Full of interesting facts but not an easy read. World War I in the Middle East was a different war from Europe. ( )

Astonishing book and so well written by Mr. Roger Ford. It is well published by Pegasus Books with maps of the "Peau de Chagrin" Ottoman Empire from 1832 until 1914, the Persian Gulf near Amara, Ahwaz and Basra, Mesopotamia, the Caucasus between Erzurum, Kars and Oltu.
The narrative flows clearly to explain complex alliances and military events.

It is guaranteed to break open the doors of your preconceived knowledge of this period.

It is strangely a harbinger of many front pages of today's newspapers and blogs:
The internal divisions and coup d'Etat of the Turkish military before August 1918.
The role of oil - then the Anglo Persian oil.
The role of navies - the dreadnoughts Turkey had ordered to England and which Churchill never delivered; A German Admiral and his crew incorporated in the Turkish Navy after a last minute alliance between Turkey and Germany bombing the Aegan See harbours and controlling the Black Sea from the Russians,,,and of course Palestine and its quarter of a century old (in 1915) Jewish settlements like Nes Ziyona. ( )