Lawrence preserves unity

T.E. Lawrence, 1888-1935

In 1917, T.E. Lawrence - Lawrence of Arabia - was leading an attacking force of Bedouin Arabs drawn from different tribes to attack the town of Aqaba on the Red Sea. No attack was expected from the landward side because of the terrible uncrossable desert behind it, but Lawrence had persuaded the Arabs to cross this stretch of desert - known as the Anvil of the Sun - and to make a surprise attack on the Turks in Aqaba.

They have to cross this terrible desert by travelling at night, a long and exhausting journey. When at dawn they reach the other side of the desert, they realise that they have lost a man. He must have fallen off his camel at night. Against everyone's advice. Lawrence rides back into the desert to look for him. Don't do it, says the leader of the Howeitat, his death is written. Lawrence does find the man and brings him back safely to the others, but that night there is a disturbance. The tribes are threatening to break up and go home before they have made the planned attack. A member of one tribe has been killed and by by the rigid code of vengeance - the lex talionis - the murderer must pay with his life, but that will then set up an endless round of killings.

As a way out of this dilemma, Lawrence offers to execute the murderer himself. He is not a member of any tribe and therefore that would stop the blood feud. Everyone agrees to this. Lawrence goes to carry out the execution, but then he finds that the murderer he has to execute is the man he has just saved. Is he right to shoot this man?

Lawrence of Arabia with his bodyguard at Aqaba