Cairo 1921 Ten days that made the Middle East

Faught (Tyndale Univ., Canada) evaluates the Cairo Conference of 1921, through which Great Britain sought to respond to the collapse of the once widespread Ottoman Empire and the looming issue of what might replace it. Although the subtitle suggests an emphasis on the conference itself, the majority of the text analyzes the complex situation in the region prior to the meeting and then evaluates its aftermath. Of particular value are the final chapter and conclusion. Examining the conference in retrospect, the author asks, "What went wrong?" To what extent had the conference failed in its goal of developing a productive blueprint for modern state building while also securing British interests in protecting the Suez Canal as an important route to India? The Sherifian Solution placed Arab leader Sherif Hussein's sons Faisal as king of a new Iraq and Abdullah as emir of a new Trans-Jordan. Faught argues that this partially succeeded in Iraq, was more widely accepted in what would become Jordan, and failed at state building between Arabs and Jews in Palestine. He underscores the key roles Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill, wartime fighter and Arabist T. E. Lawrence, and writer Gertrude Bell played as conference participants. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. --Brice Harris, emeritus, Occidental College