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A Quest in the Middle East

Gertrude Bell and the Making of Modern Iraq

A Quest in the Middle East cover

A Quest in the Middle East

Gertrude Bell and the Making of Modern Iraq

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Description

Gertrude Bell was a commanding figure: scholar, linguist, archaeologist, traveller and 'orientalist'. A remarkable woman in male-dominated Edwardian society, she shunned convention by eschewing marriage and family for an academic career and extensive travelling. But her private life was marred by the tragedy, vulnerability and frustration that were key to her quest both for a British dominated Middle East and relief from the torture of her romantic failures. Through her vivid writings, she brought the Arab world alive for countless Britons. Alongside T.E. Lawrence, she was hugely instrumental in the post-war reconfiguration of the Arab states in the Middle East. In Iraq she became friend and confidante of the new King Faisal, and a prime mover in drawing up the country's boundaries and establishing a constitutional monarchy there, with its parliament, civil service and legal system. She was influential in creating the state which had all the trappings of independence while remaining a virtual British colony. The legacy of her work is still being played out in the conflicts of today.
Yet behind her public success was a backdrop of personal passions, desires and the relationships that drove this extraordinary woman. Embroiled in an unsuccessful love affair with Charles Doughty-Wylie, a married man, she found peace in the solitude of the desert. But the seemingly intractable problems of the newly independent Iraq led her to write of the 'weariness of it all'. Shortly afterwards she took her own life with a lethal dose of sleeping pills. Using previously unseen sources, including Gertude Bell's own diaries and letters, Lukitz provides a deeper political and personal biography of this influential character.

Table of Contents

Contents

List of Illustrations vi
Acknowledgements vii

Preface 1
Prologue 10

Part I - The Journey

1. 'Light of Mine Eyes and Harvest of My Heart' 23
2. 'She Had Known Ruptures, She Had Known the Whole' 31
3, 'The Shadow of Stone' 56
4. 'I Will Dedicate This Year to You' 77

Part II -Arrival
5. 'On the Edge of Important Things' 107
6. 'Father, Think!' 125
7. 'To Make Kings, to Invent Kingdoms' 143
8. 'A Tower of Strength and Wisdom' 174
9. 'We had awakened and Become a Nation' 202

Part III - Departures
10. 'Dust...' 211
11. 'Flood...' 224

Epilogue 245
Afterword 251

Notes 257
Selected Bibliography 294
Index 303

Product details

Published 20 Dec 2013
Format Paperback
Edition 1st
Extent 320
ISBN 9781780766812
Imprint I.B. Tauris
Illustrations 9 integrated bw
Dimensions 234 x 156 mm
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Liora Lukitz

Liora Lukitz holds a PhD from LSE and an award fro…

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