CAMPBELL THOMPSON (Captain R.), compiled by.
A List of Words and Phrases in the Basrah Dialect of Arabic.
LEARNING ARABIC IN BASRA
CAMPBELL THOMPSON (Captain R.), compiled by.
A List of Words and Phrases in the Basrah Dialect of Arabic.
A rare introduction to Arabic, printed for British (and British Indian) soldiers serving in Basra during the Mesopotamian Campaign of the First World War. Initially published in 1915, it was distributed to the officers and men of Indian Expeditionary Force “D” who were the first unit to arrive in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) from India in November 1914. The majority would have had little knowledge of Arabic and therefore required a pocketbook of essential words and phrases, transliterated into English.
This appears to be a second edition, published a year later in 1916. As the British presence in Mesopotamia continued to grow it is unsurprising another 5,000 copies were required. It begins with notes on pronunciation and grammar, and word lists on subjects ranging from boats to the human body. Then follow useful phrases, all of which are highly specific to the situations they expected to face; for example, ‘Had they any guns?’ and ‘Who was Commandant there?’. The final pages list military terms and numerals.
Rare. OCLC locates just one example of this edition, at Leiden University. The first edition is less scarce with LibraryHub and OCLC listing eight copies in European and North American institutions.
