and it was so for almost a century under the dynasty that we call the umayyads. and therefore, arab nationalists always dreamt that ideally damascus would be this kind of dream city that could be the capital for the arab kingdom. now, the eastern end of the sinai peninsula is this narrow straits that leads to this town of aqaba. a crucial port city, aqaba is the gateway to capturing damascus. but the problem with aqaba is you ll never get off the beach because the turks have artillery and machine guns all pointed out to sea because that s the natural place where they thought someone was going to attack. so it s just going to be a replication of what the british have done everywhere else, which is go up against the strongest part of the turkish line and be slaughtered. so lawrence comes up with this idea that the way to do it is to go inland, come over the mountains, and take it from behind.
exactly what they ve been doing on the western front against the germans, and they re fiascos both times. it cost a lot of british soldiers lives, in the thousands. it was a very humiliating defeat for them, so they retreated. so djemal pasha, sitting in jerusalem, he sort of becomes the hero, and this is one of the really kind of outstanding ottoman victories, these two battles of gaza. after the british are beaten back, the arab revolt plans an assault of its own. for the arab revolt, the really important city was damascus. prince faisal knew the importance of damascus, wanted to be in damascus. it s a very important place historically, religiously and strategically. damascus was the first real capital for the islamic empire outside of arabia.
therefore nationalists always dreamt that ideally damascus would be this kind of dream city that could be the capital for the arab kingdom. now the eastern end of the sinai peninsula is this narrow straits that leads to this town of akaba. a crucial port city, akaba is the gateway to capturing damascus. but the problem with akaba is you ll never get off the beach because the turks have artillery and machine guns all pointed out to see. it s just going to be a replication of what the british have done everywhere else, which is go up against the strongest part of the turkish line and be slaughtered. so lawrence comes up with this idea that the way to do it is to go inland, come over the mountains, and take it from behind. in may 1917, the decision to take aqaba is taken by faisal
both times. it cost a lot of british soldiers lives, in the thousands. it was a very humiliating defeat for them, so they retreated. so djemal pasha, sitting in jerusalem, he sort of becomes the hero, and this is one of the really kind of outstanding ottoman victories, these two battles of gaza. after the british are beaten back, the arab revolt plans an assault of its own. for the arab revolt, the really important city was damascus. prince faisal knew the importance of damascus, wanted to be in damascus. it s a very important place historically, religiously and strategically. damascus was the first real capital for the islamic empire outside of arabia. and it was so for almost a century under the dynasty that we call the amyiads.