James Mcconnachie

Lawrence of Arabia, meet Curt of Cairo

A review of Lawrence of Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East, by Scott Anderson. Increasing the cast list of T.E. Lawrence's story doesn't add to the interest

Portrait of T.E. Lawrence by Augustus John 
issue 08 March 2014

How do you write a new book about T.E. Lawrence, especially when the man himself described his escapades, or a version of them, with such inimitable genius? Scott Anderson’s answer is to intercut Lawrence’s extraordinary story — the camel raids and blown-up bridges, the rape and torture, the lies and shame — with those of three contemporaries, all supposedly engaged in a grand intelligence duel in Syria and Arabia.

Alongside Lawrence, the principals are the German playboy and scholar-spy Curt Prüfer, who tried to ignite his own pan-Islamic uprising on behalf of the Ottoman empire; the ‘Yankee blueblood’ William Yale, who intrigued in the region on behalf, principally, of Standard Oil of New York; and the Zionist agronomist and spymaster — a splendidly unlikely combination — Aaron Aaronsohn, who helped prick Britain into backing the idea of a Jewish homeland.

Aaronsohn is the most interesting of the supporting trio. A bloated bull of a man, he matched Lawrence for arrogance, but with the physical size and belligerence to go with it; Lawrence, of course, was short and shy.

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