GLUBB, John Bagot, Sir [called 'Glubb Pasha']. The Story of the Arab Legion. London, Hodder & Stoughton Limited,, 1948.
8vo. Original sand-coloured cloth cloth, upper board with gilt Arab Legion device and red lettering-panel titled in gilt, spine with red lettering-panel titled in gilt and gilt imprint at the foot, top edg stained red, map endpapers after Farid Azar printed in maroon, dustwrapper (not price-clipped); pp. 371; title with Arab Legion device, frontispiece and 24 plates printed in sepia with illustrations recto-and-verso, after Frank Hurley et al., 5 full-page maps in the text; dustwrapper minimally chipped at edges, occasional spotting to fore-edge and margins; otherwise a very good copy in the dustwrapper.
First edition. The soldier and Arabist Sir John Glubb (1897-1986) was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1915 and served in France during World War I, before being posted to Mesopotamia in 1920, which 'was the beginning of his connection with the Arabs, for whom he formed an instant sympathy, so much so that in 1926 he left the army to join the British administration in Iraq' (ODNB). Following his success in stopping raids in southern Iraq, in 1930 Glubb 'was invited to join the Arab Legion in Transjordan, with a similar mission. This he accomplished within three years, raising a force of Bedouin camel police, which became famous as the desert patrol. In 1939 Amir Abdullah appointed him to command the Arab Legion as feriq (lieutenant-general) […] Glubb was probably the first man to succeed in turning the Bedouin into disciplined soldiers. Previously they had been considered untameable. Glubb was, however, careful to train his Bedouin in accordance with their age-old customs. In 1941 he led them alongside the British army in Syria and Iraq, and was appointed to the DSO. His contribution to the capture of Baghdad in 1941 and the subsequent capture of the desert fortress of Palmyra in Syria was decisive, for it denied the eastern flank of the Middle East to Hitler. Later he formed a complete mechanized brigade, almost entirely Bedouin. He was now known as Glubb Pasha' (ODNB). ~i~The Story of the Arab Legion~/i~ recounts the development of the Legion under Glubb and its growth into a formidable and sophisticated modern force, demonstrated by the juxtaposition of two photographs on one plate; the upper shows a camel-borne Arab Legion unit in 1935 and the lower an Arab Legion armoured car unit in 1945.
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