Reporting a War

Two young people are recruited into the news-gathering enterprise in Egypt by an agent for a major European newspaper, called the Tribune. Marty Mintz is a reporter and Amelia Caruthers is a photographer. They make an odyssey across the Middle East experiencing a unique set of adventures, such as riding a camel on an old trade route through Yemen, participating in the lesser pilgrimage (hajj) at Mecca, visiting an early Kibbutz in Tel Aviv, experiencing a raider attack in Thrace, and visiting Teheran in the midst of an oil boom. They meet important people such as the Khedive of Egypt, Sharif Husayn of the Hejaz, the Mayor of Jerusalem, and Ottoman cabinet members in Constantinople. Throughout the trip they learn that adventures are not always easy, that human relations do not always run smoothly, and that they themselves hurt others despite their best efforts not to do so.

This set of novel owes much to the courses at McGill University (Montreal, Canada) in 1958 and 1960 taught by Mohammad Rasjidi and John Alden Williams where the history of the Middle East covered in this series was originally imparted to me through the lectures, the assigned readings and the discussion session these scholars supervised. They certainly taught about historical events of the time, but also the about the cultural attitudes that prevailed and how those attitudes were translated into policy and politics of the era. There were other readings later that were useful and enlightening, but these two professors introduced a view of the Middle East that was unique and highly rewarding. (See the Historical Note at the conclusion of the novel for supporting works.) The setting of the homes and schools of the major protagonists of the novels in the central Carolinas near Charlotte, North Carolina were taken from the author's own sojourn there during the 1970s where the mountain culture from the north met the Tidal culture from the Atlantic coast. The attitudes of the hero and heroine sometimes reflect their respective upbringings in that region. The descriptions of the often "confused" and narrow viewpoint of university educators, while centered at a fictitious university (Winston Merritt University), reflects the observations of the author at several North American universities as either witnessed by the author or related to him through his friends and colleagues. Universities are decentralized because knowledge is diverse, so academic responsibilities often follow the same inclinations. While imponderable at times usually good intentions eventually prevail, but often only through the determined efforts of the people involved. Graduate study is not an easy path.

Amelia Caruthers and Marty Mintz, now both senior international correspondents, are assigned to follow the British drive to defeat the Ottomans in the Egypt-Palestine region. They do it on foot, trains, trucks, horses, and camels traversing the area to cover key battles, important political meetings and the advances and retreats of the armies locked in struggle for dominance of the area. They gain the trust of key commanders, and they are able to see important events up close, such as the meetings of Lawrence of Arabia with the bedouin allies of the British, the meetings of British General Allenby with Prince Faisal, and the conclave of British, French and Ottoman officials that ends the war in the East. The love-affair of Amelia and Mintz continues and must undergo a test of trust before it can be regarded as successful.