The House of War – De-Coding the Modern Middle East
The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Regimental Museum
invite you to a
Reception and Talk by
Lieutenant General Sir Simon Mayall KBE CB
The House of War –
De-Coding the Modern Middle East
on Tuesday 23rd June at 6.00 for 7.00 pm
The House of War is a sweeping narrative of over 1000 years of confrontation and conflict between the armies of Christendom and those of the Caliphate. Although the headlines, regarding the epic battles and sieges, are of Christians versus Muslims, the unifying narrative of his talk reveals a much more complex story of the parallel intra-faith rivalry between Catholics, Greek Orthodox and Protestants, and Arab and Turkish Sunni Muslims, and Persian Shia. In explaining and illuminating this complicated environment, his talk aims to help his audience to better to understand the complexity of the modern Middle East.
Having graduated in Modern History from Oxford, Simon Mayall was commissioned into the 15th/19th Hussars in 1979. He served in Germany, Belgium, the UK and Oman, and was deployed on operations in Northern Ireland, Cyprus, the Balkans and the Middle East. He commanded soldiers at all levels and was Commanding Officer of the 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards. He held a series of increasingly senior appointments in the Ministry of Defence, including Assistant Chief of the General Staff, Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Operations), and Defence Senior Adviser Middle East. He undertook a Defence Fellowship at St Antony’s College, Oxford, and an MA in International Relations at King’s College. He was knighted in 2014, retiring from the Army in 2015.
Since retirement, he has sought to combine his academic enthusiasm for history, with his own personal and professional experience in the Middle East, in order develop an expertise in this complex and volatile region. As a result, he is often called upon for commentary or analysis, using his deep knowledge of history and religion to help listeners and readers better understand current events in the wider Middle East.
He has written two books. ‘Soldier in the Sand, a Personal History of the Modern Middle East’ uses a three-generational biography of his family to tell the story of the Middle East since the end of World War One. In 2024 he published ‘The House of War, the Struggle between Christendom and the Caliphate’. He will be doing a book signing on the evening. You can purchase tickets below.
Car parking will be available on the Esplanade for the event.
