Iraq and Gertrude Bell's The Arab of Mesopotamia

Iraq and Gertrude Bell's The Arab of Mesopotamia PDF Author: Gertrude Lowthian Bell
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739125625
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
To understand contemporary Iraq and the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, no book provides a surer guide or more unsettling experience, written as it was for another war, another army, and another time. Gertrude Bell for a fleeting moment was the optimistic progenitor of the Iraq that today is becoming unglued.

Iraq and Gertrude Bell's The Arab of Mesopotamia

Iraq and Gertrude Bell's The Arab of Mesopotamia PDF Author: Gertrude Lowthian Bell
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739125625
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
To understand contemporary Iraq and the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, no book provides a surer guide or more unsettling experience, written as it was for another war, another army, and another time. Gertrude Bell for a fleeting moment was the optimistic progenitor of the Iraq that today is becoming unglued.

The Arab of Mesopotamia

The Arab of Mesopotamia PDF Author: Gertrude Bell
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781633913660
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
One very determined woman incontestably held her own and more with the great figures of the Middle East in the early twentieth century. That was Gertrude Bell. Highly strung, petulant, aggressive, and gossipy, she occasionally provided tea but rarely sympathy to the extraordinary group of British imperial administrators whose adventures centered on Basra at the head of the Gulf in 1914-1916. Not enough has been made of the Barra cabal as a group rather than individuals. Nor have the machinations of the 'Basra gang' had the attention given to figures such as Lawrence of Arabia and General Allenby, individuals who when all is said and done were not deeply involved in Gulf and Iraqi affairs. The Arab of Mesopotamia is a collection of once confidential briefing papers that Bell helped to produce for British army officers new to the Mesopotamian theater, published in Basra by a military printer. The tone confirms views that Gertrude Bell and her colleagues were interested in the possibility of playing on the world stage and wanted quiet in the shaikhdoms while they pursued notions of a Middle East empire that would rival the Indian empire. Heady plans were made for an Imperial service that would include Arabia, Iraq, the Trans-Jordan, and even the Sudan. While exiting, this 'mega outlook' was opposed to Arab concerns. The apotheosis for Bell was reached in 1921 when Winston Churchill called a famous meet- ing of forty Middle East experts in Cairo. The conference photography shows her as the lone woman. Secreted in the Semiramis Hotel, she and the other 'forty thieves' laid out policies whose failures (and Lawrence's disillusionment) are well known. Therein lies the tragedy of her life, perhaps more of a tragedy that than of Lawrence. Almost none of the undertakings to the Arabs to which she was an enthusiastic participant were realized. There were a number of these promises, although they were less publicized than those made in the famous McMahon letters. For example, the assurances at the 1916 durbar at Kuwait were equally dishonored: the shaikh of Kuwait received a CSI and Ibn Saud got the KCIE along with pledges that with the defeat of the Turks: "The dream of Arab unity ... has been brought nearer fulfillment than dreams are wont to come, but the role of presiding genius has been recast." Instead of an Arabian viceregality that would justify the wonderful title of 'Viceroys of the Gulf, ' or of a 'final' resolution of the region's conflicts, British Imperial administration be- tween the world wars became a long and unsatisfactory interlude in which little was accom- plished. Hobson remarks in Imperialism about the use of 'masked worlds' and an Imperial Genius for inconsistency: "Most of the men who have misled ... have first been obliged to mis- lead themselves." This was the case with Gertrude Bell, who committed suicide in 1926. After she and her friends departed the scene, the air went out if the balloon, and the 'countervailing disadvantages' of being misled became apparent to the Arabs. This little-known book is one key to heady days at Basra when the Middle East empire seemed likely.

Iraq and Gertrude Bell's The Arab of Mesopotamia

Iraq and Gertrude Bell's The Arab of Mesopotamia PDF Author: Paul J. Rich
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1461633664
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
Gertrude Bell was one of a select group of Western Arabists who helped create the modern Middle East. She was arguably the single most influential individual in Iraq when the British attempted in the aftermath of World War I to create a nation out of regions that had long been different provinces of the Ottoman Empire. She was called upon to produce this succinct but insightful volume as a guide for the military officers and civil servants who were attempting to create an Iraqi government. A long dispute over whether the volume was actually written by her is settled in Dr. Paul Rich's introduction. It not only was written by Bell, but the reader can see in what she choose to emphasize just what her own views on the course that the development of Iraq should take. Unfortunately Bell's dreams of a successful outcome for Iraq in the aftermath of the war floundered, partly because of the ineptitude of the occupiers but partly too because of the irreconcilable factions that today, so many years later, remain an overwhelming obstacle to peace. Broken in spirit, Bell took her own life and joined Lawrence of Arabia in what is a pantheon of romantic if disillusioned admirers of the Arab lands.

The Arab of Mesopotamia

The Arab of Mesopotamia PDF Author: Gertrude Lowthian Bell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Arabs
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description


The Arab of Mesopotamia

The Arab of Mesopotamia PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Iraq
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Letters of Gertrude Bell (Volume 2) 1921-1926

Letters of Gertrude Bell (Volume 2) 1921-1926 PDF Author: Gertrude Lowthian Bell
Publisher:
ISBN: 1406800538
Category : Baghdad (Iraq)
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Letters mainly from Bagdad and the Middle East 1917-1928

The Letters of Gertrude Bell

The Letters of Gertrude Bell PDF Author: Gertrude Lowthian Bell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Baghdad (Iraq)
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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The Letters of Gertrude Bell

The Letters of Gertrude Bell PDF Author: Gertrude Lowthian Bell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Baghdad (Iraq)
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description


Gertrude Bell

Gertrude Bell PDF Author: Susan Goodman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
During her lifetime the name of Gertrude Bell evoked rich images of the exotic and mysterious Arab world. But her fame faded and now she is remembered only as a friend and colleague of T.E. Lawrence. She was an intrepid traveller, journeying alone through the deserts of the Middle East or scaling testing peaks in the Swiss Alps. Later, as a British political officer in Baghdad, where she died and is buried, she was able to play a considerable role in determining the future of Mesopotamia, later to be called Iraq.

Gertrude Bell and Iraq

Gertrude Bell and Iraq PDF Author: Paul Thomas Collins
Publisher: Proceedings of the British Aca
ISBN: 9780197266076
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This is a major re-evaluation of the life and legacy of Gertrude Lowthian Bell (1868-1926), the renowned scholar, explorer, writer, archaeologist, and British civil servant. The book examines Gertrude Bell's role in shaping British policy in the Middle East in the first part of the 20th century, her views of the cultures and peoples of the region, and her unusual position as a woman occupying a senior position in the British imperial administration. It focuses particularly on her involvement in Iraq and the part she played in the establishment of the Iraqi monarchy and the Iraqi state. In addition, the book examines her interests in Iraq's ancient past. She was instrumental in drawing up Iraq's first Antiquities Law in 1922 and in the foundation of the Iraq Museum in 1923. Gertrude Bell refused to be constrained by the expectations of the day, and was able to succeed in a man's world of high politics and diplomacy. She remains a controversial figure, however, especially in the context of the founding of the modern state of Iraq. Does she represent a more innocent age when the country was born out of the remnants of the Ottoman Empire, or does she personify the attitudes and decisions that have created today's divided Middle East? The volume's authors bring new insights to these questions.