Glubb’s Guide to the Arab Tribes (Part 1)

By Dan Green

To enable one country to appreciate what another people really thinks and desires is both the most difficult and the most vital task which confronts us. — John Bagot Glubb, Britain and the Arabs: A Study of Fifty Years 1908-1958, (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1959), p. 147

As military units prepare for service in the Middle East, it is not uncommon for them to consult the published works of British military personnel and diplomats who played such a large role in the politics of the region in the 1910s to the 1930s. It is already customary for deployers to consult the works of T.E. Lawrence and Gertrude Bell and for those who have read more expansively, perhaps even the writings of Sir Alec Kirkbride, Sir Percy Cox, or even General Aylmer L. Haldane. Collectively, these various authors have taught our military personnel a great deal about working in the region, fighting alongside Arab irregulars, working with tribes, building governments, fostering development, and combating insurgents. The reason I’ve written this brief essay is to bring to your attention another great British soldier and diplomat, John Bagot Glubb, whose experience is as expansive if not more so than many of the aforementioned authors. His robust experience of thirty-six years in the great deserts and Bedouin tents of Iraq and Jordan greatly informs our current operations. I have written a brief biography of Glubb in order to familiarize the reader with his achievements and then compiled a collection of his observations, thoughts, and musings taken from his published writings about working with the Arab tribes, fighting guerillas, service to the nation, and on operating in the Middle East. Glubb’s views are as useful today as when he made them, incorporating them into our operations in the Middle East will greatly improve our chances for victory.

John Bagot Glubb was a British military officer and veteran of World War I who served in Iraq and Jordan from 1920 to 1956. Originally assigned to Anbar Province, Iraq, he worked as a military engineer building bridges and airfields and quickly became fascinated by the world of the nomadic Bedouin and “town” Arabs. Traveling by foot, camel, and horse from Fallujah in the east to Al Qaim in the west, Glubb visited with the tribes of the province, getting to know their leaders, customs and organization, and their concerns and motivations. These initial experiences began a lifelong interest for him in the tribes of the Middle East and he became a strong and enlightened advocate of their interests. In 1922, Glubb became a Special Service Officer (SSO), forever putting his engineering career behind him, and was charged with directing British air forces to their targets on the ground in Iraq by having a detailed understanding of his assigned geographical area and its people. The British Government hoped that by replacing large standing armies with a technological solution of air power supplemented with a ground intelligence force, they would be able to reduce the costs of occupation while maintaining their ability to shape events in the region. In order to do his job, Glubb ventured into southern Iraq, traveling and living among the Beni Huchaim tribes, among others, polishing up his Arabic skills in the process, and becoming thoroughly familiar with the personalities, concerns, rivalries, and geography of the area. He only traveled with an Iraqi servant, often enlisting local tribesmen as his sponsors for safe travel, and lived among the tribes. Over the next eight years, Glubb gained an encyclopedic knowledge of the area and its people, gaining their trust and understanding their concerns. While he would still fly with the pilots as they discharged their duties of sanctioning tribes at the behest of the Iraqi Government, he used his knowledge of the area to inform British and Iraqi policymakers in Baghdad about the concerns of the tribes, seeking to avoid bloodshed through a wiser policy.

In December 1922, he was transferred to Ramadi where he served as an intelligence officer reporting on the movements of Turkish troops, which continued to lay claim to Mosul following the end of World War I, and on the intentions of local tribes. Once again, Glubb traveled among the tribes, acquainting himself with their concerns and keeping an eye out for Turkish agents. By the summer of 1923, hostilities between the Turkish Government and the Allies had dissipated and Glubb returned to southern Iraq and his SSO responsibilities. Informed by the British military that he needed to leave Iraq to assume command of a British unit, Glubb resigned his commission in 1926 and was hired by the Iraqi Government as an Administrative Inspector, eventually becoming the Administrative Inspector of the Southern Desert, and, by 1928, head of the Southern Desert Camel Corps. From his return to southern Iraq in 1923 to the end of the decade, Glubb became the government’s designated protector and unofficial advocate of the tribes as they ventured south to graze near the border with Saudi Arabia. In his capacity as “SSO Ikhran Defense” and as Commander of the Southern Desert Camel Corps, Glubb organized an effective defense of the southern tribes against the raids of the Ikhwan, or Brotherhood, who were “new-style Wahabis” encouraged in their religious fanaticism by Saudi Arabia’s leader Ibn Saud. Their raids were unique among the Bedouin because they killed every man they captured, when causalities were typically quite light, and their fighting abilities were enhanced by their intense religious zeal. Over the course of the next few years, until their final defeat in 1930, Glubb fought alongside the southern tribes of Iraq against the Ikhwan. He was the government presence in that area and he single-handedly led the tribes in not only a successful defense of their people but on several successful offensive operations as well. The tribes of southern Iraq were no longer afraid of the Ikhwan because of Glubb and due to his efforts cross-border raiding between Iraq and Saudi Arabia ceased.

Due to Glubb’s impressive accomplishments in southern Iraq, he came to the attention of King Abdullah I of Jordan, the brother of King Faisal I of Iraq. Much like southern Iraq, Ikhwan raids also plagued Jordan, and its tribes were caught between the Ikhwan to the south and east and British military troops charged with stopping Jordan’s tribes from counter-raiding to the west and north. Stuck between the Ikhwan and the British military, the tribes of the Huwaitat, Beni Sakhr, and Jebel, among others, became increasingly impoverished. When Glubb arrived in 1930, the tribes were deeply resentful of the Jordanian Government and the British, who they blamed for their plight due to their long-standing support of Ibn Saud and the Jordanian Government, but Glubb thought that a wiser policy could be followed. He set out to replicate his tribal model of self-defense in Iraq in the southern deserts of Jordan. He removed the British military presence in the area and, starting from nothing, began to assemble The Desert Patrol.

Beginning with just a small number of nomadic tribesmen from southern Iraq who had followed his move to Jordan, Glubb slowly convinced the tribes that their salvation would come about through joining the government’s security forces to patrol their own tribal areas. With strong dedication to his work, Glubb organized the tribes into an effective fighting force, broadening its membership beyond the tribes immediately located near the Saudi Arabian border. Through his patient work of meeting with the tribal leaders, quietly reasoning with them, appealing to their self-interest, and convincing them of the great benefit of a Bedouin fighting force, Glubb ended not only the raiding by Jordan’s tribes but effectively checked the incursions of the Ikhwan. In two years time, Glubb moved from being an officer in The Arab Legion, which The Desert Patrol was but one-fifth of, and moved to the position of second-in-command. In 1939, he succeeded Peake Pasha, the British Officer who had founded The Arab Legion, as its commander, a position he would occupy until 1956.

Glubb continued to expand and professionalize The Arab Legion as one of only two former British officers in the whole Jordanian military. Though Jordan was a very poor country and quite limited in its resources, Glubb patiently grew the force, never letting its size outstrip its abilities. During this period, Glubb was involved in a number of anti-guerilla campaigns in Jordan directed at Syrian and Egyptian irregulars seeking to foment discord against the monarchy. Glubb very ably dispatched these fighters and worked to consolidate the authority of the Jordanian Government over its lands. By this point, The Arab Legion was already widely recognized as the fighting force of the Middle East. But it was during World War II that this reputation was solidified. At the beginning of the war, The Arab Legion invaded Iraq, as part of a British military campaign, seeking to relieve British forces that had been surrounded by the Iraqi Army in Habbaniya, Iraq and capturing Baghdad to reinstall the Iraqi monarchy. Glubb led his Bedouin troops to Habbaniya, using their skill at tracking and knowledge of the desert to guide British troops, and eventually blocked the road between Baghdad and Mosul while planning to descend upon the capital. This adroit maneuver effectively cut off the generals in Baghdad who had revolted against Iraq’s monarchy from receiving additional forces from Mosul, prompting the general’s cabal to sue for peace. Later in the war, Glubb would lead The Arab Legion in combat again, as part of a military campaign to defeat the Vichy French regime that had established itself in Syria along with their German military advisors. In this campaign, Glubb’s men saw combat against the French, and, once again, guided British troops through the desert. With the conclusion of hostilities, Glubb returned to Jordan to continue his work of building The Arab Legion.

With the end of British control of Palestine on May 15, 1948, The Arab Legion crossed into the West Bank, securing its various Arab communities. In the ensuing battles between Israeli forces and the Egyptian, Syrian, Iraqi, Lebanese, and Jordanian militaries, The Arab Legion comported itself admirably, winning most of its battles and, perhaps most importantly from Jordan’s perspective, keeping a good portion of the land meant for the Palestinians in Arab hands. The Arab Legion was the only Arab military that the Israelis feared and their actions during this conflict once again showed their admirable fighting qualities and superior organization. They were also the only Arab army to leave the conflict with its reputation enhanced. With the outbreak of peace, The Arab Legion set about securing the West Bank from incursions, from the Israelis on the one hand and from Palestinian refugees seeking to enter Israel on the other. It was tedious work, erecting outposts, organizing local guards, and continually patrolling, but Glubb’s work paid off, with cross-border incidents decreasing dramatically.

As an uneasy peace broke out in the region, Glubb continued his work at professionalizing and expanding The Arab Legion. But the birth of Israel and the Palestinian refugee problem had started to irrevocably change the politics of the region. Though Glubb was a faithful servant to the country of Jordan, his status as a British national complicated Jordan’s domestic and international politics. With time, resentment against him grew among a small group of educated officers in The Arab Legion, many of whom bristled at seeing illiterate Bedouins promoted over them due to their superior fighting abilities and aversion to political agitation. Taking advantage of the young King Hussein, and inspired by Egyptian political intrigues, they conspired to have Glubb and the now several dozen British officers in the Jordanian military removed. King Hussein, responding to these depredations and influenced by the negative pan-Arab reaction to the British and French invasion of the Suez Canal in 1956, fired Glubb on March 1, 1956. Glubb was given less than a day to pack his things, ignominiously leaving a land he had spent thirty-six years of his life in, carefully working on behalf of the tribesmen and the Arab people. Though disappointed by the king’s decision, Glubb was not bitter and he remained friends with the young monarch. His predications that The Arab Legion would only be able to withstand a determined Israeli assault on the West Bank for a few days, hoping this would be enough time to prompt the British to intervene as part of the Anglo-Trans-Jordan Treaty were proven correct in 1967 when the Jordanian military was swept from the area. To the king’s credit, he later admitted that Glubb had been correct and that his opposition to Glubb’s security plans in 1956 –another reason for his dismissal- had been in error.

With retirement, Glubb began to write about his experiences, delivering lectures at universities, and giving talks around Britain and the United States. He eventually wrote twenty books about his life and adventures in the Middle East and sought to improve Western understanding of the Arab people, Islam, and the history of the Middle East. He settled down into a peaceful life in Britain, living with his wife Muriel and their four children and he passed away on March 17, 1986 and is buried near Mayfield, East Sussex. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, a Companion of The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, an Officer of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire and also received the Distinguished Service Order and the Military Cross.

Dan Green works at the U.S. Department of State (DOS) in the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism. He served a year as a Political Advisor to the Tarin Kowt Provincial Reconstruction Team in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan, for which he received the DOS’s Superior Honor Award and the U.S. Army’s Superior Civilian Service Award. He also received a letter of commendation from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace. The views expressed in this article are his own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Bush Administration, the DOS, the U.S. Navy, or the Department of Defense. Mr. Green recently returned from Iraq where he served as a tribal liaison officer (US Navy Reserve).

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Glubb’s Guide to the Arab Tribes (Part 2)

Meet Glubb – Jules Crittenden’s Forward Movement