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John Bagot Glubb
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Lieutenant-General Sir John Bagot Glubb KCB, CMG, DSO, OBE, better known as Glubb Pasha (born 16 April, 1897, Preston, Lancashire – died 17 March, 1986, Mayfield, Sussex), was a British soldier best known for leading and training Transjordan's Arab Legion 1939-1956 as its commanding general. During World War I, he served in France.
Life
Educated at Cheltenham College, he was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1915. He was then transferred to Iraq in 1920, which was governed by Britain according to the League of Nations Mandate.
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Encyclopedia
Lieutenant-General Sir John Bagot Glubb KCB, CMG, DSO, OBE, better known as Glubb Pasha (born 16 April, 1897, Preston, Lancashire – died 17 March, 1986, Mayfield, Sussex), was a British soldier best known for leading and training Transjordan's Arab Legion 1939-1956 as its commanding general. During World War I, he served in France.
Life
Educated at Cheltenham College, he was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1915. He was then transferred to Iraq in 1920, which was governed by Britain according to the League of Nations Mandate. He became an officer of the Arab Legion in 1930. The next year he formed the Desert Patrol — a force consisting exclusively of bedouins — to curb the raiding problem that plagued the southern part of the country. Within a few years he had persuaded the bedouins to abandon their habit of raiding neighbouring tribes.
In 1939, Glubb succeeded Frederick G. Peake as the commander of the Arab Legion (Now known as Jordan Royal Army). During this period, he transformed the legion into the best trained force in the Arab world.
According to the Encyclopaedia of the Orient:
- Glubb served his home country all through his years in the Middle East, making him immensely unpopular in the end. Arab nationalists believed that he had been the force behind pressure that made King Hussein I of Jordan join the Baghdad Pact. Glubb served different high positions in the Arab Legion, the army of Transjordan. During the World War II he led attacks on Arab leaders in Iraq, as well as the Vichy regime which was present in Lebanon and Syria.
During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War the Arab legion was considered the strongest Arab army involved in the war.
Glubb led the Arab Legion across Jordan to occupy the West Bank. Despite some negotiation and understanding between the Jewish Agency and King Abdullah, severe fighting took place in Kfar Etzion, Jerusalem and Latrun. According to Avi Shlaim,
- Rumors that Abdullah was once again in contact with the Jewish leaders further damaged his standing in the Arab world. His many critics suggested that he was prepared to compromise the Arab claim to the whole of Palestine as long as he could acquire part of Palestine for himself. 'The internecine struggles of the Arabs,' reported Glubb, 'are more in the minds of Arab politicians than the struggle against the Jews. Azzam Pasha, the mufti and the Syrian government would sooner see the Jews get the whole of Palestine than that King Abdullah should benefit.' (p. 96)
Glubb remained in charge of the defence of the West Bank following the armistice in March 1949, and as the commander of the Arab Legion until 1 March, 1956, when he was dismissed by King Hussein who wanted to distance himself from the British and disprove the contention of Arab nationalists that Glubb was the actual ruler of Jordan. Differences between Glubb and Hussein had been apparent since 1952, especially over defence arrangements, the promotion of Arab officers and the funding of the Arab Legion. Despite his decommission, which was forced upon him by public opinion, he remained a close friend of the king. He spent the remainder of his life writing books and articles, mostly on the Middle East and his experiences with the Arabs.
Honours
Glubb was appointed OBE in 1925; CMG in 1946; and KCB in 1956.
Family
In 1938, Glubb married Muriel Rosemary Forbes, the daughter of physician James Graham Forbes. The couple had a son, Godfrey (named after the Crusader king), born in Jerusalem in 1939, and adopted a Bedouin girl in 1944 and another daughter and son, both Palestinian refugees, in 1947. Sir John died in 1986 at his home in Mayfield, East Sussex, and is buried in the graveyard at St. Dunstan's Church in the village. Lady Glubb died in September 2005 and is interred with him. Their son, Godfrey, converted to Islam as a young man and took the name of Faris, becoming a prominent journalist and researcher into the Palestinian cause. He was killed in a hit and run accident in Kuwait in April 2004.
Writings
The source for the following bibliography is
Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2005. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2005.
- (With Henry Field) The Yezidis, Sulubba, and Other Tribes of Iraq and Adjacent Regions, G. Banta, 1943.
- The Story of the Arab Legion, Hodder & Stoughton, 1948, Da Capo Press, 1976.
- A Soldier with the Arabs, Harper, 1957.
- Britain and the Arabs: A Study of Fifty Years, 1908 to 1958, Hodder & Stoughton, 1959.
- War in the Desert: An R.A.F. Frontier Campaign, Hodder & Stoughton, 1960, Norton, 1961.
- The Great Arab Conquests, Hodder & Stoughton, 1963, Prentice-Hall, 1964.
- The Empire of the Arabs, Hodder & Stoughton, 1963, Prentice-Hall, 1964.
- The Course of Empire: The Arabs and Their Successors, Hodder & Stoughton, 1965, Prentice-Hall, 1966.
- The Lost Centuries: From the Muslim Empires to the Renaissance of Europe, 1145-1453, Hodder & Stoughton, 1966, Prentice-Hall, 1967.
- Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, Walker & Co., 1967.
- The Middle East Crisis: A Personal Interpretation, Hodder & Stoughton, 1967.
- A Short History of the Arab Peoples, Stein & Day, 1969.
- The Life and Times of Muhammad, Stein & Day, 1970.
- Peace in the Holy Land: An Historical Analysis of the Palestine Problem, Hodder & Stoughton, 1971.
- Soldiers of Fortune: The Story of the Mamlukes, Stein & Day, 1973.
- Haroon Al Rasheed and the Great Abbasids, Hodder & Stoughton, 1976.
- Into Battle: A Soldier's Diary of the Great War, Cassell, 1977.
- The Fate of Empires and Search for Survival, Blackwood (Edinburgh), 1978.
- Arabian Adventures: Ten Years of Joyful Service, Cassell (London), 1978.
- The Changing Scenes of Life: An Autobiography, Quartet Books (London), 1983.
External links
- Royal Engineers biographies (Sir John Bagot Glubb)
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