Hashemites and the Arab Dream

The story of the Arab Revolt and the Hashemite prince who led it during World War I is linked in everyone's mind today to the legend of Lawrence of Arabia, which we all saw in David Lean's 1962 film. But behind this romanticized portrayal lies a harsh reality: the war, the ambitions that accompanied it, and the double standards employed by all parties involved helped shape the modern Middle East and laid the foundation for all the conflicts that plague the region to this day. Arab nationalists claim that British encouragement of the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire was a British recognition of the Arabs' right to independence. However, in this book, Robert McNamara reveals how the British groomed the Hashemite Sharif of Mecca during World War I to become the ideal replacement for the Ottoman Sultan, who had assumed the role of Caliph and declared jihad against the Allied forces when Turkish troops joined the Central Powers. The aim was to transform the Sharif of Mecca from a mere leader of a united and independent Arabian Peninsula into a leader of the Middle East a replacement for the Ottoman Sultan. At the same time, the Sykes-Picot Agreement divided the Middle East between Britain and France, and the resulting sense of betrayal among Arabs fundamentally altered Arab nationalist perceptions of the West. The Arab states that participated in the Treaty of Versailles are widely regarded as mere pawns manipulated by the great powers. With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Arab nationalists, led by Prince Faisal, fought for a prominent position among the diverse tribes, religions, and ethnicities that comprise the Middle East. However, the Arabs soon realized that their quest for self-determination was met with closed doors, and they felt betrayed by the Balfour Declaration and the Sykes-Picot Agreement. These decisions led to decades of conflict in the Middle East. In this book, Robert McNamara explains how the decisions made after World War I continue to shape the history of this region.