Britain and the Arab Middle East

by Cooper, Lisa;

  I climbed a hill outside the town, walking through brushwood full of primroses, hepaticas, anemones and violets, and at the top there was a ruined church, very lonely and beautiful – I felt again as if I must be back in the East and half wondered why Jusef was not there to carry my camera and Fattuh to hold my measuring tape.66

  Such reflections clearly indicate that the East had taken hold of Bell. She would not stay away much longer.

  Mesopotamia and Persia, 1911

  ‘I have not heard anything of politics – not thought of anything but archaeology. It's so enchanting to plunge into it again.’67 Such were Bell's sentiments upon arriving in Cairo and spending two days with her old friends, the scholars Bernhard Moritz and Enno Littmann, having talked ‘ceaselessly about the origins of Moslem art – interspersed with much gossip about the people who are researching into them’.68 This was the start of Bell's trip to the East, shortly after which she would sail to Beirut, and then journey overland to Damascus. From Damascus, her intent was to carry out an intrepid camel ride straight across the Syrian desert, approaching her beloved Ukhaidir from the west (Fig. 5.4).

  Although Bell was going to be travelling to many of the places she had visited in 1909, her 1911 undertaking was different in character. This was not so much a journey of exploration as it had been in 1909, when Bell travelled off the beaten track into remote regions simply for their own sake. Now, she had a list of specific places that she wanted to visit and particular objectives to be carried out at each of them. She was focused on the things that needed to be seen, planned and photographed, and she did not waste much time in between.

  In light of such determined motives, which are borne out in Bell's letters and diaries, we will address what others have conjectured about this stage of her life, and the nature of her pre-war interest in the East, particularly Mesopotamia, the principal objective of her travel in both 1909 and 1911. Since Mesopotamia was the country in which Bell would chiefly focus her intelligence activities during the war that was to follow only a few years later, there has been speculation that the true nature of Bell's pre-war travels involved gathering information for the British government. One can certainly discern her interest in the current political affairs of the country – amply evident, for example, in Amurath to Amurath, which features long commentaries about modern Mesopotamia and the Ottoman Empire's control over it. Moreover, even the book's dedication, as has been noted, had a markedly political overtone in its address to Lord Cromer. Adding to this impression are the opinions of others who knew Bell at the time, such as Walter Andrae. Andrae would later write in his memoirs that he suspected Bell had been a spy when she came to visit him at Assur in 1911.69 Considering the degree of esteem in which Bell held Andrae, the amount of his work she endeavoured to emulate in her own scholarship, and the fact that her Ukhaidir account – indisputably the scholarly achievement of which she was most proud – was dedicated to Andrae, this remark seems surprisingly inapposite. But Bell's later political career was of such a remarkable and all-pervading nature that for many, it was difficult to recall that she had once not been an agent of the British government in Mesopotamia.

  Fig. 5.4 Map of the Near East, showing the route of Bell’s 1911 journey, which included visits to Ukhaidir and the Persian frontier before heading through northern Mesopotamia and across Anatolia.

  Bell's 1911 travel itinerary dispels any notions concerning her intelligence-gathering aims and activities. Although she passed through Damascus and Baghdad, where the politics swirled around her, she spent more time in the desert – following, for example, the old caravan route across the Syrian desert to Ukhaidir, or eastwards from Baghdad, where she intrepidly crossed over into the Persian frontier to visit the ruins at Qasr-i-Shirin. Bell also took in the ruins at Assur and Hatra, then swiftly made her way up to the Tur-Abdin to complete her survey of the Christian churches in that remote area of south-eastern Anatolia. All of these places were far removed from the political and economic centres of the Ottoman administration. But they interested her archaeologically and were relevant to her research either on Ukhaidir or on late antique ecclesiastical architecture.

  Constructions around Ukhaidir, Early March 1911

  Bell's planned trip across the Syrian desert from Damascus was hampered by severe cold and snow, which detained her for many days.70 She eventually left the city on 9 February, but even still, her progress was slow, and it took the remainder of the month to cross the cold and wet desert with her caravan of guides, guards and camels before she reached the town of Hit on the Euphrates River (23 February) and then Ukhaidir to the south (1 March). Upon arriving at the castle, Bell set herself to re-measuring and planning some of its architectural features, taking additional notes about its construction and layout and photographing features that she had neglected to record during her first visit in 1909 (see also Chapter 3).

  By this second trip to Ukhaidir, Bell was also curious about the palace's surroundings and the geographical and historical context in which Ukhaidir may have grown and developed; she thus took some time to visit and record sites that were thought to be contemporary with Ukhaidir and related to it in some way. Among these was the site of Qusair (Bell's Qṣair), about seven km (4.5 miles) north-west of Ukhaidir, to which Bell rode one day to inspect and photograph it, and where she observed a few houses, along with rectangular tanks.71 She conjectured that at Qusair had been obtained the gypsum to make the mortar that held together the masonry of the Ukhaidir palace, and that it also had provided lodgings for the gypsum workers.72 Investigations of this site in more recent times, however, have shown that it was a Late Sasanian-period settlement containing the remains of two Christian churches.73 The site should thus be dated earlier than Ukhaidir, and there is no evidence that it manufactured gypsum, as Bell had postulated. Nevertheless, Bell's photographs of the standing architecture at Qusair have proven valuable. An archaeological survey conducted later in the twentieth century found that some of this architecture had subsequently crumbled and disappeared.74

  Once her work at Ukhaidir was finished, Bell took the time to visit some of the ruins that lay in the desert between Ukhaidir and Najaf and the Euphrates River to the east. One of the sites, reached after about three to four hours’ ride from Ukhaidir over sandy desert (roughly 25 km), was a ruined, round brick tower called Manara Mujda (Bell's Mudjḍah). At the time of Bell's visit in 1911, the zone of recessed niches with rectangular heads above the level of the doorway was fully preserved all the way around the tower, as were even higher courses of plain brickwork and a course of dog-tooth brickwork (Fig. 5.5).75 When Creswell passed by the tower in the early 1930s, several courses of brickwork at the top had disappeared in places. By the time of Finster and Schmidt's visit in 1973, up to ten courses of brickwork had crumbled.76 Today, the zone of recessed niches is more than half-destroyed in places, regrettably demonstrating its significant deterioration over the past 100 years.77

  With no ruins in its vicinity, the Mujda tower appears to have stood on its own. Bell conjectured that it functioned as a landmark for caravans passing over this flat expanse of desert from Najaf over to ‘Ain al-Tamr, a short distance to the north-west of Ukhaidir, where there was an oasis.78 Bell hesitated to give a firm date for Mujda, save to say that on the basis of its primitive arch construction, it should be earlier than comparable minarets assigned to the thirteenth century CE.79 Later scholars who visited this remarkable tower agree that it functioned to mark the way across the desert towards Ukhaidir or ‘Ain al-Tamr, and that it would have served as part of the 1400-km Darb Zubayda, the Muslim pilgrim route that linked the religious centre of Kufa, at Najaf, with Mecca and Medina in the Hijaz.80 Some scholars have further noted that its inspiration may have come from the watchtowers constructed in this area during the Sasanian period, which served to guard southern Mesopotamia's western frontier.81 Mujda is now postulated to be contemporary with Ukhaidir, or perhaps earlier in the Umayyad period, before the settlement in the area around ‘Ain
al-Tamr had begun to decline.82

  After a few more hours of riding across the flat desert away from Mujda, in the direction of Najaf, Bell and her entourage reached Khan ‘Atshan, a ruined caravanserai, where Bell stopped to camp and took the time to plan and photograph (Fig. 5.6). Bell was actually the first European to visit and properly plan this structure. She noted its square, defensive appearance, with thick walls strengthened by projecting round towers, and a fortified gateway.83 Inside, a courtyard with a water tank gave access to covered chambers, one of these having the appearance of a vaulted iwan (no. 5).84 She observed that several of ‘Atshan's architectural details – notably the plan of its fortified gateway, the method of vault and semi-dome construction (in Room 6), and the decoration of engaged columns and arched niches – could also be found in the palace at Ukhaidir, suggesting a proximate date.85 Moreover, ‘Atshan's location, about halfway between Kufa and Ukhaidir, with the Mujda tower to mark the halfway point to Ukhaidir, suggested to her that it must have been part of the same route system that connected all of these places in the same time period or slightly later.86 Creswell, in his own investigation of ‘Atshan, concurred that the site was contemporary with Ukhaidir.87 Further, he conjectured that with its vaulted iwan and a nearby room that had a distinctively elegant semi-dome of concentric brick rings (Creswell's Room G and Bell's Room 7), it did not serve as a regular khan but rather would have been used by someone of princely stature, like Isa, nephew of al-Mansur, the possible builder of Ukhaidir, who would have treated ‘Atshan as a stopping place on his occasional trips to Kufa for Friday prayers.88 As convincing as Creswell's interpretation may be, a more recent study of ‘Atshan by Finster and Schmidt has drawn attention to certain architectural details (more rounded archways and rounded door wings) and pottery that must be dated earlier than Ukhaidir, and the authors therefore postulate a pre-Abbasid date for the ruin.89

  Bell's photographs indicate ‘Atshan's extreme state of dilapidation; long cracks were clearly visible in the brickwork of the structures, and much of the superstructure and roofing had long ago caved in.90 By the time of Creswell's visit, some 20 years after Bell's, the height of the enclosure wall to the east of the main entrance had diminished just over two metres, apparently due to brick robbing.91 By the time of Finster and Schmidt's visit in the 1970s, deterioration from the elements had led to a further crumbling of the elliptical barrel vault in Room 6.92 Today, ‘Atshan is not a well-preserved site but instead a pale echo of its once-princely state in the desert more than one thousand years ago.

  Fig. 5.5 Bell’s photograph of the tower of Manara Mujda, near Ukhaidir, in southern Iraq. Although much diminished from its original height, this brick tower’s fluting, dog-tooth ornament and rectangular niches are still preserved in its lower courses. The tower probably functioned to mark the way across the desert as part of the Muslim pilgrim route to Mecca and Medina in the early Islamic period.

  Fig. 5.6 The caravanserai of Khan ‘Atshan, in the desert near Ukhaidir, with its outer round towers. The building is believed to be earlier than Ukhaidir, although the two places share similar architectural features. Bell’s photographs of the building, taken in 1911, bear testimony to long cracks in the brickwork and a much-crumbled superstructure and roofing. Today, the site is even further ruined.

  Bell's visit and plans of these desert structures around Ukhaidir represent the first concerted attempt to record their ruins and situate them in the wider context of the desert east of the Euphrates, their possible relationship to Ukhaidir, and peoples’ movements in the region when Ukhaidir was occupied. Later research would expand upon or refine Bell's earlier suppositions, particularly about postulated dates, but it is still generally agreed that both ‘Atshan and Mujda served within a system of way-stations or markers on a route that led away from Kufa into the desert, and that Ukhaidir itself was also linked to this route. Bell's description and plans of Qusair, Mujda and ‘Atshan, reported in full in her 1914 publication Palace and Mosque at Ukhaidir,93 are all basically correct, and her photographs preserve a useful record of structures that have since fallen into further disrepair or have disappeared altogether.

  Qasr-i-Shirin

  A daring aspect of Bell's 1911 journey was her venture beyond the borders of Ottoman-controlled Mesopotamia, into the Persian frontier to the east. The objective of this particular trip was Qasr-i-Shirin, an ancient site located in the Kermanshah province of Persia. Her interest in this site was prompted by her study of Sasanian palatial architecture, its influence on the site of Ukhaidir, and her knowledge that the ruins of at least one Sasanian palace were believed to exist there. According to literary tradition, one of the residences of the last Sasanian king, Khosrow II (590–628 CE), had been established there in honour of his beloved queen, Shirin.

  Qasr-i-Shirin had been previously investigated by the French archaeologist Jacques de Morgan, who had briefly stopped by the ruins in 1891 and had published his plans of the principal buildings he had observed, in his Mission scientifique en Perse.94 Bell was aware of de Morgan's report of the site but did not have the French plans with her, and thus she could neither confirm nor reject some of the architectural elements that de Morgan had indicated, many of which she suspected to be conjectural.95 Her visit aimed to obtain a fuller description of the site and to assess the degree to which its postulated Sasanian design may have inspired later Islamic period palaces, such as Ukhaidir.

  After leaving Baghdad on 19 March 1911, Bell travelled in a north-easterly direction, roughly following the course of the Diyala River, before crossing the hills of Jebel Hamrin and reaching the town of Khaniqin, on the Alwand River, on 22 March.96 From there she moved into the Persian frontier, beyond the Ottoman border, reaching Qasr-i-Shirin on 23 March. She would remain at the site until 26 March, during which time she measured, planned and photographed the site's ruins. Upon her departure, she headed in a north-westerly direction towards the Turkish-Persian border, crossing over and travelling up to Kirkuk, which she reached on 31 March and where she inspected the unique church of Mar Tahmazgard. Afterwards, Bell travelled west, back over to the Tigris, reaching the site of Assur on 3 April.

  At Qasr-i-Shirin, Bell was struck by the picturesque setting in which she now found herself: green grass and wildflowers growing all around and within the ruins, and the snow-covered mountains of the Zagros rising up in the distance to the east.97 Despite the appearance of tranquil beauty, this region of Persia had become lawless, with local groups of Kurds managing their own affairs relatively free of official government interference. According to Bell's account, the Kurds were engaged in various forms of brigandry, extorting heavy levies on individuals and baggage animals passing through their territory.98 Even more unnerving was that just about every person was armed and spent much of their time at rifle practice. Bell began in earnest to plan the Qasr-i-Shirin ruins, only to find bullets whizzing above her head, and so she had to set her camp within the courtyard of a khan in the nearby village, under the protection of the local Kurdish chief (Kerim Khan), he himself being ‘the worst brigand of the whole frontier’.99 Despite the hazards, however, Bell's letters and diaries provide a colourful and happy account of her time spent at Qasr-i-Shirin; these no doubt reflect her enjoyment of both the places and the people she encountered here,100 and her satisfaction with her archaeological work – finding, for example, that the big palace was ‘far nearer to Ukhaidir than de Morgan shows’.101 Bell worked for four days at Qasr-i-Shirin (two full days, and a few hours on the first and last days), planning out the ruined remains that were visible on the surface and taking many photographs. The end product of her work was a plan and detailed description of the Palace of Khosrow. She sometimes referred to this in her diaries and photographs as the ‘big palace’ or the ‘Great Palace’, while the remainder of her work was occupied with the plan of the ‘small palace’, otherwise known as Chehar Qapu, which was located a short distance to the south of the Palace of Khosrow.

  Glancing through the pho
tographs that Bell took of the ruins at Qasr-i-Shirin, one is struck with wonder as to how anything could be properly discerned and planned, particularly without the aid of excavation. Almost all upper parts of the buildings were in a severely ruinous state, having tumbled long ago and appearing as heaps of stone and brick rubble strewn about the ground, with grass growing thickly over the heaped ruins. Nonetheless, Bell patiently made careful observations of the architecture and room arrangements of these edifices, endeavouring to discern their general plans, reporting on significant details of construction and conjecturing as to their function and significance. In the end, her amassed data from Qasr-i-Shirin appear in their final form as an important chapter in her published work Palace and Mosque at Ukhaidir.102

  The Palace of Khosrow (Fig. 5.7)

  Of the ruin which was said to mark the place of the Palace of the Sasanian king Khosrow II (Bell's Khusrau), Bell observed that it was constructed mainly of coursed undressed stones laid in thick gypsum mortar, with a core of stone rubble and concrete.103 Brick appears to have been used occasionally for columns, vaults and arches, but unfortunately, only a few of these features were found standing.104 The palace was built upon a massive raised platform of earth, recalling earlier Achaemenid and Assyrian palaces (i.e., Persepolis and Khorsabad), which were also built on elevated platforms.105 Three sets of double ramps or stairways, also recalling those of earlier Achaemenid palaces, provided access to the top of a large, open court devoid of structures at its eastern end. The monumental palatial complex, comprising an axial arrangement of grand ceremonial reception rooms and massive open courts, with surrounding corridors and private apartments, rose magnificently to the west.106