The Arabic word for "tribe" – qabila – has the same root as the particle qabla, which is used to denote everything that is prehistoric: the pre-urban age, the pre-civilisational era, etc. Tribal life ...

Constantinople, 19th November 1918: fat-bellied ships move through the cold fog that lies over the Bosphorus. Their Union Jacks make it abundantly clear to the world that "the sick man of the ...