The Desert and the Sown

Blending photographs with descriptions of customs and communities, Bell's volume recounts a portion of her groundbreaking 1905 expedition across Syria.

Gertrude Lowthian Bell (Author)

9781108021593, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 28 October 2010

376 pages, 161 b/w illus. 1 colour illus. 1 map
21.6 x 14 x 2.1 cm, 0.48 kg

Athletic, intellectual and sensitive, even in her youth, Gertrude Bell was an ideal chronicler for a public fascinated by the Orient. Blending descriptions of customs, communities, archaeology, agriculture, The Desert and the Sown (1907) recounts a dramatic portion of her expedition across Syria. Enriched by over three hundred photographic illustrations, Bell's prose leads readers from the Mosque of 'Umar to the shores of the Dead Sea, the Castle of Salkhad and the dramatic landmarks of Kanaw?t. Notwithstanding the inclusion of such picturesque sites, the author never allows the spectacular to overshadow the significant. As she herself professed, her narrative contains frequent references to the 'conditions of unimportant persons', arguing that 'they do not appear so unimportant to one who is in their midst'. As such, this volume reflects a compassionate and respectful attitude to other civilizations, the implications of which are as significant today as they were to Bell's contemporaries.

1. Jerusalem to Salt
2. Salt to Tneib
3. Tneib to Najereh
4. Jebel el 'Alya to Salkhad
5. Salkhad to Saleh
6. Saleh to Damascus
7. Damascus
8. Damascus to Homs
9. Homs to Hamah
10. Hamah to Apamea
11. Apamea to Aleppo
12. Aleppo to Basufan
13. Basufan to Antioch
14. Antioch
Index.

Subject Areas: Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]