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William Shakespear | |
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| Born | William Henry Irvine Shakespear (1878-10-29)29 October 1878 |
| Died | 24 January 1915(1915-01-24) (aged 36) Lake Jarrab,Majmaah,Emirate of Nejd and Hasa |
| Occupation | Civil servant |
| Known for | Explorer who mapped uncharted areas of Northern Arabia |
CaptainWilliam Henry Irvine Shakespear,CIE (29 October 1878 – 24 January 1915) was a Britishcivil servant and explorer who mapped uncharted areas of Northern Arabia and made the first official British contact withIbn Saud, future king ofSaudi Arabia. He was the military adviser to Ibn Sa'ud from 1910 to 1915, when he was shot and killed in theBattle of Jarrab by one ofIbn Rashid's men. He was buried in Kuwait.
While in Kuwait, Shakespear made seven separate expeditions into the Arabian interior, during which he became a close friend ofIbn Sa'ud, then theEmir of theNejd. It was Shakespear who arranged for Ibn Sa'ud to be photographed for the first time. Ibn Sa'ud had never seen a camera before. In March 1914, Shakespear began a 2,900-kilometre (1,800 mi) journey from Kuwait toRiyadh and on toAqaba via theNafud Desert, which he mapped and studied in great detail, the first European to do so. In November 1914, theBritish government in India asked Shakespear to secure Ibn Sa'ud's support for the British-Indian Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force, which had just takenBasra.
It has been suggested by some authorities, notablySt. John Philby, that theArab Revolt against theOttoman Empire might have been very differently directed if Shakespear had survived, that theBritish would have supported and armed Ibn Sa'ud rather thanSherif Hussein ibn Ali.
"His death... was a great loss to his country, but it was a disaster to the Arab cause. It must certainly be reckoned in the small category of individual events which have changed the course of history. Had he survived to continue a work for which he was so eminently suited, it is extremely doubtful whether subsequent campaigns ofLawrence would ever have taken place in the west..."
Arabia, H. St. John Philby, London (1930), pp. 233–234.
Percy Cox replaced Shakespear as the United Kingdom's liaison to Ibn Saud and held this position until 1922. Cox facilitated the signing of theTreaty of Darin, on theisland of Tarut on 26 December 1915.[1]
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