The Arab Revolt – Sharif Husayn and Amir Faysal – heroes or traitors?

The Arab Revolt was a very planed and ensuing tactic used by the British to weaken the Ottoman Empire during World War One. The Ottoman Empire had been expected to prove quite weak in strengths of army or army tactics. However, the Ottoman Empire had surprised everyone else with their tactics and were actually looking forward to gaining more territory over the course of the war. The fact that they were supporting the Axis meant that they needed to be brought out of the war or onto the Allied side. However, Britain considered neither means when they started to persuade the Arabs, which were involved in the empire since many large Arab states were captured by the empire. Therefore, persuading the Arab groups to revolt against the Ottoman Empire would break the focus of the Ottoman Empire upon the war and force them out of the war until they became weak or gave in. To do this, the Arabs were promised to be made king of the entire land, although individual Arabs were alter made king of parts of lands. Sharif Husayn was the leader of the Arab revolt and was only rewarded by being made the king of the Red Sea Coast, land that is now known as Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Amir Faysal is the person who was the leading commander of the Arab Revolt. The British rewarded him by making him king of Syria first and then making him king of Iraq later on.