What do you think?
Rate this book
Spies in Arabia: The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain's Covert Empire in the Middle East
At the dawn of the twentieth century, British intelligence agents began to venture in increasing numbers to the Arab lands of the Ottoman Empire, a region of crucial geopolitical importance spanning present-day Iraq, Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. They were drawn by the twin objectives of securing the land route to India and finding adventure and spiritualism in a mysterious and ancient land. But these competing desires created a how were they to discreetly and patriotically gather facts in a region they were drawn to for its legendary inscrutability and by the promise of fame and escape from Britain?
In this groundbreaking book, Priya Satia tracks the intelligence community's tactical grappling with this problem and the myriad cultural, institutional, and political consequences of their methodological choices during and after the Great War. She tells the story of how an imperial state in thrall to the cultural notions of equivocal agents and beset by an equally captivated and increasingly assertive mass democracy invented a wholly new style of "covert empire" centered on the world's first brutal aerial surveillance regime in Iraq. Drawing on a wealth of archival sources--from the fictional to the recently declassified--this book explains how Britons reconciled genuine ethical scruples with the actual violence of their Middle Eastern empire. As it vividly demonstrates how imperialism was made fit for an increasingly democratic and anti-imperial world, what emerges is a new interpretation of the military, cultural, and political legacies of the Great War and of the British Empire
in the twentieth century.
Unpacking the romantic fascination with "Arabia" as the land of espionage, Spies in Arabia presents a stark tale of poetic ambition, war, terror, and failed redemption--and the prehistory of our present discontents.
In this groundbreaking book, Priya Satia tracks the intelligence community's tactical grappling with this problem and the myriad cultural, institutional, and political consequences of their methodological choices during and after the Great War. She tells the story of how an imperial state in thrall to the cultural notions of equivocal agents and beset by an equally captivated and increasingly assertive mass democracy invented a wholly new style of "covert empire" centered on the world's first brutal aerial surveillance regime in Iraq. Drawing on a wealth of archival sources--from the fictional to the recently declassified--this book explains how Britons reconciled genuine ethical scruples with the actual violence of their Middle Eastern empire. As it vividly demonstrates how imperialism was made fit for an increasingly democratic and anti-imperial world, what emerges is a new interpretation of the military, cultural, and political legacies of the Great War and of the British Empire
in the twentieth century.
Unpacking the romantic fascination with "Arabia" as the land of espionage, Spies in Arabia presents a stark tale of poetic ambition, war, terror, and failed redemption--and the prehistory of our present discontents.
472 pages, Hardcover
First published March 5, 2008
6 people are currently reading
226 people want to read
About the author
Priya Satia
5 books37 followersPriya Satia is the Raymond A. Spruance Professor of International History and Professor of British History at Stanford University. She specializes in modern British and British empire history, especially in the Middle East and South Asia. She is the author of Spies in Arabia: The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain's Covert Empire in the Middle East (2009), and her writing has appeared in Slate, the Financial Times, the Nation, and the Huffington Post, among other publications.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 19, 2015
A tour de force! This tome on the history of the British intelligence network in Arabia combines all of the best virtues of academic writing. The main arguments of the book are clear, clear enough that one can grasp the basic contours of Satia's arguments very quickly, despite the enormous length of her book. For those of you who are pressed for time, this makes it very easy to read 'strategically' as there is often more information in each chapter than one needs to really be convinced of the arguments therein. Incidentally, this enormous wealth of information, when taken together, makes Satia's arguments very cogent.
In a nutshell, Satia argues that Britain's 'informal' intelligence network in pre-WWI 'Arabia' - made up of consular officials, military attaches and "travellers" - attracted some of the most curious characters in British society at the time, men and women who were products of the Edwardian cultural fascination with the mythical Near East of 'Arabian Nights' lore, who brought with them a whole library of preconceptions about the region (by 'Arabia' Satia means the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, and especially, Mesopotamia). For these intelligence operatives, Arabia was a mythical, otherworldly place, a region that could not be grasped by empirical methods based on the senses, but one that required a special 'sixth sense' of spiritual insight forged by the desert environment to truly be grasped. When the Great War broke out, those operatives who immersed themselves in Arabian society became veritable sages in the British intelligence community, men and women who were putatively attune to how the 'Arab mind' 'really' 'worked'. The permeation, in the halls of British diplomacy and the intelligence community, of this idea of Arabia as an essentially inscrutable yet threatening place requiring specialized knowledge to contain prompted Britain to seize it after the conclusion of the war, particularly Mesopotamia. Its 'unknowableness' made it the "pivot" of the British Empire, a place where (so it was feared) Islamic, Bolshevik and Pan-Turkish ideology could conspire to topple British world hegemony. Satia demonstrates that the British post-war experimentation with controlling Mesopotamia through air power and espionage, and the resultant outrage this caused among the British public, had a wide influence on the course of British democracy and Middle Eastern development as a whole.
Does all of that sound whimsical? After reading the book you'll be surprised at how well Satia is able to substantiate this byzantine thesis. Although she has a tendency to 'jump around' both geographically and intellectually, as well as psychologize her subjects, Satia draws on some very compelling documentation that quite convincingly show that her conclusions are based on more than simple musing and hypothesis.
The book has a didactic element to it, but Satia communicates it in a very measured tone and she does not at all pontificate. Indeed, Satia shows remarkable skill in avoiding polemics about the morality of imperialism, and instead focuses on explaining it instead of passing judgment on it one way or another. While not contradicting the work of Edward Said, Satia gives "Orientalism" a different bent and analyzes its application in an imperial setting with more nuance and with greater attention to context than Said does.
The modern reader will be struck by how much insight Satia's work sheds on 21st-century foreign policy, the ongoing situation in Iraq, and the use of drones and "aerial surveillance" in conducting the so-called War on Terror.
In a nutshell, Satia argues that Britain's 'informal' intelligence network in pre-WWI 'Arabia' - made up of consular officials, military attaches and "travellers" - attracted some of the most curious characters in British society at the time, men and women who were products of the Edwardian cultural fascination with the mythical Near East of 'Arabian Nights' lore, who brought with them a whole library of preconceptions about the region (by 'Arabia' Satia means the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, and especially, Mesopotamia). For these intelligence operatives, Arabia was a mythical, otherworldly place, a region that could not be grasped by empirical methods based on the senses, but one that required a special 'sixth sense' of spiritual insight forged by the desert environment to truly be grasped. When the Great War broke out, those operatives who immersed themselves in Arabian society became veritable sages in the British intelligence community, men and women who were putatively attune to how the 'Arab mind' 'really' 'worked'. The permeation, in the halls of British diplomacy and the intelligence community, of this idea of Arabia as an essentially inscrutable yet threatening place requiring specialized knowledge to contain prompted Britain to seize it after the conclusion of the war, particularly Mesopotamia. Its 'unknowableness' made it the "pivot" of the British Empire, a place where (so it was feared) Islamic, Bolshevik and Pan-Turkish ideology could conspire to topple British world hegemony. Satia demonstrates that the British post-war experimentation with controlling Mesopotamia through air power and espionage, and the resultant outrage this caused among the British public, had a wide influence on the course of British democracy and Middle Eastern development as a whole.
Does all of that sound whimsical? After reading the book you'll be surprised at how well Satia is able to substantiate this byzantine thesis. Although she has a tendency to 'jump around' both geographically and intellectually, as well as psychologize her subjects, Satia draws on some very compelling documentation that quite convincingly show that her conclusions are based on more than simple musing and hypothesis.
The book has a didactic element to it, but Satia communicates it in a very measured tone and she does not at all pontificate. Indeed, Satia shows remarkable skill in avoiding polemics about the morality of imperialism, and instead focuses on explaining it instead of passing judgment on it one way or another. While not contradicting the work of Edward Said, Satia gives "Orientalism" a different bent and analyzes its application in an imperial setting with more nuance and with greater attention to context than Said does.
The modern reader will be struck by how much insight Satia's work sheds on 21st-century foreign policy, the ongoing situation in Iraq, and the use of drones and "aerial surveillance" in conducting the so-called War on Terror.
Want to Read
December 11, 2021📝 Notes to self:
“They were drawn there by two objectives: the desire to secure the land route to India and the hope of fi nding in a proverbially mystical and antique land the metaphysical certainty they no longer felt at home.” (3)
“They were drawn there by two objectives: the desire to secure the land route to India and the hope of fi nding in a proverbially mystical and antique land the metaphysical certainty they no longer felt at home.” (3)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 1, 2020
Priya Satia provides excellent insight into the depth and nature of the penetration of Brits in the Middle East during that period; not just civil servants and Army officers, but also academics and private citizens.
However, as a focused read on the subject, it has its faults and does not provide as much value as either "Empires of Intelligence: Security Services and Colonial Disorder after 1914" or "Military Intelligence and the Arab Revolt: The First Modern Intelligence War".
However, as a focused read on the subject, it has its faults and does not provide as much value as either "Empires of Intelligence: Security Services and Colonial Disorder after 1914" or "Military Intelligence and the Arab Revolt: The First Modern Intelligence War".
October 17, 2010
It sounds SO interesting: Spies! That's such a romantic topic and could be so exciting. But this is a history book and it was a slog. It was assigned for class and was one of the more liked books, which really just means that the other books we had to read sucked even more. There were a few chapters that were slightly more interesting than the others but overall super boring.
November 13, 2009
3.5 starts. It is an interesting and sexy subject. The writing is not very good, unfortunately. If you care more about the individual British spies (which I don't), I'm sure it's more enjoyable.
February 21, 2011
Very interesting look in WWI history in the Middle East and the origins of the epistemological approach to intelligence gathering in the region. Priya Satia engages with many interesting sources, ranging from popular fiction to secret service correspondence.
December 13, 2014
good argument, terrible writing and editing; a long and unnecessarily dense slog to get through
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews