Traveller, archaeologist, mountaineer and diplomat, Gertrude Bell (1868 1926) poured her extraordinary talents into a series of adventures through Europe and the Middle East. Addressing her experiences in Persia and Syria respectively, Safar Nameh (1894) and The Desert and the Sown (1907) are both reissued in this series. The present work, first published in 1911 and among Bell's most acclaimed, describes her recent expedition to Mesopotamia. She recounts her outward journey to the Abbasid palace of Ukhaidir and her return via Baghdad and Asia Minor. Notably discussing changes in the region...

Grace Ellison (d.1935) was a journalist with an enthusiasm for Turkish culture. She had previously published works on life in a liberal Turkish family, and on the experiences of two modern Turkish women in Europe, which have also been reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection. In this 1923 book, she recounts what she found on revisiting Turkey in the aftermath of the First World War and the war between Turkey and Greece which had arisen after the dismemberment of the Ottoman empire. Passionately pro-Turk, Ellison was dismayed at the peace treaties' punitive effect on Turkey. This work...

Following his election to Parliament, George Nathaniel Curzon (1859-1925) embarked on extensive travels and research in Asia, spending several months in Persia in 1889-90. Later viceroy of India, Curzon believed that growing Russian influence in Asia threatened Britain's interests, and that Persia was an important buffer state. Highly regarded upon publication in 1892, this illustrated two-volume work is a mix of history, geography, travel narrative, and social and political analysis. Intended to educate readers at home as to Persia's strategic significance, the work reflects its author's...

This 1879 book gives details the famous sites, but also, unusually, takes notice of the political state of Egypt.