(MIDDLE EAST.) A Short History of the Middle East from the Rise of Islam to Modern Times by George E. Kirk. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1948. Octavo, x 301 pp. Original brown cloth. With the dust jacket. With map frontispiece and 13 full-page maps (one double-page). Fading to foot of spine, light spotting to edges of textblock, dust jacket chipped. First edition, from the library of British colonial officer William Crockett McDowall (1917-1998), with his ownership inscription dated Khartoum, 1949 to the front free endpaper, and pencilled annotations probably in his hand to the rear free endpaper. McDowall joined the Sudan Political Service in 1939, remaining in the country until 1955 and later working as an executive for ICI. George E. Kirk (1911-1993) was a British-born historian of the Middle East who became professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.