Aqaba, Lawrence of Arabia and Pharaoh's Island

By Mark David  

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Graia: Ile de Graye  - Pharaoh's Island - Aila - Jezirat Faroun, Pharaoh's Island Isle of Graia, Gulf of Aqaba.

Illus. in: The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia / from drawings made on the spot by David Roberts ... ; lithographed by Louis Haghe. London : F.G. Moon, 1842-1845, v. 3, pts. 16-18, p. 8. Library of Congress, Reproduction number LC-USZC4-3525

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharaoh%27s_Island

In 1838 and 1839, David Roberts spent eleven months traveling and sketching throughout Egypt from Alexandria to Abu Simbel and through Sinai to Petra, Jerusalem, Palestine, and Lebanon. The 247 lithographs that Belgian engraver Louis Haghe then produced at the rate of one a month from the drawings executed during Roberts' trip were published in six volumes as "The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia" (1842-1846) and "Egypt and Nubia" (1846-1849).

This illustration by Louis Haghe is of a small island off Aqaba, the town captured by Lawrence of Arabia in October 1917,  called Ile de Graye, or Pharaoh's Island. 

History

And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-Geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. (1 Kings 9:26)

Excavations at Tell al-Khalifa, 4km west of central Aqaba and right on the border of Jordan and Israel & the Palestinian Territories, have revealed the ancient world's largest copper smelters, thought to be the biblical site of Ezion Geber. Smelting was carried out here from the 10th to 5th centuries BC, with ore coming from mines in Wadi Araba. Ezion Geber was also the ancient port from which King Solomon's fleet departed for the gold mines of Ophir (an unidentified location).

As trade with southern Arabia and Sheba developed, the area around Aqaba thrived thanks to its position on one of the Middle East's major trade routes, with routes leading north to Petra, Damascus and Bosra; west to Egypt and Palestine; and south to Arabia. The recent discovery in Aqaba of ceramics from China and Aksumite coins from Ethiopia highlight the cosmopolitan nature of the port.

The town was occupied by the Ptolemies from Egypt during the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC, and then the Nabataeans from about the 3rd to 1st centuries BC. During Roman times the town was renamed Aqabat Ayla (Pass of Alia) and it housed a garrison of legionaries.

Intriguingly, archaeologists working at Ayla recently unearthed a late 3rd-century church, thought to be the world's oldest purpose-built church (earlier churches have been found but these were built for other purposes and later converted). The sanctuary was used for less than a century before it was destroyed by an earthquake.

In the 10th century, a Muslim traveller described Aqaba as 'a great city' and a meeting place of pilgrims en route to and from Mecca. In AD 1024 the town was sacked by local tribes and in 1068 a huge earthquake split the old city of Ayla in two, consigning the town to a minor historical role.

The Crusaders occupied Aqaba in 1116 and fortified the island, defending the route between Cairo and Damascus, which they called Ile de Graye, referred to as Ayla or Aila in Arabic chronicles of the era, which also referred to a town of the same name on an island on the opposite side of the gulf. By the winter of 1116, the island was almost deserted.

In December 1170, Saladin conquered the island and reconstructed the citadel and left a garrison of men there.

In November 1181, Raynald of Châtillon raided the Arab-held Aila and attempted to set up a naval blockade against the Muslim troops there during the winter of 1182 to 1183. The blockade consisted of only two ships and was not successful. By the time of the 13th century, when the pilgrim Thietmar passed the island in 1217, the entire place was inhabited by a fishing village and populated by Muslims and captive Franks.

In 1250 the Mamluks took over. By the beginning of the 16th century the town had been swallowed up by the Ottoman Empire, and lost much of its significance when the main trading area of the region was moved to Baghdad in the middle of the 16th century.

The Mamluk governor of the city of Aqaba lived in the citadel until some time in the 14th century, around 1320, when the seat of governorship was moved into the city itself.

At the beginning of WWI, Aqaba remained an insignificant fishing village. Ottoman forces occupying the town were forced to retreat after a raid by the Arabs and TE Lawrence in 1917. From then on, the British used Aqaba as a supply centre from Egypt for the push up through the Trans-Jordan and Palestine regions.

After WWI, the border between Trans-Jordan and Saudi Arabia had still not been defined, so Britain arbitrarily drew a line a few kilometres south of Aqaba. The Saudis disputed the claim but took no action. As the port of Aqaba grew, the limited coastline proved insufficient, so in 1965 King Hussein traded 6000 sq km of Jordanian desert for another 12km of coastline with Saudi Arabia.

Lawrence of Arabia wrote of this isle on February 28, 1914

Hotel d’Angleterre, Damascus, Syria

'I got down to Akabah alone and on foot, since my idiot camels went astray … [A Turkish official] forbade [Captain Stewart] Newcombe to map, and me to photograph or archaeologise. I photographed what I could, I archaeologized everywhere. In especial there was an island [Jezirat Faroun], said to be full of meat. The bay of Akaba is full of sharks, hungry sharks (shivers) and the island was half a mile off shore … [Lawrence and his servant Dahoum] splashed off for the island with a couple of planks as paddles … I felt that any intelligent shark would leave me in the cold, but the whole squadron sailed across safely, saw, judged and condemned the ruins as uninteresting, and splashed homewards, very cold and very tired.'

—T.E. Lawrence to a friend. 

Aqaba and the Ilse of the Pharaoh's was captured by T. E. Lawrence in October 1917 at the Battle of Aqaba.