title: A Soldier's Story: From Ottoman Rule to Independent Iraq: The Memoirs of Jafar Al-Aksari
author: Jafar Pasha Al-Aksari
description: One of the most interesting books on Iraqs early national history.  Jafar Pashas memoir is eloquent in its brevity and is prescient in addressing the problems of Iraq in 1932 and 2003. (Judith S. Yaphe <i>Middle East Journal, Spring 2004</i>)<br /><br />A superb production of Jafar Pashas memoirs, with a historical introduction and epilogue  and a few of Jafars own writings. All have relevance for anyone wishing to understand the present situation in Iraq.  The production is meticulous, with clear and helpful maps. The book is illustrated by a superb collection of carefully selected photographs.  Altogether an admirable monument to an engaging man. (Peter Clark <i>Asian Affairs</i>)<br /><br />The Ottoman background to the modern Arab world is brilliantly delineated in A Soldiers Story.  Fifty wonderful photographs show Jafar Pashas many lives. The footnotes are a treasure-trove of information about Arab leaders of the first half of the twentieth century. (Philip Mansel <i>Beirut Daily Star</i>)<br /><br />This publication in English of Jafar al-Askaris memoirs of his eventful career in Ottoman, then British and Arab military service, followed by his leading political role under King Feisal, first in Syria and then in British-mandated Iraq, comes a at most topical moment.  Jafars lively story mirrors the wider Arab renaissance. [His] sixteen years of devoted service to the new Iraqi state  included two spells as Prime Minister and five in charge of defence and foreign affairs.  This section of the book is replete with parallels to the animosities and upheavals which have bedevilled the present US-led occupation of Iraq.  Jafar never sought to minimise the complexity and instability that have characterised Iraqs political inheritance. Seventy years on the experience of his pioneering generation has been conspicuously ignored. (Alan Munro <i>Middle East International, 2004</i>)<br /><br />Askaris development as an Arab nationalist, and his crucial role in the Arab Revolt and subsequent career in the foundation of the modern state of Iraq  place him in the center of movements whose reverberations are still felt today.  the ample footnotes and appendices  round out the life of one of the regions most fascinating and influential characters. (Kyle Pakka <i>Aramco World Magazine, Sept/Oct 2004</i>)
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  A SIGNET BOOK
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  To my Le Salon de Bleuette
  
  friends, for your kindness,
  
  generosity, and the hours of joy
  
  you have given me.
  
  And as always to my wonderful
  
  husband, Chip. I might not write a
  
  dedication to you in every book,
  
  but every book is written with you
  
  in my heart. I love you.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Chapter 1
  
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  For the third time in as many days, the Turkish soldiers came for him at dawn.
  As they had done the previous two mornings, they led him up to the stone-
  flagged courtyard where they stripped him of the filthy rags his captors had
  tossed at him to replace the fine clothing they had stolen from him upon his
  arrival at the bagnio, as slave prisons were called in Algiers. When he stood
  naked, save for a pair of short, queerly draped white pantaloons that hung
  almost indecently low on his lean hips, they marched him through a squat
  archway and out a brass-studded oak 