Farraj and Daud

Farraj and Daud (or Ferraj and Daoud) were two Arab servants to T.E. Lawrence during his service with the Arab Revolt from 1916-1918. Lawrence writes frequently of them in Seven Pillars of Wisdom; they are also mentioned in Lowell Thomas's book With Lawrence in Arabia.

Next to nothing is known AbOUT the backgrounds of Farraj and Daud, except that they were from the Ageyl tribe of Bedouin. Their exact age is unclear, although they seem to have been adolescents or teenagers. It is stated in Seven Pillars that they were inseperable, and strongly implied that had a homosexual relationship. Lawrence writes:

The pair were always in trouble, and of late so outrageous in their tricks that Sharraf, the severe, had ordered an example to be made of them... They were an instance of the eastern boy and boy affection which the segregation of women made inevitable. Such friendship often led to manly loves of a depth and force beyond our flesh-steeped conceit. When innocent they were hot and unashamed. If sexuality entered, they passed into a give and take, unspiritual relation, like marriage.

(Seven Pillars, p. 244)

Lawrence first met the two after they burned the tent of Captain Saad, a member of Lawrence's expedition to Aqaba as a practical joke. The two were punished by whipping. When when Sherif Nassir, leader of the Harith tribe, arrived, they claim they were Lawrence's servants. Despite Lawrence's initial objections, Nassir encouraged Lawrence to take them as servants, and he did so.

Farraj and Daud are depicted by Lawrence as being pranksters who frequently played jokes on their fellow Arabs. On p. 277 Lawrence recounts an instance during the Aqaba campaign, when Farraj and Daud frequently gave out false alarms for snakes (which had claimed the lives of several members of the expedition). When Lawrence reprimanded them, they decided not to tell him of a brown snake which coiled up next to his tent. Lawrence later describes an instance (p. 401) where they painted a camel belonging to the governor of Aqaba and were themselves stained with dye as punishment. And Lawrence also accounts a fight which broke out with an oasis when Daud pushed Farraj into the water (418-419).

Daud died of a fever in the city of Azrak during the winter of 1917-1918. After this, Lawrence reports Farraj becoming [...]. A few months later, during an attack on a Turkish supply train, Farraj single-handedly charged the Turkish position and was mortally wounded. His wounds were incurable, and fearing that the Turks would torture him if captured, Lawrence was forced to execute Farraj himself (528-530).

Farraj and Daud were characters in the film Lawrence of Arabia (1962), where they were portrayed by Michel Ray and John Dimech, respectively. The film accurately portrays their characters, although the circumstances of their deaths is changed (Daud dies in quicksand while Farraj is executed by Lawrence, but from an accident with a detonator).