Spies In Arabia Summary
Spies in Arabia
Priya Satia, writes Spies in Arabia: The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain’s Covert Empire in the Middle East to examine the establishment of the pre-war intelligence community in the Middle East and the eventual establishment of Britain’s covert empire following World War I. Of particular focus is the cultural characteristics of Edwardian intelligence agents and Britain’s use of air control in Arabia. Satia greatly contributes to the scholarship of British occupation in Arabia, and Spies in Arabia is a lively and interesting work. Satia begins by answering the question of why Arabia was important to the British. The region provided a land route to India where the British ruled indirectly as we read in Ideologies …show more content…
Despite adopting styles, habits, and mannerisms of Arabian peoples, they experienced quite a bit of trouble in their endeavors. British agents characterized the Arabian people as never telling the truth, estimating, or otherwise being coy. Natives were also known to mix fact with mysticism. For example, in a report submitted as intelligence by Mark Sykes, he relayed a story as told by a sheikh in response to an inquiry about agricultural activities in the area. The sheikh went on to tell a mythical story about two owls falling in love and the issues they encountered. Sykes submitted the story because it was generally believed by the agents that even the most outlandish recounting contained some truth or useful information (100). This is just one example of many that Satia uses to clarify for readers the difficulty agents faced. They were left to their own devices to translate what they gathered into useful information. In addition, it is clear from Satia’s chapter on the cultural world of the agents that they used the intelligence gathered as an outlet to hone their literary
Priya Satia, writes Spies in Arabia: The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain’s Covert Empire in the Middle East to examine the establishment of the pre-war intelligence community in the Middle East and the eventual establishment of Britain’s covert empire following World War I. Of particular focus is the cultural characteristics of Edwardian intelligence agents and Britain’s use of air control in Arabia. Satia greatly contributes to the scholarship of British occupation in Arabia, and Spies in Arabia is a lively and interesting work. Satia begins by answering the question of why Arabia was important to the British. The region provided a land route to India where the British ruled indirectly as we read in Ideologies …show more content…
Despite adopting styles, habits, and mannerisms of Arabian peoples, they experienced quite a bit of trouble in their endeavors. British agents characterized the Arabian people as never telling the truth, estimating, or otherwise being coy. Natives were also known to mix fact with mysticism. For example, in a report submitted as intelligence by Mark Sykes, he relayed a story as told by a sheikh in response to an inquiry about agricultural activities in the area. The sheikh went on to tell a mythical story about two owls falling in love and the issues they encountered. Sykes submitted the story because it was generally believed by the agents that even the most outlandish recounting contained some truth or useful information (100). This is just one example of many that Satia uses to clarify for readers the difficulty agents faced. They were left to their own devices to translate what they gathered into useful information. In addition, it is clear from Satia’s chapter on the cultural world of the agents that they used the intelligence gathered as an outlet to hone their literary