A book about Lieutenant-General John Bagot Glubb - affectionately known as Glubb Pasha - and his time as an officer of the Arab Legion. He was instrumental in providing education to nomadic tribes such as the Bedouins, by setting up mobile as well as permanent schools, in order to teach the illiterate tribal people to read and write, after which some of them became soldiers in the army. Glubb Pasha believed that they made better soldiers than the sons of the wealthy upper classes, whom made excellent officers, but were in his opinion not much good in combat situations. His efforts to turn the Arab Legion into an elite fighting army was not appreciated by everyone, and in 1956 he was dismissed and forced to return to Britain.