Robin ''("Rob")'' Leonard Bidwell (25 August 1927 or 1929 in

St Giles, London St Giles is an area in the West End of London in the London Borough of Camden. It gets its name from the parish church of St Giles in the Fields. The combined parishes of St Giles in the Fields and St George Bloomsbury (which was carved out o ...

– 1994 in

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) was an English orientalist and author. He published many books about Yemen and Arabia as well as about French and British colonial history. After education at

Stonyhurst College Stonyhurst College is a co-educational Catholic Church, Roman Catholic independent school, adhering to the Society of Jesus, Jesuit tradition, on the Stonyhurst, Stonyhurst Estate, Lancashire, England. It occupies a Grade I listed building. Th ...

Downside School Downside School is a co-educational Catholic independent boarding and day school in the English public school tradition for pupils aged 11 to 18. It is located between Bath, Frome, Wells and Bruton, and is attached to Downside Abbey. Originall ...

and

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, he was sent as Intelligence Corps sergeant to the

Suez Canal Zone The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...

. From 1955 to 1959 he served as Political officer in

Western Aden Protectorate The Aden Protectorate ( ar, محمية عدن ') was a British protectorate in South Arabia which evolved in the hinterland of the port of Aden and in the Hadhramaut following the conquest of Aden by the Bombay Presidency of British Ind ...

in the hinterland of present-day Yemen. Thereafter as

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travelling editor for the Middle East he visited all Middle East and North African countries. In 1965 he returned to

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

where he earned his PhD in 1968 about the French administration in Morocco. Between 1968 and 1990 he had been Secretary and Librarian of the Middle East Centre in the Faculty of Oriental Studies in the University of Cambridge. From 1980 on he dedicated the rest of his life to his masterpiece ''Dictionary of Modern Arab History – An A to Z of over 2,000 entries from 1798 to the present day''.

Bibliography (selection)

*''Guide to Government Ministers'' (1971/73) *''Affairs of Kuwait'' (1971/73) *''Affairs of Arabia'' (1971/73) *''Morocco Under Colonial Rule – French Administration of Tribal Areas 1912–1956'' (1973) *''Arabian Studies'' (1974) *''Travellers in Arabia'' (1976) *''Guide to African Ministers'' (1978) *''The Two Yemens'' (1983) *''Arabian Gulf Intelligence'' (1985) *''Arabian Personalities of the Early Twentieth Century'' (1986) *''The Bulletin of the Arab Bureau in Cairo 1916–19'' (1986) *''New Arabian Studies'' (1993) *''Dictionary of Modern Arab History'' (1998)

References

External links

*The British Yemeni Society:
Obituary Robin Leonard Bidwell (1929–1994)
' *British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 21, Issue 1, 1994:
Robin Leonard Bidwell 1929–94
' *worldstatesmen.org:

' 1920s births 1994 deaths English explorers English spies English travel writers English orientalists Explorers of Arabia English Arabists 20th-century English historians Aden Protectorate people British expatriates in Egypt {{UK-explorer-stub