{"product_id":"the-circassian-the-life-of-esref-bey-late-ottoman-insurgent-and-special-agent","title":"The Circassian The Life of Esref Bey, Late Ottoman Insurgent and Special Agent","description":"\u003cp\u003eEsref Kusçubasi remains controversial in Turkey over fifty years after \u003cbr\u003e\nhis death. Elsewhere the man sometimes called the 'Turkish Lawrence of \u003cbr\u003e\nArabia' is far less known but his life offers fascinating insights into \u003cbr\u003e\nthe traumatic, increasingly violent struggles that ended the Ottoman \u003cbr\u003e\nEmpire and ushered in the modern Middle East. Drawing on Esref's private\u003cbr\u003e\n papers for the first time, these pages tell the story of the making of a\u003cbr\u003e\n headstrong 'self-sacrificing' officer committed to defending the \u003cbr\u003e\nempire's shrinking borders. Esref took on a string of special \u003cbr\u003e\nassignments for Enver Pasha, the rapidly rising star of the Ottoman \u003cbr\u003e\nmilitary, first in Libya against the Italians, then in the Balkan Wars \u003cbr\u003e\nand World War I, before being captured by the forces of the Arab Revolt \u003cbr\u003e\nand turned over to the British and imprisoned on Malta. Released in \u003cbr\u003e\n1920, he joined the national resistance movement in Anatolia but fell \u003cbr\u003e\nout with Mustafa Kemal's leadership and switched sides, earning him \u003cbr\u003e\nbanishment from the Turkish Republic at its founding and exile until the\u003cbr\u003e\n 1950s. Never far from the action or controversy, Esref's dynamic story \u003cbr\u003e\nprovides an important counterpoint to the standard narrative of the \u003cbr\u003e\ntransition from empire to nation state.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Jean-Pierre Filiu","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44240461955132,"sku":"9781849045780","price":3272.5,"currency_code":"PKR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/7706\/7836\/files\/the-circassian-the-life-of-esref-bey-late-ottoman-insurgent-and-special-agent-9781849045780_db92f7d0-64bf-4b42-8b51-403499da4b2d.jpg?v=1776793853","url":"https:\/\/libertybooksstore.myshopify.com\/products\/the-circassian-the-life-of-esref-bey-late-ottoman-insurgent-and-special-agent","provider":"LibertyBooksStore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}