Siege of Medina Medina , an Islamic holy city in Arabia , underwent a long siege during World War I . Medina was at the time part of the Ottoman Empire . In the war , the Ottoman Empire sided with the Central Powers . Sharif Hussain of Mecca betrayed and revolted against the caliph and the Ottoman Empire which , under the leadership of the secular and nationalistic Young Turks , had ignored the wishes of the Caliph and sided with the Central Powers . Hussain instead sided with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in the thick of war . T . E . Lawrence was instrumental in this revolt . Hussain occupied Mecca and besieged Medina . It was one of the longest sieges in history that lasted till even after the end of war . Fahreddin Pasha was the defender of Medina . He was called " " the Lion of the Desert " " by the British for his patriotism in Medina . The siege lasted two years and seven months . Events . In June 1916 Sharif Hussain , the Hashemite ruler of Mecca , betrayed and revolted against the Ottoman Empire which , under the rule of the Young Turks , had by that time begun movement towards ethnic nationalism and was marginalizing the office of the Caliph . Hussain wanted to move north and create an Arab state from Yemen to Damascus and establish a Hashemite Caliphate . Medina was , at the time , deemed important in that regard and was connected to the Ottoman Empire through a railway line . Hussain ' s forces besieged Medina , beginning in 1916 and lasting till January 1919 . With British support , an initial attack led by Hussein ' s son Feisal was launched against Medina in October 1916 ; however , the Arabs were repulsed with heavy losses by the Turks , who were heavily - entrenched and armed with artillery , which the Arabs lacked . As the Arab Revolt slowly spread northwards along the Red Sea ( ultimately culminating in the seizure of Aqaba ) , British and Arab strategy for capturing Medina changed , and Faisal and his advisers was determined that the Arabs would gain an advantage by leaving Medina unoccupied ; this would force the Turks to retain troops to defend Medina , and to protect the Hejaz Railway , the only means of supplying the city . For this purpose , Nuri as - Said set about creating military training camps in Mecca under the direction of General ' Aziz ' Ali al - Misri . Using a mix of Bedouin volunteers , Arab officers and Arab Ottoman deserters who wanted to join the Arab Revolt , Al - Masry created three infantry brigades , a mounted brigade , an engineering unit , and three different artillery groups made up of a patchwork of varying cannon and heavy caliber machine guns . Of his total force of 30 , 000 , Al - Masry proposed that it be divided into three armies : These armies had a mixture of British and French officers attached to them who provided technical military advice . One of these officers was T . E . Lawrence . The defending commander of the Ottoman garrison in Medina Fahreddin Pasha was besieged by Arab forces but tenaciously he defended the holy city . Fahreddin Pasha not only had to defend Medina but also protect the single - track narrow gauge Hejaz Railway from sabotage attacks by T . E . Lawrence and his Arab forces , on which his entire logistics depended . Turkish garrisons of the isolated small train stations withstood the continuous night attacks and secured the tracks against increasing number of sabotages ( around 130 major attacks in 1917 and hundreds in 1918 including exploding more than 300 bombs on April 30 , 1918 ) . With the resignation of the Ottoman Empire from the war with the Armistice of Mudros between Ottoman Empire and Entente on 30 October 1918 , it was expected that Fahreddin Pasha would also surrender . He refused and did not surrender even after the end of the war despite pleas from the Ottoman Sultan . He hold the city until 72 days after the end of the war . After the Armistice of Moudros the closest Ottoman unit was 1300 km ( 808 miles ) away from Medina . Eventually , his men faced starvation due to a lack of supplies and the remaining garrison including Fahreddin Pasha surrendered on 10 January 1919 . Abdullah I of Jordan and his troops entered Medina on January 13 , 1919 . After the surrender , the Arab troops looted the city for 12 days . Overall 4 , 850 houses which were locked and put under seal by Fahreddin Pasha were opened forcefully and looted . About 8 , 000 ( 519 officers and 7 , 545 soldiers ) men of the Turkish garrison were evacuated to Egypt after their surrender . Besides the evacuated some died of disease and others dispersed on their own to various areas . The weapons and ammunition of the garrison were left to the besiegers .