The Pivotal Year of 1917: Britain, the Arab Revolt, and the Shifting Sands of the Ottoman Front

The Forgotten Front: Caucasus and Ottoman Respite in 1917

The year 1917 presented a curious paradox in Ottoman military history. While the Caucasus had been one of the most active battlefronts during 1916’s global conflict, it fell into an unusual quietude the following year. This silence was so profound that contemporary observers knew remarkably little about events unfolding in this theater. The Ottoman Third Army, having narrowly escaped annihilation during the spring and summer campaigns of 1916, welcomed the opportunity to rest and reorganize while revolution tore through Russia.

Remarkably, the official Ottoman General Staff war history dedicates a mere 20 pages out of 1,660 to the events of 1917 – and these scant pages barely mention Russian forces. This silence speaks volumes about the strategic recalibration occurring across multiple fronts as the Great War entered its decisive phase.

The Southern Reversal: From Triumph to Peril

While the northern front experienced dramatic reversals, the southern theater witnessed an equally fateful turnaround in 1917. The previous two years had seen Ottoman forces under Liman and Kemal achieve unexpected successes, repelling Allied advances toward the Dardanelles and Gallipoli, and capturing Townshend’s entire expeditionary force at Kut. Yet even as Enver celebrated his uncle’s Mesopotamian victories, Britain was sowing the seeds of ultimate triumph.

The critical turning point emerged during the Second Suez Canal offensive of August 1916. Despite Kress von Kressenstein’s logistical miracle of transporting a substantial force across the Sinai, his troops were repelled about 30 miles from the canal. By December 1916, the Egyptian Expeditionary Force had taken El Arish and Rafa, establishing firm British control over Sinai and enabling the extension of the Kantara railway westward through the desert.

The Arab Revolt: Promise and Limitations

Meanwhile, the nationalist and pan-Islamist revolt launched by Hussein in Mecca began threatening Ottoman communications in northern Hejaz – strategically located on the right flank of British forces advancing into Palestine. The so-called “Arab Revolt” would leave significant political residue in the postwar Middle East, but its immediate military impact proved limited.

Most Arab Muslim fighters remained loyal to the Sultan, and Hussein’s call for unified Arab resistance against the Ottoman Empire largely failed. Only a handful of Ottoman officers defected, rather than entire Arab regiments. While Hussein’s second son Abdullah succeeded in capturing Mecca, Taif, and the Red Sea port of Jidda with British naval support, Medina – Hejaz’s largest city – remained firmly under Ottoman control, supplied via the Damascus railway.

Lawrence’s Fateful Intervention

Just as the Arab Revolt appeared to falter, T.E. Lawrence entered the scene – though the reality differed markedly from later legendary accounts. When Lawrence first visited Jidda on October 16, 1916, he was merely a 28-year-old junior intelligence officer accompanying Ronald Storrs’ diplomatic mission. His initial meeting with Abdullah and French Colonel Édouard Brémond would prove historically significant, though not for reasons then apparent.

Lawrence’s true genius lay not in desert warfare but in navigating imperial bureaucracy. Recognizing British concerns about sending Christian troops to Islam’s holy cities, and leveraging growing anti-French sentiment following the Somme’s bloody toll, Lawrence skillfully maneuvered to undermine Brémond’s proposal for a Franco-British expeditionary force to support the revolt.

The Strategic Calculus: Britain vs. France in the Middle East

Brémond’s candid remarks about French interests in containing the Arab Revolt to preserve postwar claims in Syria and Palestine provided Lawrence with potent ammunition. In a masterstroke of bureaucratic warfare, Lawrence and Gilbert Clayton positioned the young officer as an authority on Arab sentiment, convincing British commanders that direct European military intervention would alienate Hussein’s forces.

This political maneuvering in November 1916 effectively charted Britain’s postwar approach to the Ottoman territories: presenting the Arab Revolt as a spontaneous uprising deserving of postwar independence (or at least territory beyond what France claimed in the Sykes-Picot Agreement). Lawrence’s rising influence ensured British support would flow to the Hashemites without French participation.

Military Stalemates and Strategic Shifts

While Lawrence cultivated the Arab Revolt’s political dimensions, conventional campaigns continued elsewhere. The British suffered bloody repulses at Gaza in March and April 1917, even as Maude’s Mesopotamian campaign captured Baghdad in March. These developments occurred against the backdrop of Russia’s revolution and America’s April 1917 entry into the war – events that would profoundly reshape the conflict’s final phase.

The fall of Baghdad and subsequent British advances, though militarily limited, carried immense symbolic weight. As the seat of the Abbasid Caliphate and terminus of Germany’s envisioned Berlin-Baghdad railway, its capture boosted Allied morale while dealing a psychological blow to Ottoman prestige.

The Aqaba Gambit: Myth and Reality

Lawrence’s famous capture of Aqaba in July 1917 exemplified his unconventional approach. Contrary to legend, the port’s vulnerability had long been recognized, and Brémond had earlier proposed a Franco-British amphibious assault. Lawrence’s opposition to French involvement and subsequent overland raid secured the port for Britain alone – a timely propaganda victory amid Allied setbacks elsewhere.

The operation’s strategic impact proved modest, but its timing was impeccable. As Allenby assumed command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, Lawrence’s success helped cement British commitment to the Arab Revolt, now funded at staggering levels reaching £500,000 monthly by autumn 1917.

The Road to Jerusalem

The final months of 1917 saw Allenby’s forces break through at Beersheba and Gaza, culminating in Jerusalem’s capture on December 9. This symbolic victory, following hard upon the Balfour Declaration’s promise of a Jewish national home in Palestine, created new political realities even as Ottoman forces remained intact further north.

Lawrence’s participation in Allenby’s formal entry into Jerusalem marked the apogee of his wartime influence, though his military contributions remained secondary to the conventional campaign. The year closed with Britain ascendant in the Middle East, having weathered the Arab Revolt’s early struggles and positioned itself as the dominant power in the postwar settlement – though the full consequences of these developments would only become apparent in the tumultuous years to come.

The events of 1917 thus represented a pivotal reconfiguration of Middle Eastern geopolitics, establishing patterns of Western intervention, Arab nationalism, and Zionist aspirations that would shape the region for generations. From the corridors of Whitehall to the deserts of Arabia, decisions made during this fateful year continue to resonate in the modern Middle East’s complex political landscape.