Transjordania
I read a National Geographic article recently on Transjordania. The article was written in 1923, soon after the 1920 Treaty of Versailles. It is based on the writers observations as he explores the region and also includes the views of Emir Abdullah Ibn Hussein, whom the writer interviewed. I'm including some parts here that I found interesting.
".......When the leaders of the powers which rule the world sit in council it seems quite easy to create new kingdoms. Take a river, a mountain range, a few pencil lines and different shades of ink on the map, and the task is accomplished -- so far as the statesmen are concerned. New maps are printed and school children are studying them before the people in the country itself realise what has happened......"
".......Through the cycles of time, the Arab has changed least of all. Those of the town play their chess in the evening as they have in quiet homes for hundreds of years. The Arabs claim they invented chess. The Bedouin rides in from the desert, smokes his nargileh, drinks the cups of bitter coffee, and gallops out again into the void. As the seasons change he folds his tents and moves with his herds of goats. And camels. So long as the statesmen of Europe want to pay him for their pleasure in calling this or that portion of the desert a kingdom, it matters little to him. He knows nothing of maps and cares less. Should they attempt to make him pay, it would be different. Kingdom-making would not be so easy......"
"........'We do not want this kingdom to be called Transjordania, for we consider it, with Palestine, Mesopotamia, and the Hedjaz, merely a part of the greater Syria,' he (the Emir) said one day, as we sat in his tent, a picturesque figure in desert regalia. 'We Arabs have lost our palaces and cities and are living in tents, as our fathers did. The Arabs have always been free and we will continue free, awaiting the time when we can take back the country which is ours. This portion of Syria has never failed in its duty to the Arab cause, and when opportunity comes we will be ready to do our part."
I read a National Geographic article recently on Transjordania. The article was written in 1923, soon after the 1920 Treaty of Versailles. It is based on the writers observations as he explores the region and also includes the views of Emir Abdullah Ibn Hussein, whom the writer interviewed. I'm including some parts here that I found interesting.
".......When the leaders of the powers which rule the world sit in council it seems quite easy to create new kingdoms. Take a river, a mountain range, a few pencil lines and different shades of ink on the map, and the task is accomplished -- so far as the statesmen are concerned. New maps are printed and school children are studying them before the people in the country itself realise what has happened......"
".......Through the cycles of time, the Arab has changed least of all. Those of the town play their chess in the evening as they have in quiet homes for hundreds of years. The Arabs claim they invented chess. The Bedouin rides in from the desert, smokes his nargileh, drinks the cups of bitter coffee, and gallops out again into the void. As the seasons change he folds his tents and moves with his herds of goats. And camels. So long as the statesmen of Europe want to pay him for their pleasure in calling this or that portion of the desert a kingdom, it matters little to him. He knows nothing of maps and cares less. Should they attempt to make him pay, it would be different. Kingdom-making would not be so easy......"
"........'We do not want this kingdom to be called Transjordania, for we consider it, with Palestine, Mesopotamia, and the Hedjaz, merely a part of the greater Syria,' he (the Emir) said one day, as we sat in his tent, a picturesque figure in desert regalia. 'We Arabs have lost our palaces and cities and are living in tents, as our fathers did. The Arabs have always been free and we will continue free, awaiting the time when we can take back the country which is ours. This portion of Syria has never failed in its duty to the Arab cause, and when opportunity comes we will be ready to do our part."
