For all its recent bad fortune, Spain is one of Europe’s remarkable success stories. Democracy, so often the exception in its tumultuous history, is now the unquestioned norm: instead of shooting at each other, Spaniards take to the ballot box to settle their political quarrels. By contrast, the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939 saw the destruction of a democratically elected republic by Francisco Franco’s rightist forces. The Generalissimo ruled unchecked until 1975, and his death that year ushered in a new era. The Spanish people turned away from dictatorship but, to preserve their new democracy, a majority of Spaniards embraced the so-called el pacto de olvido – “the pact of forgetfulness”. Spain would look forward to the promise of the future, not dwell on the wounds of the past, at least in the political arena.
The ghosts of the Spanish Civil War were laid to rest, but only for a time. Over the past decade, Spain has been wracked by spasms of remembrance. Families of the victims of Francoist repression have campaigned to open the mass graves that dot the map of Spain in the hope that the remains might be identified and buried properly. It is an emotional business. The Civil War has intruded into elections, with the Spanish left wielding the Francoist past against right-wing rivals. The publication of The Spanish Holocaust, by British historian Paul Preston, marks a culmination of sorts in Spain’s reckoning with one of its darkest chapters. A major – and controversial – event in Spain, Preston’s book is an exhaustive catalogue of atrocities, bloodshed and degradation. Looking beyond the battlefields, the author goes behind the front lines to account for, in precise and ghastly detail, the murders of some 200,000 civilians: men, women and children.
The book is a major achievement from a pre-eminent historian of modern Spain. Preston belongs to a distinguished tradition of British historians – Gerald Brenan, Raymond Carr, JH Elliott, Hugh Thomas – who have made their mark writing on Spanish history; indeed, these figures have had a decisive influence on the very parameters of Spanish historiography itself.
There is virtually no dimension of the Spanish Civil War that is not touched by (often acrimonious) debate. If Spaniards remained quiescent about their past during their years of olvido, historians have not stopped going around and round discussing the causes of the conflict – who provoked the civil war is the subject of a vast literature – and the downfall of the Republic. The historical consensus remains unsettled. The cause of the Republic inspired a generation of progressives and radicals steeped in the political battles of the 1930s. For them, the Spanish Republic was a bulwark against fascism in Europe. Preston himself stresses the essential decency of the Spanish Republic, even if he strains hard at times to rationalise the violence meted out to the political enemies of the republic during the war. Not surprisingly, reviews of the book have been sharp-edged, and mirror the enduring polarisation about the war. The historian Timothy Snyder, writing in The New Republic, was ecstatic in his praise. Right-leaning publications had a different take. The Daily Telegraph published a highly sceptical review, while Stanley Payne, himself a major figure in Spanish Civil War studies, accused Preston in The Wall Street Journal of merely “recapitulating civil war-era propaganda”.
Payne concluded Preston’s work “must be judged a failure”. This is much too severe a verdict. Preston’s book has its flaws, more on them in a moment, but its painstaking collation of statistics and research, drawn from Catalan, Basque and Spanish sources, showcase the mastery of a historian, not the cant of a partisan.
For all that, Preston does himself no favours with his clangingly off-key title and hysterical subtitle. The author wants to draw attention to the savagery of the war, but he makes virtually no effort to situate the tragedy of Spain in the larger context of mass slaughter in 20th-century Europe. The barbarianism Preston chronicles on his pages is sufficient enough to make a case without the hyperbole. Readers will also want to have on hand a good general history of the conflict: Preston presumes a great deal of previous knowledge about the main outlines of the war and its origins.
Such shortcomings do not detract from the terrifying sweep of his account. Spain in the early 1930s was one of Europe’s most impoverished and unequal countries. The Republic came to power vowing to take on the traditional pillars of Spanish society: the Catholic Church, the army and landowners. Preston shows a country descending into hate. Though the reformist government of liberals and socialists acted rashly, Preston lays the blame on the Republic’s disintegration overwhelmingly on the right. The historian surveys a whole rhetoric of deadly intent that emanated from right-wing groups such as the Falange, the Spanish fascist movement. Anyone who supported the Republic was subhuman, one right-wing analysis contended: “The sewers opened their sluice gates and dregs of society inundated the streets and squares, convulsing and shuddering like epileptics.”
Intent became reality after the coup of July 16-17, 1936, when a group of army officers moved against the Republic. In a conflict that unravelled like a jumble of disembodied acronyms and political abstractions – POUM, PSOE, CEDA, FAI, CNT, JONS – Preston minutely focuses on tribulations of individuals. His research is breathtaking. Region by region, province by province, town by town, Preston depicts the savagery of the civil war; he diagrams 1,000 points of darkness. Preston likens the Nationalist campaign to Spain’s colonial wars in Morocco: the most hardened Nationalist forces were brutalised in these campaigns and, in turn, brutalised, as the coup’s leader Emilio Mola put it, “those who do not think as we do”.
The list of those not deemed Spanish included virtually anyone on the left: Freemasons; trade unionists; republicans of every stripe. In Cadiz, a group of such figures was forced to ingest castor oil and industrial alcohol mixed with sawdust and breadcrumbs, which caused excruciating abdominal pain, and they were then beaten mercilessly. Outside of Seville, a group of agricultural labourers who had agitated for land reform were forced to dig their own graves before they were shot. Falangist women taunted them: “Didn’t you ask for land? Now you’re going to have some, and for ever.” Republican women were singled out for rape and humiliation. The rebel general in charge of the south, the repulsive Gonzalo Queipo de Llano, impelled his troops with salacious exhortations that can only be described as demented: “I don’t have to urge you on because I know your bravery. I tell you to kill like a dog any queer or pervert who criticises this glorious national movement.”
The Spanish Holocaust is traumatic enough to read; writing it must have been an ordeal. Though exact numbers are hard to pin down – Franco destroyed many records, and many mass graves have yet to be sifted – Preston reckons that, in the south, the “repression by the rebels was about three times greater than that which took place in the Republican zone”.
According to Preston, some 150,000 people were killed by the military rebels. But Preston also forensically examines the deaths in the Republican-held Spain, where out-of-control left-wing death squads targeted rebel sympathisers and suspected Fascists. His meticulous detailing of one of the most notorious of these episodes, the execution of at least 2,000 civilian and military supporters of the rebels at Paracuellos, outside Madrid, is a masterpiece of its kind.
Yet Preston makes a contrast between the violence in Nationalist and Republican-controlled Spain. The former, he argues, carried out a deliberate, carefully planned operation of elimination. “In contrast, the repression in the Republican zone was hot-blooded and reactive ... it is difficult to see how the violence in the Republican zone could have happened without the military coup, which effectively removed all constraints of civilised society.” This strikes me as a somewhat arbitrary distinction. Preston has done as much as any historian to describe the Spanish Civil War as more than a cartoonish struggle between good and evil, as so many partisans of left and right have seen it, but his book is unlikely to settle an argument that has no end.
Matthew Price’s writing has been published in Bookforum, the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe and the Financial Times.
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The%20specs
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At a glance
Fixtures All matches start at 9.30am, at ICC Academy, Dubai. Admission is free
Thursday UAE v Ireland; Saturday UAE v Ireland; Jan 21 UAE v Scotland; Jan 23 UAE v Scotland
UAE squad Rohan Mustafa (c), Ashfaq Ahmed, Ghulam Shabber, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Boota, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Shaiman Anwar, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Qadeer Ahmed, Mohammed Naveed, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan
If you go
Flight connections to Ulaanbaatar are available through a variety of hubs, including Seoul and Beijing, with airlines including Mongolian Airlines and Korean Air. While some nationalities, such as Americans, don’t need a tourist visa for Mongolia, others, including UAE citizens, can obtain a visa on arrival, while others including UK citizens, need to obtain a visa in advance. Contact the Mongolian Embassy in the UAE for more information.
Nomadic Road offers expedition-style trips to Mongolia in January and August, and other destinations during most other months. Its nine-day August 2020 Mongolia trip will cost from $5,250 per person based on two sharing, including airport transfers, two nights’ hotel accommodation in Ulaanbaatar, vehicle rental, fuel, third party vehicle liability insurance, the services of a guide and support team, accommodation, food and entrance fees; nomadicroad.com
A fully guided three-day, two-night itinerary at Three Camel Lodge costs from $2,420 per person based on two sharing, including airport transfers, accommodation, meals and excursions including the Yol Valley and Flaming Cliffs. A return internal flight from Ulaanbaatar to Dalanzadgad costs $300 per person and the flight takes 90 minutes each way; threecamellodge.com
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah To The Last Goodbye
By Dave Lory with Jim Irvin
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: BorrowMe (BorrowMe.com)
Date started: August 2021
Founder: Nour Sabri
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: E-commerce / Marketplace
Size: Two employees
Funding stage: Seed investment
Initial investment: $200,000
Investors: Amr Manaa (director, PwC Middle East)
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
How to improve Arabic reading in early years
One 45-minute class per week in Standard Arabic is not sufficient
The goal should be for grade 1 and 2 students to become fluent readers
Subjects like technology, social studies, science can be taught in later grades
Grade 1 curricula should include oral instruction in Standard Arabic
First graders must regularly practice individual letters and combinations
Time should be slotted in class to read longer passages in early grades
Improve the appearance of textbooks
Revision of curriculum should be undertaken as per research findings
Conjugations of most common verb forms should be taught
Systematic learning of Standard Arabic grammar
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
LA LIGA FIXTURES
Friday (UAE kick-off times)
Real Sociedad v Leganes (midnight)
Saturday
Alaves v Real Valladolid (4pm)
Valencia v Granada (7pm)
Eibar v Real Madrid (9.30pm)
Barcelona v Celta Vigo (midnight)
Sunday
Real Mallorca v Villarreal (3pm)
Athletic Bilbao v Levante (5pm)
Atletico Madrid v Espanyol (7pm)
Getafe v Osasuna (9.30pm)
Real Betis v Sevilla (midnight)
INDIA SQUAD
Rohit Sharma (captain), Shikhar Dhawan (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Vijay Shankar, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammad Siraj and Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper)
Inside%20Out%202
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What is Folia?
Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal's new plant-based menu will launch at Four Seasons hotels in Dubai this November. A desire to cater to people looking for clean, healthy meals beyond green salad is what inspired Prince Khaled and American celebrity chef Matthew Kenney to create Folia. The word means "from the leaves" in Latin, and the exclusive menu offers fine plant-based cuisine across Four Seasons properties in Los Angeles, Bahrain and, soon, Dubai.
Kenney specialises in vegan cuisine and is the founder of Plant Food Wine and 20 other restaurants worldwide. "I’ve always appreciated Matthew’s work," says the Saudi royal. "He has a singular culinary talent and his approach to plant-based dining is prescient and unrivalled. I was a fan of his long before we established our professional relationship."
Folia first launched at The Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills in July 2018. It is available at the poolside Cabana Restaurant and for in-room dining across the property, as well as in its private event space. The food is vibrant and colourful, full of fresh dishes such as the hearts of palm ceviche with California fruit, vegetables and edible flowers; green hearb tacos filled with roasted squash and king oyster barbacoa; and a savoury coconut cream pie with macadamia crust.
In March 2019, the Folia menu reached Gulf shores, as it was introduced at the Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay, where it is served at the Bay View Lounge. Next, on Tuesday, November 1 – also known as World Vegan Day – it will come to the UAE, to the Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach and the Four Seasons DIFC, both properties Prince Khaled has spent "considerable time at and love".
There are also plans to take Folia to several more locations throughout the Middle East and Europe.
While health-conscious diners will be attracted to the concept, Prince Khaled is careful to stress Folia is "not meant for a specific subset of customers. It is meant for everyone who wants a culinary experience without the negative impact that eating out so often comes with."
Virtual banks explained
What is a virtual bank?
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority defines it as a bank that delivers services through the internet or other electronic channels instead of physical branches. That means not only facilitating payments but accepting deposits and making loans, just like traditional ones. Other terms used interchangeably include digital or digital-only banks or neobanks. By contrast, so-called digital wallets or e-wallets such as Apple Pay, PayPal or Google Pay usually serve as intermediaries between a consumer’s traditional account or credit card and a merchant, usually via a smartphone or computer.
What’s the draw in Asia?
Hundreds of millions of people under-served by traditional institutions, for one thing. In China, India and elsewhere, digital wallets such as Alipay, WeChat Pay and Paytm have already become ubiquitous, offering millions of people an easy way to store and spend their money via mobile phone. Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines are also among the world’s biggest under-banked countries; together they have almost half a billion people.
Is Hong Kong short of banks?
No, but the city is among the most cash-reliant major economies, leaving room for newcomers to disrupt the entrenched industry. Ant Financial, an Alibaba Group Holding affiliate that runs Alipay and MYBank, and Tencent Holdings, the company behind WeBank and WeChat Pay, are among the owners of the eight ventures licensed to create virtual banks in Hong Kong, with operations expected to start as early as the end of the year.
Bert van Marwijk factfile
Born: May 19 1952
Place of birth: Deventer, Netherlands
Playing position: Midfielder
Teams managed:
1998-2000 Fortuna Sittard
2000-2004 Feyenoord
2004-2006 Borussia Dortmund
2007-2008 Feyenoord
2008-2012 Netherlands
2013-2014 Hamburg
2015-2017 Saudi Arabia
2018 Australia
Major honours (manager):
2001/02 Uefa Cup, Feyenoord
2007/08 KNVB Cup, Feyenoord
World Cup runner-up, Netherlands
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
World Cricket League Division 2
In Windhoek, Namibia - Top two teams qualify for the World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe, which starts on March 4.
UAE fixtures
Thursday February 8, v Kenya; Friday February 9, v Canada; Sunday February 11, v Nepal; Monday February 12, v Oman; Wednesday February 14, v Namibia; Thursday February 15, final
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
MATCH INFO
Europa League final
Who: Marseille v Atletico Madrid
Where: Parc OL, Lyon, France
When: Wednesday, 10.45pm kick off (UAE)
TV: BeIN Sports
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
