Al Khatun was the honorific Iraqi name for Gertrude Bell, who died in Baghdad in 1926. Born and bred in Victorian England, a precocious and gifted scholar, she fell in love with Persia and the deserts of the Middle East. She was a linguist, photographer, archeologist, writer, political advisor, and even a spy. Hired as the Oriental Secretary to the Civil Administrator of Iraq, she broke the gender barrier in the British Foreign Service and supplied crucial information on the Iraqi tribal sheiks. She then was critical in the establishment of King Faisal on the Iraqi throne.