From Ottoman Might to the Arab Revolt: The Hejaz Railway as Engineering Feat, Pilgrimage Highway, and Battleground
The Hejaz Railway, the lifeline of the Ottoman Empire in Arabia and a strategic target of the Arab Revolt, began to be constructed by imperial decree in 1900, at the behest of Sultan Abdülhamid II (r. 1876-1909). It was an astounding feat of engineering which...