MESOPOTAMIA AND ARABIA.

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Field Notes. Mesopotamia. Second edition, significantly expanded and revised from the first of 1915, including updated sections on Al Hasa and Nejd and the rule of the Saud dynasty, as well as 22 additional route descriptions in the final section. The 20-page index, tucked into the end band, was issued only with a subset of copies.The first edition, issued in March 1915, went through three small printings in a year, but the outbreak of the Arab Revolt and the upswing in the Mesopotamian Campaign necessitated its revision. Chapters discuss history, geography, populations, resources, maritime issues, and administration, while also providing British intelligence on the Ottoman forces. On the "fighting qualities of local Arabs of Mesopotamia", the compilers observe that "for several years the Arabs have been very friendly towards the British, and on several occasions prominent chiefs have come forward with suggestions of a British Protectorate" (p. 90). The routes draw on a variety of sources, including Lorimer, reports by captains Shakespear and Leachman, the Danish explorer Barclay Raunkiaer, Lieutenant Arnold Wilson, and recent intelligence supplied by Lieutenant-Colonel L. S. Newmarch, Resident and Consul-General at Baghdad.In a reflection of the region's changing geopolitics, the list of important personages is reduced from 25 in the first edition to only 11.

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