T.E. Lawrence (1888-1935) - photo 1
T.E. Lawrence (1888-1935) - photo 2

T.E. Lawrence (1888-1935)

Lot 94
30.07.2020 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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£ 16 250
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 381302
Lot 94 | T.E. Lawrence (1888-1935)
Estimate value
£ 8 000 – 12 000
[LAWRENCE, Thomas Edward (1888-1935) – David George HOGARTH (1862-1927)]. THE ARAB BUREAU. Handbook of Hejaz ... second edition. Cairo: Government Press, 26 February 1917.

Extremely rare copy of the Arab Bureau's intelligence manual for the Arab Revolt, owned by an important protagonist in the conflict. The owner of this Handbook, William Cochrane (1878-1947), was in civilian life a shipping agent who helped organise the pilgrimage to Mecca from Port Sudan. During the First World War, he served under Col. Cyril Wilson, the British Agent at Jeddah, to help organise the pilgrimage of muslims from British India to Mecca. It was essential that this exercise went smoothly in order to show Sherif Hussein of Mecca that the infidel British could be trusted, and thus help turn the Sherif against the Ottoman Empire to start the British-backed Arab Revolt. Also on Wilson's agenda was the formation of an intelliegence gathering operation in the Hejaz, and laying the political groundwork for an alliance with the Sherif. In Cochrane he had a trusted deputy: 'Cochrane helped [Wilson] with more than the pilgrimage: he also had a wise head for political correspondence and consular questions, and took charge of the £125,000 in gold sovreigns that was brought to Jeddah each month by the Red Sea Patrol of the Royal Navy. This was the British subsidy to Hussein and Cochrane ensured it went to him' (Walker, p.22).

The Government Press printing code on verso of the final leaf suggests 200 copies were printed, but the only example that has appeared at auction was Peter Hopkirk's copy of the 1916 first edition (Sotheby's 14 Oct 1998, lot 840). This first edition was wholly written by Lawrence's mentor, D.G. Hogarth; certain areas of it were controversial, and St John Philby challenged the Arab Bureau's Director, Cornwallis, over the omission of Wadi Khurma which lay in the midst of the Ateibah tribe, which had pro-Hashemite and pro-Saudi clans (Westrate, p.121). The preface to the present edition acknowledges that the first edition was compiled in haste, and that this is a much expanded edition compiled from multiple new sources; these must have included Lawrence himself, as well as numerous other intelligence, military and political officers working in the Arabian peninsula. The entry on the Ateibah (pp.40-1) contains much on the divided loyalties of the tribe, but there is still no mention of Wadi Khurma. Of this expanded edition, we have been able to trace only 5 copies in UK institutions (British Library, Edinburgh, Oxford, Exeter and Durham) and only one in the US (Army Heritage & Education Center, Carlisle, PA). Not in O'Brien; see Philip Walker, Behind the Lawrence Legend. The forgotten few who shaped the Arab Revolt (Oxford, 2018) and Bruce Westrate, The Arab Bureau. British policy in the Middle East 1916-1920 (Penn State Univ., 1992).

Small quarto (183 x 131mm). Folding 'Outline Map of Hejaz', folding family tree 'Ruling Sherifal Family of Mecca', additional folding 'Railway Map of the Delta and Fayum' loosely inserted (Hejaz map with 40mm tear repaired with tape, railway map with many tears repaired by tape on verso). Original publisher's binding of gatherings stapled and then bound in linen-backed printed glazed-paper boards (one staple slightly protruding through linen backstrip, some faint stains from rusting staples marking the linen, upper cover with two small grease stains and some light general soiling, extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance: W.P. Cochrane (ink ownership inscription on upper board dated 25/3/[19]17).
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