Michael D. Berdine is a retired history lecturer. He received a BA and MA in Modern British and European History from the University of Portland in the late 1960s, and an MA in Near Eastern Studies and a PhD in British Imperial History from the University of Arizona over thirty years later. His main field of interest is British history in the Middle East. Although born in the US, his fathers work as an executive with an international American oil company led to his being raised in Bahrain, England, India, Italy and Germany. He returned to the US for university and graduate school, after which he worked for a number of years in business sales, marketing and management before returning to graduate school to continue studying history. After receiving an MA in Near Eastern Studies and a PhD in British Imperial History, he taught at the University of Arizona, the University of Texas at El Paso and Pima Community College, before returning to the UK where he was principal of Cambridge Muslim College in its formative years, while also serving as its main history lecturer. Berdine recently retired to research and write and lives with his wife in Cambridgeshire. He is the author of The Accidental Tourist, Wilfrid Scawen Blunt and the British Invasion of Egypt in 1882.
Michael Berdine has performed a great service in giving us a full biography based on the Sykes Papers and an array of other archival sources. It is comprehensive, exact and reliable. On the famous SykesPicot agreement of 1916 and a range of other major issues, this is an indispensable work.
Wm. Roger Louis, Kerr Chair in English History and Culture and
Distinguished Teaching Professor, University of Texas at Austin
Mark Sykes is one of those figures in the annals of British imperial history that many a budding student will come across, but seldom will they receive a thoughtful and engaged consideration as to who he was. Dr Michael Berdine now makes it easier for both student and scholar, analyst and observer, to interrogate and understand the context of the man and the role he played in this rather problematic and regrettable period of Britains forays beyond its borders. Dr Berdines efforts are all the more unique as compared to other historians work in shedding light on this era because Sykess own exploits were mostly classified, and access to records and sources that would give us more insight was cut off. Dr Berdine does the reader a great service by going into those sources and delivering to us, with a true historians penchant for detail and interest, a narrative that is not merely conjecture, but based on genuine discovery. As the Arab world continues to feel the ramifications of those early years of the twentieth century, more than a hundred years later, it behoves us to understand more, not less, about this poignant past and we have Dr Berdine to thank for furthering the ability for us all to do so.
Dr H.A. Hellyer, senior non-resident fellow at the RH Centre for the
Middle East, Atlantic Council, Washington DC, and professor at the
Centre for Advanced Study of Islam, Science and Civilisation at
the University of Technology Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur
Michael Berdine has written the professional biography of a crucial figure in the Middle Easts emergence from World War I and the creation of the regions modern nation states. Sykess name is well known, but his participation in Britains Middle East policy making was long classified as secret. Now Berdine has brought his deeds to light in a detailed analysis covering the years 19111919, using an impressive array of government papers, memoirs and private papers from the leading political actors of the period, plus Sykess own unpublished and published works. Anyone interested in the creation of the modern Middle East, World War I in the region, or Britains role in it must read this book.
Linda Darling, Professor of History, University of Arizona
This is the definitive book which everyone interested in the history and formation of the Middle East should read. I recommend it wholeheartedly.
Christopher Catherwood, author of Winstons Folly
Published in 2018 by
I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd
London New York
www.ibtauris.com
Copyright 2018 Michael D. Berdine
The right of Michael D. Berdine to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Every attempt has been made to gain permission for the use of the images in this book.
Any omissions will be rectified in future editions.
References to websites were correct at the time of writing.
Library of Middle East History 78
ISBN: 978 1 78831 194 6
eISBN: 978 1 78672 406 9
ePDF: 978 1 78673 406 8
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Map
SykesPicot Map (c. 1916) The National Archivesxiv
Plates
Plate 1 Lt. Col. Sir Mark Sykes, Bart, MP, Commanding Officer, 5th Battalion Yorkshire Green Howards Regiment (c. 1914) Hull Daily Mail
Plate 2 Sir Mark Sykes (c. 1916) Unknown
Plate 3 Winston Churchill (c. 1916) Churchill College Archives Centre, Churchill Press Photographs, Master, Fellows and Scholars of Churchill College, Cambridge
Plate 4 Lord Herbert Horatio Kitchener (c. 1914) Imperial War Museum Photograph Archives
Plate 5 Lord Robert Cecil (c. 1916) National Portrait Gallery
Plate 6 Sir Maurice Hankey (c. 1916) National Photo Company Collection, Prints & Photographs Division, United States Library of Congress
Plate 7 Sir Reginald Wingate Unknown
Plate 8 Sir Gilbert Clayton National Portrait Gallery
Plate 9 T.E. Lawrence Lowell Thomas Papers, Arabia, Graphic Materials, James A. Cannavino Library, Archives & Special Collections, Marist College, USA
Plate 10 Sir Mark Sykes, Unknown and Franois Georges-Picot, Unknown
Plate 11 Sharif/King Husayn Lowell Thomas Papers, Arabia, Graphic Materials, James A. Cannavino Library, Archives & Special Collections, Marist College, USA
Plate 12 Lord Curzon George Grantham Bain Collection, Prints & Photographs Division, United States Library of Congress
Plate 13 Chaim Weizmann National Portrait Gallery
Plate 14 Nahum Sokolow George Grantham Bain Collection, Prints & Photographs Division, United States Library of Congress
Plate 15 Arthur J. Balfour Imperial War Museum Photograph Archives
Plate 16 Sir Mark Sykes and family. From left: Everlida, Angela, Richard, Lady Sykes, Daniel, Christopher and Freya (c. 1917) Historic English Archive
Plate 17 General Sir Edmund Allenby National Portrait Gallery
Plate 18 Sir Mark Sykes brass image on Eleanor War Memorial at Sledmere The Revd Gordon Plumb
