Letters Of Gertrude Bell Volume 2 1921 1926

First published in 1929, this book contains volume II of "The Letters of Gertrude Bell". Contents include: "1917 Bagdad", "1918-1919 Bagdad", "1920 Bagdad", "Historical Summaries", "Major General Sir Percy Cox, G.C.M.G., Etc.", "H.E. Sir Henry Dobbs, K.C.S.I., Etc.", "1920 Bagdad", "1921 Bagdad", "1921 Bagdad", etc. A fascinating insight into the life and mind of a woman who played a major role in establishing administering the modern state of Iraq. Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE (1868-1926) was an English writer, political officer, traveller, archaeologist, and administrator. She became an important policy-making in the British Empire as a result of her extensive knowledge and contacts, which she built up through her numerous travels in Mesopotamia, Greater Syria, Asia Minor, and Arabia. Other notable works by this author include: "Poems from the Divan of Hafiz" (1892), "The Desert and the Sown" (1907), and "Mountains of the Servants of God" (1910). This classic work is being republished now in a new edition with specially curated introductory material.

Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE (14 July 1868 – 12 July 1926) was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, archaeologist and spy who explored, mapped, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making due to her skill and contacts, built up through extensive travels in Greater Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia. Along with T. E. Lawrence, Bell helped establish the Hashemite dynasties in what is today Jordan as well as in Iraq.She played a major role in establishing and helping administer the modern state of Iraq, utilising her unique perspective from her travels and relations with tribal leaders throughout the Middle East. During her lifetime she was highly esteemed and trusted by British officials and given an immense amount of power for a woman at the time. She has been described as "one of the few representatives of His Majesty's Government remembered by the Arabs with anything resembling affection".

In July 1950, Avi Shlaim, only five, and his family were forced into exile, fleeing from their beloved Iraq into the new state of Israel. Now the rump of a once flourishing community of over 150,000, dating back 2,600 years, has dwindled to single figures. For many, this tells the story of the timeless clash of the Arab and Jewish civilisations, the heroic mission of Zionism to rescue Eastern Jews from their backwards nations, and unceasing persecution as the fate and history of Jewish people. Avi Shlaim tears up this script. His mother had many Muslim friends in Baghdad, but no Zionist ones. The Iraqi Jewish community, once celebrated for its ancient heritage and rich culture, was sprayed with DDT upon arrival in Israel. As anti-Semitism gathered pace in Iraq, the Zionist underground may have inflamed it – deliberately. This memoir celebrates the disappearing heritage of Arab-Jews – caught in the crossfire of secular ideologies.

Historical summaries (a sketch of events for the period during which (Gertrude Bell) ... was associated with us in the ... task of establishing national government in Iraq) by Sir Percy Cox and Sir Henry Dobbs, p. 504-560.