Arab Revolt

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Arabia and Southen Arabia Campaigns

Part of Middle Eastern theatre of World War I

Image:Arab Revolt flag.svg
Flag of the Arab Revolt

Date	June, 1916-October, 1918
Location	Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon
Result	Armistice of Mudros Treaty of Sèvres

Combatants

Image:Arab Revolt flag.svg Hashemite Arabs
Image:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Great Britain

Image:Ottoman Flag.svg Ottoman Empire

Commanders

Faisal
T.E. Lawrence

Ahmed Djemal

Strength

5,000 (?)

25,000 (?)

This article is about the Arab Revolt of 1916. For the 1936 revolt, see 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.

The Arab Revolt (1916–1918) was initiated by the Sherif Hussein ibn Ali with the aim of securing independence from the ruling Ottoman Turks and creating a single unified Arab state spanning from Aleppo in Syria to Aden in Yemen.

This revolt was set in motion by the coup in 1908 in which the Turkish nationalist reform party Young Turks seized power from the old Sultan Hamid II. Ottoman politics changed and discrimination against non-Turkish inhabitants increased. The Ottomans joined the Central Powers in World War I in 1914. Many Arab nationalist figures in Damascus and Beirut were arrested, then tortured and executed by the Ottomans. The Arabs were also threatened by the construction of the Hejaz railway, which helped move Turkish troops deep into Arab areas (the railway was actually finished under the old Sultan, but its effects became more noticeable under the CUP government).

Because of these reasons, Sherif Hussein, as the head of the Arab nationalists, entered into an alliance with the United Kingdom and France against the Ottomans around June 8, 1916 (the actual date is a bit uncertain). The Arab forces were led by his sons Abdullah and Faisal. The British government in Egypt immediately sent a young officer to work with the Arabs, this man was Captain T.E. Lawrence, known now as Lawrence of Arabia.

Lawrence's major contribution to the revolt was convincing the Arab leaders (Faisal and Abdullah) to co-ordinate their actions in support of British strategy. He persuaded the Arabs not to drive the Ottomans out of Medina, instead, the Arabs attacked the Hejaz railway on many occasions. This tied up more Ottoman troops, who were forced to protect the railway and repair the constant damage.

In 1917, Lawrence arranged a joint action with the Arab irregulars and forces under Auda Abu Tayi (until then in the employ of the Ottomans) against the port city of Aqaba. Aqaba was of interest to the British as a supply base for the Egyptian Expeditionary Force as well as the Arab revolt. On July 6, after an overland attack, Aqaba fell to Arab forces. Later in the year, the Arab warriors made small raids on Ottoman positions in support of General Allenby's winter attack on the Gaza-Bersheeba defensive line (see the Battle of Beersheba). Allenby's victories lead directly to the capture of Jerusalem just before Christmas 1917.

In 1918, the Arab cavalry gained in strength (as it seemed victory was at hand) and they were able to provide Allenby's army with intelligence on Ottoman army positions. They also harassed Ottoman supply columns, attacked small garrisons, and destroyed railroad tracks. Perhaps due to these attacks, Allenby's last offensive, the Battle of Megiddo (1918), was a stunning success. The Ottoman army was routed in less than 10 days of battle. Australian Lighthorse troops marched unopposed into Damascus on September 30, 1918. T.E. Lawrence and his Arab troops rode into Damascus the next day^{[citation needed]} to receive the surrender. At the end of the war, the Egyptian Expeditionary Force had seized what is today Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, large parts of the Arabian peninsula and southern Syria.

It is estimated that the Arab forces involved in the revolt numbered around 5,000 soldiers; by comparison the British alone had almost 20,000 soldiers killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Over the course of the Battle of the Somme, the British would loose approximately 420,000 soldiers dead and wounded. The main contribution of the Arab Revolt to the war was to pin down tens of thousands of Turkish troops who otherwise might have been used to attack the Suez Canal, allowing the British to undertake offensive operations with a lower risk of counterattack.

The United Kingdom agreed in the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence that it would support Arab independence if they revolted against the Ottomans. The two sides had different interpretations of this agreement. In this event, the United Kingdom, France and Russia divided up the area in ways unfavourable to the Arabs under the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement. Further confusing the issue was the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which promised support for a Jewish "national home" in Palestine. The Hedjaz region of western Arabia became an independent state under Hussein's control, until the early 1930's, when it was absorbed by Saudi Arabia.