OPPENHEIM, Max freiherr von.

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Vom Mittelmeer zum Persischen Golf durch den Hauran, die Syrische Wüste und Mesopotamien. First edition of this handsomely produced, "impressively informative, and straightforwardly narrated" account of Oppenheim's journey from Cairo through northern Mesopotamia (Gossman, p. 120). Ostensibly sponsored by Deutsche Bank to establish the route of the Baghdad Railway, his expedition was in fact a covert operation on behalf of the Kaiser."Using archaeology and anthropology as a cover, German travellers and explorers had begun to show an active interest in areas where, until now, few had been sighted. One of the most energetic of these was Max von Oppenheim, an orientalist and ardent believer in his country's destiny in the East. He travelled extensively through Mesopotamia and Syria, then Ottoman territories, mapping and taking meticulous notes on everything, from the lie of the land to the number of tents and houses owned by every tribe and village. It was not long before the British guessed that he, and other German scholars, were working for the Kaiser's intelligence services. Indeed, very soon Oppenheim became known to the British as 'the Spy'" (Hopkirk, pp. 18-19). The hawkish Oppenheim also masterminded the Kaiser's "Holy War strategy" in the Middle East.He travelled through Beirut, Damascus, Palmyra, Deir ez-Zor, Nissibin, and Mosul to Baghdad, Muscat, Aden, Zanzibar, and the Usambara Mountains in German East Africa. He discovered and made initial excavations at Tell Halaf,

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