With Lawrence in Arabia , first published in 1925, was the inspiration for the David Lean film Lawrence of Arabia starring Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif. In the years following the end of the World War I, there was no stronger legend about any of its participants than that surrounding Colonel T.E. Lawrence, known as Lawrence of Arabia. On a special mission for the British, to help the Arab revolt against the Turks, Germany's allies, who then ruled the Middle East, he succeeded in establishing an extraordinary rapport with his Arab hosts and helped lead the disparate, warring tribes to amazing victories. His exploits - unifying the discordant desert tribes, leading them in guerilla attackes on Turkish forces and communications - greatly assisted General Allenby's main drive against the Turks and Lawrence entered a liberated Damascus ahead of Allenby in 1918. The main creator of his mythic status was American sholar and writer, Lowell Thomas, author of this work, who first met Lawrence in Jerusalem in 1918. Thomas hero-worshipped Lawrence and after the war embarked on a worldwide lecture tour thrilling his audiences with his tales of the moden Knight of Arabia . Phillip Knightly, the investigative reporter and writer, author of The Secret Lives of Lawrence of Arabia , sets the tale in the context of early 21st-century knowledge. There is also the introductioni that Thomas himself wrote for a 1962 edition of the book.