What this site will contain
When complete, this site will contain a large selection of contemporary documents about the Great Arab Revolt (1916-18), drawn in the first instance from British military and diplomatic archives. In the long run we would also like to include surviving contemporary documents from Arab, French, German and Turkish sources.
The Arab revolt, seeking independence from the Ottoman Empire, began in Mecca in June 1916. It ended with the WWI Armistice in November 1918. Initially, the action was confined to the Hejaz, now part of Saudi Arabia. In mid-1917 the capture of Akaba made it possible to extend the revolt northwards to areas now in Jordan and Syria.
Many documents relating to the revolt survive in Britain's National Archives (TNA) and elsewhere. It is difficult to estimate exactly how many, because documents are often duplicated in different files. However, I think there could well be 5,000 individual documents relating to the revolt - possibly more.
Presentation
In recent years I have been collecting and organising copies of documents, designing this site, and thinking how best to arrange the content. Much work has gone on behind the scenes, but it seems pointless to make it public until we are in a position to post a reasonable amount.
It is tempting to present the documents in different categories (supplies, Intelligence, etc), but doing that would make it harder to understand the scale and complexity of events. In the end, I decided on three principles:
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The overall organisation will be chronological
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From mid-1917 onwards, documents for the Hejaz and Northern campaigns will be listed on separate contents pages. These were independent campaigns with a separate command structure
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For all periods, political and diplomatic documents relating to British and French policy about the future of the Middle East will be listed separately. We hope to expand this section greatly once the military material is well advanced
Welcome to Arab readers
The documents to be posted on this site tell the story of an important turning-point in the history of the Middle East. In places they contain a surprising amount of historical detail. These events took place in what are now Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria. In the past, relatively few people from those countries have had the opportunity to study them.
If you are from one of these countries, I hope you will find the records interesting.
The documents are about events that took place a long time ago. Since then many things have changed, both in the Middle East and elsewhere. Please remember always that the British officer-classes of 1916-18 had been taught since childhood that their future role was to help manage Britain's world-wide empire. What they wrote sometimes reveals attitudes towards the peoples of that Empire that - in today's world - seem as offensive to me as they do to you.
However, there can be no merit - now that nearly a century has passed - in trying to censor history. It was as it was. Our object is to understand what happened. To do that we need as much source information as possible. Only then will we begin to understand what motivated people to take the decisions they did.
Jeremy Wilson
If you are interested in the Great Arab Revolt, you might like to visit the website of the Great Arab Revolt Project.