From back cover:
For Gertrude Bell (1868-1926), travel was a passion and the world of the Middle East her "true call." Her enthusiasm is nowhere more evident than in this account of her 1905 journey through the Ottoman provinces of Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine. As historian, archaeologist, and accomplshed linguist--she spoke Persian, Arabic, and Turkish--she wrote vividly and knowledgeably of her journeys and of teh Arab people she grow to understand and respect. Undeterred by convention or physicall hardship, she traveled alone further into Arabia than any other European woman before her and later became British adviser to the new Arab stastes, for whose independence she had campaigned hard, along with her friend, TE Lawrence. The Desert and the Sown is considered one of her masterpieces, a fascinating account of personal discovery and of social and political history. First published in 1907, it has been out of print for forty years.
For Gertrude Bell (1868-1926), travel was a passion and the world of the Middle East her "true call." Her enthusiasm is nowhere more evident than in this account of her 1905 journey through the Ottoman provinces of Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine. As historian, archaeologist, and accomplshed linguist--she spoke Persian, Arabic, and Turkish--she wrote vividly and knowledgeably of her journeys and of teh Arab people she grow to understand and respect. Undeterred by convention or physicall hardship, she traveled alone further into Arabia than any other European woman before her and later became British adviser to the new Arab stastes, for whose independence she had campaigned hard, along with her friend, TE Lawrence. The Desert and the Sown is considered one of her masterpieces, a fascinating account of personal discovery and of social and political history. First published in 1907, it has been out of print for forty years.
