A Voyage in the Gulf: C. M. Cursetjee's the Land of the Date (Middle East Classics)
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
In December 1916 the SS Zayanni left Bombay bound for the port of Basra, at the head of the Persian Gulf. On board was C.M. Cursetjee, a 69-year-old Oxford-educated Indian Parsee, on his way to see his nephew who was serving in the Indian forces. The boat, carrying much commercial cargo, stopped at all the major ports on the voyage, and the author kept a diary of this remarkable journey upon which this book is based.
The Land of the Date is an exceptional study in that it provides important information two areas. On the one hand, it furnishes a unique and highly entertaining record of life in the Gulf ports in the heady days of the First World War. Cursetjee brings the feel of the times vividly to life: from the pearl divers of Bahrain to the street traders of the bazaars of Basra, all are discussed and described, often with dry humor.
The book also, however, serves to bring an Indian perspective to bear on the situation in the Gulf which, considering the very large Indian involvement with the Empire's ventures in the region, has been greatly overlooked. Cursetjee emerges as, in the main, a staunch imperialist, referring throughout to the greater potential for the future offered to the inhabitants by British rule and fully believing that the Gulf should be British after the war. He also encouraged Indian entrepreneurship in the region, seeing considerable commercial opportunities.
The author clearly foresaw the future strategic importance of Kuwait, due to its geographical relationship to the prime port of Basra and also the importance that oil would play In the area's future. Whilst fully supporting the British in their Middle Eastern endeavours he was tellingly critical of their attitude in the occupied areas: 'if only British rule were impressed . . . with less of that overweening self importance, haughty aloofness and mischief-brewing superciliousness with which the Britisher makes himself obnoxious in many lands.'
A Voyage in the Gulf: C. M. Cursetjee's the Land of the Date (Middle East Classics),Paul Rich,Authors Choice Press,0595149537,Biography / Autobiography,History,History: World,Middle East - General,Military,World - General
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