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, 'Aziz 'Ali 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, 'Aziz 'Ali proposed that it be divided into three armies:
