John Bagot Glubb and his bedouin -

Abstract

Lieutenant General John Bagot Glubb lived and worked for thirty six years in the Middle East. With little knowledge of the region, he arrived in nineteen twenties Iraq and was quickly seduced. The world he was most interested with was the nomadic Bedouin tribesmen who lived by the weight of the camel and roamed the desert seas. In his extensive written material, his self-proclaimed love of the Bedouin and the desert shines with poetic but uncomplicated prose. Beginning with journal articles in the nineteen thirties, and later with numerous history books and autobiographies, Glubb would constantly repeat his Bedouin understanding for the benefit of a Western audience. Despite his attempts to deliver strict definitions, a close analysis of Glubb yields a more expansive and complicated definition which can be misunderstood by a literal reading of his text. Glubb crafts an argument that the geography and history of Arabia conspired to form an ecological dependency on the desert and the camel. This environment shaped Bedouin identity and influenced their characteristics which could be seen in his contemporaries. An examination of Glubb’s written corpus, especially the earliest journal articles, will construct a balanced and inclusive analysis of his multidimensional knowledge of the Bedouin. This comprehensive approach to Glubb will help future commentators engage with his material and better analyze his affects on British Middle East policy during the formative period of colonial decline.