1st Edition

The Great War in the Middle East A Clash of Empires

Edited By Robert Johnson, James Kitchen Copyright 2019
    364 Pages
    by Routledge

    364 Pages
    by Routledge

    Traditionally, in general studies of the First World War, the Middle East is an arena of combat that has been portrayed in romanticised terms, in stark contrast to the mud, blood, and presumed futility of the Western Front. Battles fought in Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Arabia offered a different narrative on the Great War, one in which the agency of individual figures was less neutered by heavy artillery.





    As with the historiography of the Western Front, which has been the focus of sustained inquiry since the mid-1960s, such assumptions about the Middle East have come under revision in the last two decades – a reflection of an emerging ‘global turn’ in the history of the First World War. The ‘sideshow’ theatres of the Great War – Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and the Pacific – have come under much greater scrutiny from historians.





    The fifteen chapters in this volume cover a broad range of perspectives on the First World War in the Middle East, from strategic planning issues wrestled with by statesmen through to the experience of religious communities trying to survive in war zones. The chapter authors look at their specific topics through a global lens, relating their areas of research to wider arguments on the history of the First World War.

    List of Illustrations



    List of Tables



    List of Maps



    Contributors



    Acknowledgements



    List of Abbreviations





     



    Introduction – The Great War in the Middle East: The Clash of Empires and Global War



    Robert Johnson and James E. Kitchen





    Part One: Strategy





    1 British Strategy and the Imperial Axis in the Middle East, 1914-18



    Robert Johnson





    2 Le front du Moyen-Orient: The Middle East in French Great War Strategy, 1914-18



    Sneha Reddy





    3 Greece’s Entry into the Great War: Attitudes and Dilemmas towards the Eastern Question



    Dimitrios Giannikopoulos





    4 German Middle East Policy and the Expedition to Georgia, 1918



    Peter Lieb





    5 Dismantling Empires, Expanding Empires: The Turks and the Arabs in British Propaganda



    Sadia McEvoy





    Part Two: Experience





    6 From Kut to Mosul: Lessons Learnt by the Indian Army in Mesopotamia, 1914-18



    Kaushik Roy





    7 Conflicting Attitudes Towards the Enemy: Anzac and Turkish Soldiers Before and After the Gallipoli Campaign



    Alev Karaduman





    8 ‘A Hope So Transcendent’: The Arab Revolt in the Great War and T.E. Lawrence



    Himmet Umunç





    9 The Third Battle of Gaza, October-November 1917: The Integration of Air, Land, and Maritime Firepower



    Paul Latawski





    10 Fighting for Britain, the Yishuv, and Zionism: The Jewish Legion at War, 1917-21



    James E. Kitchen





    Part Three: Context





    11 The Great War, Egypt, and British Martial Law Reconsidered



    Mario M. Ruiz





    12 Reactions to the Ottoman Jihad fatwa in the British Empire, 1914-18



    John Slight





    13 ‘Civilisation and Competence’: Displaying Ottoman War Paintings to their Allies



    Gizem Tongo





    14 ‘Land of Sin and Sand and Sepsis!’ Imperial Fiction and the First World War in Egypt, Sinai, and Palestine



    Justin Fantauzzo





    15 Between Rome and Jerusalem: Catholics Negotiating Empires and War in Palestine, 1850-1930



    Roberto Mazza





    Afterword



    Rob Fletcher





     



    Index





     

    Biography

    Robert Johnson is Director of the Changing Character of War Centre and Senior Research Fellow at Pembroke College, the University of Oxford, UK.



    James E. Kitchen is Senior Lecturer in War Studies in the Department of War Studies, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, UK.