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 dilemma: 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.

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 dilemma: 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.

## Abstract This book offers a cultural history of British intelligence–gathering in the Middle East in the era of World War One and its consequences in British literary and political culture and military and state practice. Culture mattered especially in this intelligence endeavor because of British agents' orientalist preconceptions of “Arabia” as an inscrutable, romantic space offering adventure and spiritualism. They developed an intelligence epistemology grounded in intuition, elevating as “experts” those claiming an innate “genius” for understanding the region, regardless of empirical knowledge. This intelligence culture assured the agents an unusual influence in the running of the Great War campaigns and postwar mandatory administrations in the region, notably in the British state's conspiracy fears and consequent design of a brutal air control regime for Iraq. The book argues that violence and culture were more closely allied in imperial rule than has been recognized, ironically, especially at a moment of popular anti–imperialism and increasing mass democracy. As the British public demanded control over foreign policy in the Middle East, the imperial state developed new means of keeping its affairs secret, developing a style of colonial rule that Priya Satia calls “covert empire,” in which airpower, intelligence agents, and propaganda were critical. As democratic oversight vanished, colonial violence reached a new pitch, with lasting consequences in the Middle East, British attitudes towards the state, and, and military tactics. The book offers a new understanding of the legacies of the Great War and of the British empire in the 20th century. "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 dilemma: 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."--Jacket Introduction War and hope. The foundations of covert empire ; The cultural world of the Edwardian agent ; The failure of empiricism and how the agents addressed it ; Cunning in war ; Imperial expiation Peace and terror. Official conspiracy theories and the wagers of genius ; Air control ; Covert empire ; Seeing like a democracy Conclusion. At the start of the 20th century, British intelligence agents began to venture in increasing numbers to the Arab lands of the Ottoman Empire, drawn by the twin objectives of securing the route to India and finding adventure and spiritualism in an antique land. 'Spies in Arabia' tracks the dilemma these two different objectives created