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Seven Pillars of Wisdom
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T.E. Lawrence
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T.E. Lawrence
T.E. Lawrence T.E. Lawrence, author of Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926) in about 1918.

Seven Pillars of Wisdom

work by Lawrence
Written by
Raphael Hallett
Raphael Hallett is the author of the "History" section of 501 Must-Read Books. His work appears in Encyclopaedia Britannica as part of a joint publishing agreement with the publisher of 501...
Raphael Hallett
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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History

Seven Pillars of Wisdom, memoir by British scholar, military strategist, and writer T.E. Lawrence. Completed in 1922, it was first published in 1926. A more complete edition appeared in 1935. The tome is the basis for the Academy Award-winning 1962 movie Lawrence of Arabia, directed by David Lean and starring Peter O’Toole.

The memoir begins in 1916, during World War I, with the Ottoman Empire allied with Germany. The English, who controlled the Suez Canal, believed that with the help of the Arab peoples of the Middle East, they could defeat the Turks. When an Arab revolt against Ottoman rule broke out, Lawrence was sent to gather intelligence about it, and he soon became British liaison to the battlefield commander Faisal, third son of Hussein ibn Ali, emir of Mecca.

The book describes Lawrence’s travels with Faisal first in a mission to unite the various Bedouin tribes in the fight to expel the Ottoman Empire from the Middle East. A key moment is when Lawrence assumes Bedouin dress to gain the confidence of the Arab peoples. He realizes that the best way for the Arabs to contribute to the war is to use the guerrilla tactics that they historically have used to fight each other. They harry the Turks by blowing up railways and bridges and eventually win control of the port of Al-ʿAqabah.

The war continues, and Faisal and Lawrence, now allied with General Sir Edmund Allenby, have both triumphs and setbacks. At one point, Lawrence is captured by the Turks at Daraa and is tortured. The Arabs, still led by Lawrence, fight on until they reach Damascus, and in 1918 they enter the city jointly with the British military, signaling the final defeat of the Ottoman Empire. However, at the same time, Lawrence’s hopes for an Arab-ruled state in the liberated area also come to naught, as the European powers agree to divide the former empire among themselves.

(Read the article on guerrilla warfare that T.E. Lawrence wrote for the 1929 edition of Encyclopædia Britannica)

Seven Pillars of Wisdom carries with it the enigmas of its author. For its critics, it is a piece of self-aggrandizing blindness, an episode of imperial charity too immersed in itself to recognize its limits. For its many admirers, it is both a beautifully written and sincerely felt defense of Arab culture and history, a plea for the Western powers to cease using this dignified and ancient culture as a pawn in its own power games. As a history of the Arab revolt, Seven Pillars of Wisdom is sometimes lacking in accuracy; as an intimate memoir, however, the text is a classic.

Raphael Hallett