“We had not talked over the problem of Akaba. Feisal knew neither its terrain nor its tribes … It seemed best for me to hurry down there and put my side on its guard … Two days later, in Wejh, I explained myself”.
Events of 6 February 1917 as recounted by T. E. Lawrence in Seven
Pillars of Wisdom (1926).
During Lawrence’s absence in Cairo, plans had been made in Wejh for the Arabs to capture Akaba through an advance up the coast.
Convinced that mounting an attack from the seaward side would be useless while the Turks commanded strong defensive positions along Wadi Itm, the pass leading inland from Akaba, on Lawrence’s return to Wejh he revealed an alternative plan to advance from
inland, attacking the Turkish outposts along the way.
Possibly it was at around this time that Lawrence also divulged the existence of the Sykes-Picot Treaty to Feisal.