1917: Gasim, by Lawrence of Arabia

ExecutedToday.com ^ | July 5, 2010 | Headsman

[CheshireTheCat]

This date in 1917 was the eve of the Battle of Aqaba, wherein a force of Arabs with famous British officer T.E. Lawrence emerged from the desert to surprise and capture the Ottoman Red Sea port today located in Jordan.*

And that makes this, in the cinematic masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia, the date on which the titular character kept the peace within his fragile coalition by personally executing a malefactor to prevent a tribal blood feud.

The victim, Gasim, is a real figure described in the real T.E. Lawrence’s memoirs —

a gap-toothed, grumbling fellow, skrimshank in all our marches, bad-tempered, suspicious, brutal, a man whose engagement I regretted, and of whom I had promised to rid myself as soon as we reached a discharging-place.

Gasim is most famous as the beneficiary of the movie scene in which Lawrence boldly turns back into the desert to rescue this worthless retainer when Gasim’s camel is found riderless in the caravan. This, too, is based on an actual incident in Lawrence’s memoir, albeit heavily dramatized on celluloid....

[dljordan]

Interesting. I remember that scene well.

[Dr. Ursus]

We visited Petra and Wadi Rum. We stood overlooking the valley were the Arab army marched, or that’s what they us. Gertrude Bell is an interesting person from this time and area.

[BipolarBob]

Great film.

[BuffaloJack]

Tidbit time: All of the original copies and scripts of Lawrence of Arabia were somehow destroyed. Years later without a copy of the movie script and from memory and the scraps from the cutting room, they pieced together the film that now is Lawrence of Arabia.

[Deplorable American1776]

Interesting... Got to read more about Lawrence of Arabia... I grew up thinking he was a fictional character... but I know he was human...

[Zathras]

I’ve been to Jordan and saw the approach to Aqaba they took.
It took guts to cross that desert