January 13, 2011
ABOUT THE SCORPION’S BITE
In the third book in the Lily Sampson series, THE SCORPION’S BITE, it is 1943 and the world is at war. Archaeologist Lily Sampson has been sent to Trans-Jordan, by the OSS, along with Gideon Weil, the famous director of the American School of Archeology in Jerusalem. As part of their survey, they roam the beautiful, silent, Trans-Jordanian desert where the indelible presence of Lawrence of Arabia is still lingers, and where the ancient Nabateans once ruled an empire from their capital in Petra. Soon Lily and Gideon are stranded in the Wadi Rum, and their Bedouin guide is murdered.
Two oil pipelines run from Iraq through the desert to the ports on Mediterranean, one through one through Trans-Jordan that supplies the Allies, the other through Syria that supplies the Nazis. Syrians and Vichy French are raiding across the border, threatening to destroy the Trans-Jordan pipeline. Lily discovers their real mission is to help safeguard the Trans-Jordan pipeline and to prevent oil from reaching the Nazis through Syria. At the same time Lily learns of a Nazi plot to kidnap and kill the eight-year old King Faisal of Iraq and take over Iraq.
Now, Lily and Gideon must act to protect the Trans-Jordan pipeline, sabotage the Syrian line, and rescue Faisal to prevent the Nazi takeover of Iraq.
Although much of the book is based on historical fact, I fudged on the date of Glubb’s Syrian campaign, moving it up a year. The Allies were already in control of Syria when this book takes place.
Glubb Pasha is a real historic character, as are Emir Abdullah, and the children, Prince Hussein (later King Hussein of Jordan) and the child King Faisal II. There really was a plot to kill Faisal, and there really were raids on the pumping stations of the oil pipelines.
And, for that matter, there really were Nabateans. Their capital, Petra, has changed much since it became a tourist attraction after it was declared a World Heritage site and one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. I was there when Bedouin still lived in the caves, and that is the Petra that I included in the book. For an interesting take on some of the legends encouraged by tourist guides that have grown up around Petra, see an article, “Petra – Myth and Reality” written for the Saudi Aramco World, and now on the Web by Philip Hammond, one of Petra’s excavators.
An archaeologist, Nelson Glueck, really did do a survey of Trans-Jordan for the OSS, and he really was on the cover of Time magazine. The media tried to make another Lawrence of Arabia out of him, but he would have none of that.
Intrepid archaeologist, theologian, and university president, the master of archaeological surveys, friend of Bedouin and Kings, Nelson Glueck, could spot a micro-blade no bigger than your fingernail from the back of a camel. His experience doing an archaeological survey of Trans-Jordan was the inspiration for THE SCORPION’S BITE .He was the model for Gideon Weil.
In his spare time, he was also President of Hebrew Union College, and spent numerous years as the Director of The American School of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, now known as the Albright Institute. Although many of his pioneering conclusions have been modified by subsequent research, for those interested in further exploration of Glueck’s work in Jordan, you might look into his publications: Exploration in Eastern Palestine, published in 4 volumes between 1934 and 1951 by the American School of Oriental Research, a scholarly presentation of his Trans-Jordan survey; The Other side of the Jordan, a popular account; and Deities and Dolphins, a popular work based on his excavations at Nabatean sites.
Most of the rest is fiction. The last name of Moshe, the young kibbutznik in the hospital who lost an eye in a raid in Syria is Dayan. He really did conquer Judea, and loot archaeological sites.
Yigal Sukenik, the son of archaeologist Eleazar Sukenik, who founded the Department of Archaeology at the Hebrew University, did exist. He studied archaeology under his father, and later changed his name to Yigal Yadin, the code name that he used when he was in the Hagganah.
After the war, in 1946, the Emirate of Trans-Jordan under the British Mandate became the Kingdom of Trans-Jordan and Emir Abdullah became King Abdullah I. Trans-Jordan became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1949.
Prince Hussein and his cousin Faisal did go to Harrow. Hussein went on to Sandhurst, the prestigious British military academy equivalent to our own West Point. Faisal went back to Iraq to take up his duties as king and was murdered during a coup d’êtat at the age of nineteen, along with his uncle, Abd-al-Ilah, who had acted as his regent and advisor.
I have also used The Story of the Arab Legion, an account by Brigadier John Bagot Glubb, known as Glubb Pasha, who directed the Arab Legion and helped bring order and control to the chaos of independent warring tribes for the establishment of a peaceful government in Trans-Jordan, and the memoirs of King Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, published by the Philosophical society in 1950 as references.
