In Brigands' Hands and Turkish Prisons, 1911-1918. By A. Forder.
(Marshall Brothers. 12s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Forder has worked for many years as a missionary in Palestine and the desert east of the Jordan. When the war broke out he was thrust into gaol at Jerusalem, and kept for nearly three years among a mass of Moslem criminals under the most disgraceful conditions. He was then transferred to Damascus, where General Allenby found him. Our Turcophiles ought to read Mr. Forder's very temperate narrative of his sufferings. The main purpose of his book is to describe the life and manners of the nomads of Moab and Sinai, and to discuss the effect of Moslem teaching upon them. Mr. Forder is a very sympathetic 'observer, but, while he recognizes the virtues of the Beduin, he sees their faults, which are, he thinks, accentuated by a literal adherence to the precepts of Islam. The blood-feuds, for example, which de- populate Arabia are justified in the eyes of the nomads by the Koran. Hostility to strangers, and especially non-Moslems, is thought to be enjoined by the, prophet. Toleration, in our sense of the word, is in fact considered to be heresy. It must be added, however, that Mr. Forder's Arab friends were not un- grateful to him for his medical services, and that they saved him from injury or death when the desert tribes revolted and sacked Kerak in 1910. The book has some interesting photographs.
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