Persian Pictures

Gertrude Bell, CBE (1868 - 1926) was a writer, traveller, political officer, archaeologist and spy who travelled extensively throughout Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor and Arabia. Along with T. E. Lawrence, Bell helped establish the Hashemite dynasties in what is today Jordan and Iraq. She played a major role in the birth of the modern state of Iraq, using the perspective gained from her travels and relations with tribal leaders in the Middle East. She shunned convention by eschewing marriage and family for an academic career and the extensive travelling that would lead to her major role in Middle Eastern diplomacy.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 people as she travelled to some of the region’s most inhospitable places.

• Preface1. An Eastern City2. The Tower of Silence3. In Praise of Gardens4. The King of Merchants5. The Imam Hussein6. The Shadow of Death7. Dwellers in Tents8. Three Noble Ladies9. The Treasure of the King10. Sheikh Hassan11. A Persian Host12. A Stage and a Half13. A Bridle- Path14. Two Palaces15. The Month of Fasting16. Requiescant in Pace17. The City of King Prusias18. Shops and Shopkeepers19. A Murray of the First Century20. Travelling Companions

In British diplomatic group photographs of the early twentiethcentury Middle East, amid the plumes and uniforms and the calm paraphernalia of an empire going to hell in a bucket, there is often a solitary female. The woman is slim, with a head of luxuriant hair, and neatly dressed in billowing muslins or in the pencil silhouette and cloche hats of jazz-age Baghdad. The woman is Gertrude Bell.