Desert Queen (56 page)

Sayid Talib of Basrah, “rogue” and rival to Faisal.
(Kerim. Baghdad)

King Faisal shortly after his coronation in Baghdad, 1921.
(University of Newcastle)

The coronation of King Faisal, Baghdad, August 23, 1921.
Front row left to right
: Sir Percy Cox
(in military whites)
, Kinahan Cornwallis
(with helmet)
, Faisal
(in front of throne)
, General Aylmer.
(Kerim. Baghdad)

Dinner party in a Baghdad garden, 1921. Lady Cox
(with mosquito netting around her hat)
at head of the table. Gertrude Bell to her left, King Faisal to her right.
(Kerim. Baghdad)

Gertrude, aged fifty-three.
(University of Newcastle)

Gertrude in 1921, at a picnic with Faisal
(foreground, right)
near Ctesiphon, Iraq, site of a seventh-century Arab victory. (
University of Newcastle)

The Naqib of Baghdad, holy leader of the Sunni community, 1921. Gertrude was the only unveiled woman allowed to visit with him.
(Kerim. Baghdad)

Gertrude and her father, Hugh Bell, in front of the biplane she flew in from Baghdad to Ziza, 1922.
(University of Newcastle)

Gertrude Bell
(left)
at a farewell party for Sir Percy Cox. Lady Cox, covered with mosquito netting, chats with a guest while Sir Percy holds her flowers. Baghdad, 1923.
(University of Newcastle)

A 1923 garden party in Baghdad with sofas and rugs laid out on the lawn.
Foreground
: Gertrude and King Faisal.
(Kerim. Baghdad)

Detail of above photograph.
Under her parasol Gertrude confers with King Faisal.
(Kerim. Baghdad)

A thoughtful and lonely King Faisal, Baghdad, 1923.
(University of Newcastle)