The Tribes Triumphant: Return Journey to the Middle East

The Tribes Triumphant: Return Journey to the Middle East
Charles Glass

A powerful and insightful narrative of a journey – once violently interrupted and here resumed – through one of the most compelling regions on earth.From Aqaba to Jerusalem and on into Palestine, veteran commentator on the Middle East, Charles Glass writes a thoughtful, inquisitive and dispassionate book on the politics and peoples of the region. He has traversed the Jordanian desert to the Iraqi border with Bedouin guides, explored modern Israel and revisited the scene of his captivity, confronting the men who kidnapped him.Written with elegance, flair and a wonderfully acute eye for the idiosyncrasies of the places through which he passes, this is a travel book full of enemies and friends both old and new: Arabs and Jews, soldiers and shopkeepers, Syrians and Israelis, the cowed and the vengeful, affording us an unprecedented and intimate portrait of these bruised and troubled lands.

CHARLES GLASS

The Tribes Triumphant

RETURN JOURNEY

TO THE MIDDLE EAST

‘When the government is unable to provide for their safety, they will band themselves into tribes.’

SIR JOHN BAGOT GLUBB,

Britain and the Arabs: A Study of Fifty Years, 1908–1950

DEDICATION (#ulink_56a272b4-d16c-58b5-b80f-6c8b0a1bac9c)

The author dedicates this book

to his friend Noam Chomsky

and to the memory of another friend,

Edward Saïd.

EPIGRAPH (#ulink_0dac2173-b487-5c62-b93a-62fab56b6e20)

‘Between the Arabian Desert and the eastern coast of the Levant there stretches – along almost the full extent of the latter, or for nearly 400 miles – a tract of fertile land varying from 70 to 100 miles in breadth. This is so broken up by mountain range and valley that it has never all been brought under one native government; yet its well-defined boundaries – the sea on the west, Mount Taurus on the north, and the desert to east and south – give it unity, and separate it from the rest of the world. It has rightly, therefore, been covered by one name, Syria.’

REVEREND GEORGE ADAM SMITH

The Historical Geography of the Holy Land (1894)

CONTENTS

COVER (#uc20ac224-3b51-5361-9eea-ecb6acc392b8)

TITLE PAGE (#u524d200d-6fcc-50c0-b812-93838d6a4c2f)

DEDICATION (#ueb1c427b-8686-5b04-88e0-0466d8678bc8)

EPIGRAPH (#u987ba933-f59d-5a32-9986-394eacc7ee72)

MAP (#ubba3dca3-72dc-597a-86b8-3e731ac2189c)

1 Imperial Wars (#u7d709123-9be1-5f9d-ac29-ddbdd67ca061)

2 Aqaba, Fourteen Years Late (#u27174b7b-bdf3-5a06-bad9-e66acab8304a)

3 Royal Cities (#u9450b700-e0c9-578d-a09d-c86b2eba2a8d)

4 Over Jordan (#u478c440a-6b12-5edf-8ff4-86ec6ce2017b)

5 O, No, Jerusalem! (#litres_trial_promo)

6 Gaza (#litres_trial_promo)

7 Jerusalem, from the West (#litres_trial_promo)

8 Return to Gaza (#litres_trial_promo)

9 The Desert (#litres_trial_promo)

10 Jaffa and Suburbs (#litres_trial_promo)

11 The North (#litres_trial_promo)

12 Damascus Is Burning (#litres_trial_promo)

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY (#litres_trial_promo)

INDEX (#litres_trial_promo)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR (#litres_trial_promo)

ALSO BY THE AUTHOR (#litres_trial_promo)

COPYRIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER (#litres_trial_promo)

MAP (#ulink_45bbcaa8-fd67-5c2e-9c90-ac85d800252e)

ONE (#ulink_97eb4b35-ca42-5129-9f7b-339a32ae9916)

Imperial Wars (#ulink_97eb4b35-ca42-5129-9f7b-339a32ae9916)

‘It is the atmosphere in which seers, martyrs, and

fanatics are bred.’

REVEREND GEORGE ADAM SMITH

The Historical Geography of the Holy Land (1894)

11 September 2001