Desert queen by janet wallach5/13/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() When World War I erupted and the British needed the loyalty of the Arab leaders, it was Gertrude Bell's work and connections that helped provide the brain for T.E Lawrence's military brawn.Īfter the war she participated in both the Paris and Cairo conferences, played a major role in creating the modern Middle East and was generally considered the most powerful woman in the British Empire. She not only produced several enormously popular books based on her experiences but became instrumental to the British foreign office. ![]() She travelled extensively throughout the Middle East, was fluent in both Persian and Arabic and mixed freely in Arab male society, developing friendships and gaining the respect of sheiks and tribal and religious leaders. Turning her back on her privileged life in Victorian England, Gertrude Bell (1868-1926), fired by her innate curiosity, journeyed the world and became captivated by the Arab world. Gertrude Bell was one of Oxford University's early female students, an archaelogist, a linguist, photographer, inveterate writer of letters and the greatest woman mountaineer of her age. ![]() The untold story of Gertrude Bell, a woman as vital to the history of the Middle East as her friend and colleague, Lawrence of Arabia. ![]()
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