Gezira Scheme: English-Arabic, Arabic-English Vocabulary; English-Arabic Grammar And Phrasebook. Compiled For The Use Of Personnel Working In The Gezira Scheme. Watt, A.F., P.L. Hayes, Tag El Din Eff. Hussein And G.H.R. Dew.

First edition, first printing, of this grammar and vocabulary of Sudanese Arabic compiled for the staff of the Gezira Scheme, the world's largest centrally managed irrigation project. The British instigated the scheme in 1925, hoping to turn the region south of Khartoum, between the Blue Nile and the White Nile, into "a huge granary capable of supplying not only the whole Soudan but other countries as well" (Gaitskell, p. 36). The opening wordlist focuses on items of lexis connected to agriculture, such as "basin", "dust-storm", "irrigate", "labour gang", and "pump". A closing section on phrases also underscores the intended reader's employment in the agricultural sector, with sentences such as: "it needs a second weeding" and "grasshoppers have eaten the millet". A chapter on simple proverbs introduces colonial officials to Arabic popular wisdom, including the phrase "the baboon is a gazelle in the eyes of his mother". The introduction to the largest section of the volume, on Arabic grammar, implies that the book was sorely needed: "It is not unfair to say that the Arabic pronunciation of the average Englishman is of an extremely low standard.The only way to learn Arabic is by listening to the native and by imitating him, whilst using the Grammar as a guide. Any trouble which you may take now in learning to master the language will eventually be repaid a hundredfold by an added interest in the job, and a great saving of labour in your daily round" (p. 93). Arthur Gaitskell, Gezira: A Story of Development in the Sudan, 1959. Octavo. Original boards and linen spine. Some pencil marks throughout. Spine toned and slightly frayed at ends, very minor loss to corners (also of paper along spine), covers spotted and soiled, minor mark to fore edge, some sporadic foxing. A good copy.