T. E. Lawrence

:"Lawrence of Arabia" redirects here. For the motion picture, see Lawrence of Arabia (film).

Claims of homosexuality

Certain passages in Lawrence's writing, supplemented by reports from a military colleague whom Lawrence hired to give him beatings, make it clear that he had unconventional sexual tastes, notably masochism. While his writings include one notably homoerotic passage (see "Quotations" below), the details of his sexual orientation and experience remain unknown.

Related Topics:
Masochism - Homoerotic

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Seven Pillars of Wisdom is dedicated to "S.A.", with a poem which begins:

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:"I loved you, so I drew these tides of men into my hands

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:and wrote my will across the sky in stars

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:To gain you Freedom, the seven-pillared worthy house,

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:that your eyes might be shining for me

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:When I came."

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:(Some editions of Seven Pillars give the last line of this stanza as "When we came"; the 1922 Oxford text, however, has "When I came".)

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On the subject of the war, Lawrence said: "I liked a particular Arab, and thought that freedom for the race would be an acceptable present."

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The identity of "S.A." remains unclear; it has been argued that these initials identify a man, a woman, a nation, or some combination of the above. One specific claim is that S.A. is "Selim Ahmed", also called Dahoum, a young Arab who worked with Lawrence at a pre-war archaeological dig, with whom Lawrence is said to have had a close relationship, and who apparently died of typhus in 1918. However, others maintain that Dahoum was merely an extremely close friend of the mold common in the 19th and early 20th centuries, which often involved (non-sexual) physical contact. Lawrence himself, perhaps dissembling, maintained that "S.A." was a composite character.

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In Seven Pillars, Lawrence claims that while reconnoitring Dera in Arab dress he was captured and sexually assaulted by the (male) Turkish garrison commander, but then escaped. There is controversy over this episode; some scholars have claimed that it is actually a sexual fantasy.

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