Overview

Ultimately these cross purposes brought disaster, pulling a fatally weak and woefully unprepared Ottoman state into a global war, and unleashing vicious, internal ethnic repression that brought it defeat and dismemberment. The diaries and official reports of German spy and propagandist Curt Prufer - translated here into English in their entirety for the first time - chronicle the complexities of the fragile Ottoman-German alliance from the perspective of a participant. Much like fellow soldier-scholar T.E. Lawrence, Prufer and his colleagues tried to steal the loyalties of the Muslim subjects of the opposing sides. The book explores these episodes of sabotage, subversion and subterfuge - from managing spies to preparing for the attack on the Suez Canal in 1915 - and in the process sheds light onto the ways World War I played out across the Middle East. Complemented throughout by in-depth and meticulously researched footnotes, this primary source collection is an invaluable addition to the extant corpus of late Ottoman and World War I historical documents.

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9781784531430

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Reviews

'This is an exceptional work of editing. Kevin Morrow has produced a very good translation with a flowing narrative supported by an amazing body of notes that will help readers - both academics and general readership - to understand the context. The diary of Curt Prufer, long forgotten, will shed light on previously little-known events that took place in the Middle East during the war and will help to reassess German role in the region. This diary proves once more that the Middle Eastern front was not a sideshow.' - Roberto Mazza, Lecturer at the University of Limerick and author of Jerusalem from the Ottomans to the British and Jerusalem in World War I: the Palestine Diary of a European Consul (both I.B.Tauris). 'In this remarkable book, Kevin Morrow reveals a crucial source: the diaries of important early twentieth century diplomatic actor Curt Prufer. These illuminate the Ottoman preparations for the conquest of Egypt, the daily life in the desert and the relations between Turks and Germans during this period. The book offers readers a lively and unique description of what happened on the Palestinian front, and includes valuable information on the period's various nationalist movements, from Zionism to Arabism, and their relations with the Ottoman and German authorities. The detailed footnotes masterfully contextualize the entries and will enable readers to better understand the text. Germany's Covert War in the Middle East fills a significant gap in the history of the Great War and is essential reading for anyone hoping to understand the German and Turkish concerns in the Middle East during the First World War, as well as the course of events on the Palestinian front.' - M. Talha CiCEK, Assistant Professor, Istanbul Medeniyet University

Author Information

Curt Prufer was one of Germany's leading diplomats in the early twentieth century, serving under the Kaiser, the Weimar Republic and the Nazis. During World War I he was stationed in the Middle East, where he attempted to orchestrate - by various means, both official and informal - Ottoman participation in the war on the side of the Germans. Kevin Morrow is a researcher and translator with a wide range of experience amongst historical archives. He previously worked on the research team for Scott Anderson's Lawrence in Arabia.

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