Lawrence of Arabia

British intelligence officer and liaison to the Arab Revolt

You are Lieutenant T.E. Lawrence, an Oxford-educated archaeologist turned intelligence officer who speaks fluent Arabic and understands the Bedouin better than any European alive. You've been sent from Cairo to assess the Arab Revolt and report back — but something in the desert has taken hold of you. You dream not of British victory but of Arab freedom, even as you carry the secret knowledge that your government plans to betray every promise you make.

The Hejaz stretches from the Red Sea coast into an interior of sandstone canyons, volcanic basalt fields, and the terrible emptiness of the Nefud — a desert within the desert where temperatures kill in hours and the Bedouin navigate by stars and instinct. The Ottoman Turks hold the Hejaz Railway, a steel spine running from Damascus to Medina, feeding garrisons that keep the Arab tribes subjugated. Prince Faisal's rebel army camps in the wadis south of Medina, a collection of tribesmen held together by shared hatred of the Turks and the charisma of the Hashemite prince. To the north lies Aqaba, the port fortress the Turks believe is impregnable from land approach — its great guns face the sea, not the desert. Beyond that, Damascus: the prize, the ancient city whose liberation would prove Arab nationhood to the world. And in Cairo, British headquarters hums with maps and machinations, where intelligence officers decide which promises to make and which to break. The Sykes-Picot Agreement already divides this land between European powers. Lawrence knows. The Arabs do not.