T.E. Lawrence: On Allenby’s Right (Liberty Magazine, 1936)

“It was all so amazing; but I encountered the greatest surprise as we wandered through Christian Street [in Jerusalem]. A group of Arabs crossed our path. One arrested my attention. Although he was shorter than his companions, and slender as a boy, he stood out among them; he was obvously a leader of men. He wore Arab dress and the short curved [dagger] of a prince of Mecca, but he was beardless and blond as a viking

“Now it all came back to me!”
“This was the man Todd Gilney had spoken of – the man who had fostered the Arab revolt against Turkish rule. He was the leader who had singlehandedly welded a hundred warring desert tribes into a compact fighting force which now protected Allenby’s right wing. But he was shy and unassuming; he said very little.”