托马斯·爱德华·劳伦斯上校(英语:Thomas Edward Lawrence,也称“阿拉伯的劳伦斯”,Lawrence of Arabia,1888年8月16日-1935年5月19日),英国军官,因在1916年至1918年的阿拉伯起义中作为英国联络官的角色而出名。他成为公众偶像有部分原因是因为美国旅行家兼记者洛维尔·托马斯(Lowell Thomas)所写关于那场起义的轰动一时的报告文学,还有劳伦斯的自传体记录《智慧的七柱》。许多阿拉伯人将他看成民间英雄,推动了他们从奥斯曼帝国和欧洲的统治中获得自由的理想;同样地,许多英国人将他包括在他们国家最伟大的战争英雄之中。
早期生涯
1888年8月16日,托马斯·爱德华·劳伦斯(以下简称T·E·劳伦斯)出生在威尔士的特雷马多格(Tremadog),在威尔士、苏格兰和法国的圣马洛度过了幼年时代。1896年,劳伦斯一家返回英国,在牛津定居。其父亲“托马斯·劳伦斯”的真名叫托马斯·查普曼,是一个英国血统的爱尔兰贵族,第7代威斯特米思从男爵(Baronet of Westmeath)。他的婚姻十分不幸,在与妻子生了4个女儿之后,抛弃了妻子、孩子和家产,同女儿们的家庭教师萨拉·琼纳一起私奔,生下了T.E.劳伦斯及其3个兄弟。
1916年6月5日, 1500名阿拉伯骑士在麦地那对空鸣枪,宣布阿拉伯独立。6月10日,侯赛因的长子阿里(Ali bin Hussein)和三子费萨尔(Faisal bin al-Hussein bin Ali al-Hashemi)联合指挥的汉志战士包围了圣城麦加,土耳其的汉志总督加里布帕夏带着亲卫队逃往汉志山脉中的避暑胜地塔伊夫。经过20多天的围困,麦加守军向汉志军队投降。在这里,侯赛因向全世界穆斯林发表宣言,公开谴责土耳其当局迫害和屠杀阿拉伯民族主义者,背离伊斯兰教精神,并宣布阿拉伯脱离奥斯曼帝国而独立。
阿拉伯起义爆发后,驻开罗的英国中东事务大臣罗纳德·斯托尔斯勋爵(Sir Ronald Storrs)于1916年10月动身前往汉志拜访侯赛因,劳伦斯奉命陪同他前往阿拉伯地区执行这一外交使命。斯托尔斯答应从开罗为起义军队提供金钱和给养,劳伦斯中尉则被留下来对汉志战争的形势进行评估。
"I deem him one of the greatest beings alive in our time... We shall never see his like again. His name will live in history. It will live in the annals of war... It will live in the legends of Arabia."
“我认为他是我们这个年代最伟大的人物之一…我们再不会见到同样的人了。他将会名垂千古…他的名字会永存战争史上…永存在阿拉伯的传说当中。”(暂译)
"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible."
“所有人都做梦,但是却不尽相同。那些晚上做梦的人白天醒来,会发现这些梦是虚无的。但是那些白天做梦的人却是非常危险的,因为他们会行动起来,让自己的梦变成现实。”
"The public women of the rare settlements we encountered in our months of wandering would have been nothing to our numbers, even had their raddled meat been palatable to a man of healthy parts. In horror of such sordid commerce our youths began indifferently to slake one another's few needs in their own clean bodies—a cold convenience that, by comparison, seemed sexless and even pure. Later, some began to justify this sterile process, and swore that friends quivering together in the yielding sand with intimate hot limbs in supreme embrace, found there hidden in the darkness a sensual co-efficient of the mental passion which was welding our souls and spirits in one flaming effort. Several, thirsting to punish appetites they could not wholly prevent, took a savage pride in degrading the body, and offered themself fiercely in any habit which promised physical pain or filth."