Young Lawrence of Arabia - His Thesis

The year that TE Lawrence started studying at Oxford, the University decided that the history students could submit a thesis in addition to their final exams. Lawrence decided to do this and in early 1910 he presented a thesis with words , sketches and photographs entitled ‘The influence of the Crusades on western military architecture – to the end of the XIIth Century.’

His boyhood interest in chivalry and medieval architecture was elemental to the subject he chose: the development of medieval military architecture. He had been cycling out to visit the castles and abbeys for many years, and in 1906 and 1907 he had ridden around Brittany, Normandy and the Loire in pursuit of them. Then in 1908, in the summer between his first and second year at university, he made his monumental 2500 mile ride around France, visiting some 50 castles and abbeys around France over two months. On his return from this trip he declared that he had all the material he needed to write a thesis about medieval fortification in Western Europe.

However, at the suggestion of Charles Bell at the Ashmolean Museum the young Lawrence extended his subject to cover the Crusader castles in the Middle East. And by the end of 1908 he was already planning a walk for the following summer (against the advice of the expert of the day, Charles Doughty). Eventually, during the summer of 1909, he visited some 100 castles around what is now Lebanon, Syria and Israel. This trip led to his becoming an archaeologist in the Middle East following his graduation and eventually in his being drawn into military Intelligence and eventually the Arab Uprising in 1916.

Lawrence was awarded a First Class degree for his studies, and his thesis was assessed as ‘very remarkable’, despite the fact that it was quite controversial, attempting in some aspects to overturn the general currency of thought at the time. His main thrust, that the early Crusaders brought more military architectural ideas to the Levant than they brought back, has largely stood the test of time, though some other details in his thesis have been overtaken by later scholarship.

The thesis was published in 1936 shortly after his death as Crusader Castles, by Golden Cockerel Press (in two volumes, The Thesis and The Letters) and has been republsihed a number of times, including by Oxford University Press in 1988, with an introduction by Denys Pringle and additional photographs by Lawrence

. It was published again in 1992 by Immel Publishing (one volume including both the work and the letters). The original ‘Examiners’ Copy’, with its original illustrations, is held by Jesus College at Oxford.