From the Gulf to Ararat ─ Imperial Boundary Making in the Late Ottoman Empire

The western frontier between Persia and the Ottoman Empire was long a source of disputed claims by each. Supposedly setlled under the Treaty of Ezerum of 1847 in reality it took a further seventy years to settle the details. This was achieved by the Turco-Persian Frontier Commission. Ernest Hubbard was Secretary to the Commission and and a key factor in its success. From the Gulf to Ararat is his account of the Commission and of the regions through which they travelled. Often amusing but always informative it reveals the realities of making a boundary in practice and the need to be aware of local factors such as race, tradition, religions when dealing with boundary issues.With an introduction by Sue Littledale, the author’s granddaughter, new photographs and biographical material, and a foreword by Richard Schofield, leading international authority on territorial questions in the Middle East, From the Gulf to Ararat offers an engaging yet remarkably relevant insight into the realities of boundary delimitation.

Gilbert Ernest Hubbard (1885-1951) was Acting Vice Consul at Sofia, Crete and Cairo before being promoted to Vice Concul at Mosul. He was appointed Secretary to the British Commissioners on the Turco-Persian Frontier Commission in 1913. Following a spell at the Foreign Office he became Private Secretary to Sir Hamar Greenwood, Sectretary of State for Foreign Affairs, subsequently taking up the position of First Secretary to HM Legation in Peking. He After a decade as diplomatic agent to the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank he took up the position of Far Eastern Research Secretary at Chatham House, follwed by a second spell at the Foreign Offcie during the Second World War. He wrote a number of books on ndustrialisation and British policy in the Far East.