to the Arab cause and felt

he had all of the qualities needed to spearhead British involvement in the movement. Lawrence believed honestly in Arab nationalism, but as an agent of the British Empire, he was supposed to be advocating for strategies that ultimately benefited the British. This internal tension would plague him for the rest of his time in the Middle East. How could he encourage the Arab army to fight and capture territory that they would not be allowed to control after the war? Nevertheless, he pushed these contradictions aside and let himself be moved into action. Now stationed at Faisal's side, Lawrence started getting first-hand. experience living and fighting in the desert, alongside the majority of the other soldiers,

Bedouin tribesmen. The Arab Bedouin tribes are nomadic herdsmen who know the Wadiram desert like the backs of their hands. The Arab revolt had been relying on these Bedouin tribes people for about half of their soldiers, but they had trouble controlling the untrained and highly mobile groups. They didn't adhere to the commands that the British military issued. Lawrence, a genius at appraising the situation in front of him, realized that exactly what made the Bedouins so difficult to wrangle might actually be their strength. Instead of trying to force these nomadic people to go against their nature and custom, Lawrence realized they were the perfect soldiers for guerrilla warfare. They could descend upon the Turks when and where they least expected them,

exact violence and then vanish back into the desert. In reality, the Bedouin tribes had been fighting with each other in these types of guerrilla raids for centuries, so Laurent wasn't inventing a novel type of warfare. He was just the first Brit to recognize the utility of that custom. These pinprick raids, as Lawrence called them, would distract and ultimately weaken the Ottomans, thereby allowing the Arab revolt to gain momentum and have a fighting chance at succeeding. Lawrence recommended to Faisal that they harness their manpower for these guerrilla raids, specifically targeting the Hajjah's railroad running from Ottoman Syria to Medina. This way, the Arab army would not only destroy them,

lines of transportation and communication between the Turks' last outpost in Arabia and their territory further north, but they would also force the Ottomans to divert their resources away from fighting and towards repairing the railway. In March 1917, the first explosive device that Lawrence planted derailed an Ottoman train, which the Bedouin tribesmen thoroughly looted, and they destroyed a portion of the railway. The success of this relatively simple tactic pleased Faisal, and the Arab army proceeded to go all in on Lawrence's guerrilla tactics. For the rest of the war, Lawrence and his allies would lay bombs along the hijazz railway and target trains carrying military supplies. This strategy proved incredibly effective, harnessing the power of the Bedouins and disrupting the Ottoman war machine in the Middle East.

With each passing day riding through the desert with various Bedouin tribes, Lawrence ingratiated himself further into the Arab army. The clearest sign of this was his adoption of customary Arab clothing that would become synonymous with his image later in life. White robes with a white head covering perfect for sun protection in the desert. But Lawrence did more than just try to look the part. he also walked the walk in his commitment to on-the-ground participation in military engagements. The most famous skirmish that he participated in was the 1917 Battle of Akaba, which was then held by the Turks.

With a group of roughly 500 Bedouin tribesmen, Lawrence trekked across Wadi Rum and approached Akaba from land, which despite Wadi Rum's beauty was an incredible. treacherous and exhausting undertaking. Once they reached the mountains just outside Akaba, Lawrence and his fellow soldiers descended suddenly from the mountains, catching the Turks by surprise, and easily capturing the port city with just a few Arab casualties. Lawrence hadn't actually received approval for this campaign,

so he was lucky that this win provided the British Army with a much-needed port, through which they could send supplies into the region. That fact allowed Lawrence, in his capacity as a British officer, to justify this otherwise unauthorized campaign into Northern Arabia. This, quote, battle, which was really more of a guerrilla attack, also demonstrated the strength of Arab forces and galvanized the army. From that city, Faisal, Lawrence, and the army of Bedouin tribesmen

leaned into their momentum and mobilized towards Damascus in Ottoman Syria. As the caravan marched north, Lawrence led the way, regularly planting bombs on the railway and battling with Ottoman soldiers. It was this type of dedication to the war, Lawrence's commitment to the cause, that later led to his heroic status. That isn't to say that Laurent was entirely noble in all of his conduct. In battle, like during what came to be known as the Taffas massacre, Lawrence was, by his own admission, unnecessarily brutal against his enemies.

Lawrence himself actually struggled for years with his conduct following the war. But when Lawrence described the episode years later, his language reflects how much he identified with his Arab compatriots and their anguish at years under the Ottoman regime. Finally, in the fall of 1918, after slowly fighting and marching their way through the desert, the Arab army arrived in Damascus, and the Ottoman army quickly surrendered and vacated the city. Lawrence and his comrades had reached the city before the British had, and they strung up the flag of the Arab revolt to claim it. Despite knowing that the British government fully intended not to allow the Arabs to rule the region,

Lawrence helped Prince Faisal set up a provisional government in the city. He leaned into his allegiance to the Arabs he had fought alongside, as opposed to the British army that technically employed him. They had done it. The Arab revolt had taken a major city from the Ottomans and claimed control before any European powers could. Not only had T.E. Lawrence traversed the deserts of the Middle East, but he had been instrumental in getting the Arab revolt this far.

He saw this moment as the beginning of a sovereign Arab nation, but unfortunately this was as far as this movement would go, and it was also essentially the end of T.E. Lawrence's career in military and politics. But it was just the beginning of the rise of the almost mythological hero, Lawrence of Arabia. Not long after the Arab army took Damascus, the Ottoman Empire would collapse. Germany would surrender and World War I would be over. While the end of a brutal war was an occasion for celebration, the real work of the Arab Revolt now began.

Delegations from across the world descended on Paris for the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and 1920. Intent on helping, Faisal and his father, leader of the United States. the movement Sharif Hussein make their claim for Arab sovereignty in the New World Order, Lawrence attended the conference as a member of Faisal's delegation. He sought to use his rank in the British government and his relationships with British officers to help convince them of the need for Arab sovereignty. Unfortunately, Lawrence was no match for the power of colonialism. Coming out of the conference, there was to be no independent Arab state.

Instead, Britain and France held mandates to manage portions of these regions, including the land that the Arab Revolt had claimed. While this was certainly a loss for Lawrence, the conference was not wholly bad. It was at the peace conference that he first started writing about his time fighting in Arabia and with the Bedouin tribes. Over the next several years, Lawrence would write and rewrite, his audits. autobiographical book, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Lawrence did embellish certain portions of his story, but he also captured his thoughts and emotions regarding his time in the desert.

He acknowledged that his motivations behind his work in Arabia were complicated. Part of him wanted to participate in a national movement, while another part wanted to win the war for Britain. By the time his autobiography came out in 1922, Lawrence was already actually a household name, both in England and in America. For that, we can thank Lowell Thomas, an American broadcaster and photographer. At the very end of World War I, Thomas traveled to the Middle East, where he took photographs of the war, the people, and of course, T.E. Lawrence. Upon Thomas's return to the States, he produced a popular lecture series entitled With Allen Bee in Palestine that focused on British General Allenby's campaign in the region.

Thomas realized that audiences were specifically drawn to images of Lawrence in his Arabic robes. So when the production transferred to London in 1920, Thomas refocused the production on both Allenby and Lawrence, and changed the title of the series to, with Allenby in Palestine and Lawrence in Arabia. It was Lowell Thomas's production that changed T.E. Lawrence into Lawrence of Arabia in the public imagination. The later publication of Lawrence's autobiography and eventually the Oscar-winning movie only cemented T.E. Lawrence as the daring, swash-buckling hero of the Middle East.

I want to clarify something that while this episode focuses on Lawrence of Arabia, he was not the sole reason that the Arab revolt succeeded, nor was he the only person to have contributed to the success of the Arab revolt. To say that he was is to ignore the contributions of many British military officials and the even more important contributions of the Arab tribes people who fought for their own sovereignty. T.E. Lawrence is certainly a key figure in this important era of history and a fascinating person. T.E. Lawrence was certainly a key player during this era and a fascinating person, but his importance in the Arab revolt has been heightened by the creation of the character Lawrence of Arabia

and the appeal of his striking imagery. Additionally, I want to make clear the idea and the appeal of the man Lawrence of Arabia very much relies on Orientalist tropes about the Middle East being an exotic, erotic, and savage place and accessible only through the vantage point of a white protagonist. It's an easy narrative, but also a fundamentally exploitative one to imagine this well-educated Englishman

harnessing the power of the previously untamable Arab people who fell in love with them in the process. I think there's a way not to singularly idolize T.E. Lawrence while also recognizing his major contributions to the Middle Eastern Theater during World War I and the creation of his public persona. Now, back to Lawrence's post-war life. He briefly served in the colonial,

office as an advisor to Winston Churchill, but he hated being stuck behind the desk doing bureaucratic work. So in 1922, Lawrence joined the Royal Air Force, where he served at various bases across the British Empire for the next decade. Just two months after leaving military service in 1935, Lawrence was partaking in one of his favorite hobbies, driving his motorcycle. Unfortunately, on that day, Lawrence didn't see two young boys riding their bikes on a dip of the road ahead of him, and he belatedly swerved to avoid hitting them with his motorcycle. In doing so, Lawrence was thrown from his bike and gravely injured. Six days later, at the age of 46, T.E. Lawrence passed away.

While Lawrence's premature death brought an end to his adventures, it was only the beginning of his life as the world-renowned Lawrence of Arabia, figure of myth. That's the story of the man behind the hero, T.E. Lawrence, but stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear how Lawrence of Arabia contributed to safety laws in the UK. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Wadam. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever.

I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place they come look for up-and-coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit.

If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah. It would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

According to historian Michael Corder, up until Princess Diana's death, perhaps no other vehicular accident had received as much scrutiny as T.E. Lawrence's motorcycle crash. Immediately after Lawrence's death, an inquest was opened. The inquest didn't provide people much clear. unfortunately, as it only illuminated inconsistencies in testimony and led to a multitude of theories around the death. In fact, some people even believed that the famous World War I veteran was assassinated by either a domestic or foreign agent, a claim which has never actually been credibly substantiated. Not everyone saw Lawrence's death as something to investigate for salacious reasons, though. One man was prompted by the unfortunate death to do some good. When T.E. Lawrence was hospitalized

after the accident, he was attended to by neurosurgeon Hugh Cairns, one of six surgeons who attempted to save Lawrence's life to no avail. After Lawrence's death, Cairns started researching those who died in motorcycle accidents. He looked specifically at those who received head. He looked specifically at those who received head injuries as a result of the accident, like Lawrence had when he flew over his handlebars. Cairns' research revealed just how deadly motorcycle crashes could be when head trauma happened. These findings ultimately influenced UK law against mandatory helmet safety. Nowadays, it's uncommon to see people riding motorcycles without helmets unless they have an adrenaline addiction or a death wish. So next time you hear about a motorcycle accident with no casualties because the rider was wearing a helmet, you can thank Lawrence of Arabia.

Noble Blood is a production of IHeart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is hosted by me, Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Courtney Sender, Amy Height, and Julia Milani. The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk with supervising producer Rima Il Kali and executive producers Aaron Manky, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio, visit the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Vodom. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat.

Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.