WAR IN THE DESERT - GLUBB PASHA IN SOUTH AFRICA

1960 first edition hardcover with dust jacket and 352 pages. Name in ink in front and some light foxing on page edges. R50 postage in SA. The man later known as Glubb Pasha"" for his work with the Arab Legions returns to an earlier period of his life---the early 1920's---to tell the story of the first use of military aircraft for internal security in history. The setting was Iraq and the rolling Bedouin desert country which makes up so much of the Middle East. The situation involved savage, murderous raids made on peaceful nomad tribes by thieving, often religious-fanatic raiding tribes. Glubb, sent to organize a defense corps against such depredations tells how the R.A.F. flew against the fleeing ""enemy"", and how it finally helped bring the situation under control. Almost more valuable however is his great attention to the Middle East itself---the politics, the religious problems, the appearance and talk of the people---garnered from his years of valuable experience there. Although not a book for a wide audience by any means, it is written with such intelligence and knowledge it will undoubtedly find its niche in the annals of historical writing. In Glubb Pasha's own story this is an earlier chapter than the 1958 publication- Solider of the Arabs (Harper).