# Gertrude Bell Archive, excerpts

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-20 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Gertrude Bell, Gertrude Bell Archive, excerpts, bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> Gertrude Bell Archive, excerpts
> 
> Gertrude Bell
> 
> 1902-1924
> 
> 1. Excerpts
> see more documents at gertrudebell.ncl.ac.uk
> and list of all letters at gertrudebell.ncl.ac.uk/letter_details.php?from_to=all
> 
> 26 March 1902
> 
> Haifa we reached at 7 this morning - it has been a day of bewildering
> experiences. Everyone in Haifa, you must understand, holds a commission
> direct from the Almighty - except, Mr Monaghan who holds his only from a
> paltry king. There must be something in the air of Mount Carmel favourable
> to mental derangement of a special kind - at any rate, if you want to
> commence prophet you take a little house in Haifa; you could scarcely
> begin in any other way. I have already made the acquaintance of one or two
> for this afternoon I went down to Haifa - I live on the top of the hill
> and Haifa is half an hour away to seek out a teacher. The half wit but
> amiable son of my landlord accompanied me saying he wd take me to a German
> who wd give me advice as to when to apply. So we stopped at a neat little
> white house in the German colony and my guide began to converse in low
> tones with Herr Wasserzug - such is his incredible name - through the
> window while I studied the motto on the door: Gott ist unser Burg, they
> all have verses from the Bible over the doors. Presently I also approached
> the window and there was the Prophet in his shirt{sleeves} with bare arms
> working at his trade which I take to be, most suitably, that of a
> carpenter. He at once greeted me in the most fluent English, wrinkled up
> his funny round face and invited me to come in and see his wife who is a
> very nice cultivated English woman - I believe she brought the money which
> enables him to follow the Divine direction. I distinctly like Prophets -
> Herr Wasserzug is a charming man, most intelligent about Semitic languages.
> He sent me off to one Abu Nimrud, a native, comme de droit, of Nineveh,
> who, he said was the best man he cd recommend. On my way I called on Mr
> Monaghan - upon my honour he's just as odd in his own way. A tall,
> stooping, high shouldered, bearded man with a weak mouth and vague eyes -
> the vaguer perhaps because I think I roused him from his midday sleep. He
> offered me books and advice and coffee all in a hurried agitated manner:
> "Can't I - mayn't I - won't you allow me to offer you any of the customary
> refreshments? a cup of coffee? no? no, no! Ah - hm - what do people take
> at this time? (NB it was 4) Yes, yes, a glass of water? - No? no." I took
> however a Persian history of the Babis from him and went off hunting Abu
> Nimrud all over the town.
> 
> Thursday 27. [27 March 1902]
> 
> At last I found him in his shop in the
> bazaar, a polite old party with whom I speedily came to terms - he
> agreed to come up and give me my first lesson today, but need I say he
> hasn't come. The next thing was to get a Persian. My old friend 'Abbas
> Effendi the head of the sect, is now confined to Acre ['Akko]; something
> has happened, I don't quite know what, but anyway he and his younger
> brother have quarrelled and the brother got the Turks to forbid 'Abbas to
> leave Acre, though he has a house here too. I heard however that the son
> in law of 'Abbas, Husein Effendi, lived here and I determined to apply to
> him. Accordingly I made my way to his shop - a sort of little general
> store like the shop of a small country town - and in this unlikely setting
> I found a company of grave Persians, sitting round on the biscuit tins and
> the bags of grain, and Husein himself leaning over the counter. The
> typical, the unmistakable mystic, inheritor of all the centuries of
> Persian mysticism, he is of the pÄte of which martyrs and ascetics are
> made and he wd go to the stake with the same dreamy ecstatic smile on his
> long drawn face as it wore when he answered my inquiries after 'Abbas
> Effendi who is for him the representative of the B…b, the Prophet that was
> to come. The upshot of it is that I hope I shall end by getting a Persian
> to come and talk to me. A horse was the next necessity and horse dealers
> my next acquaintances - I see one at this instant upon the road bringing
> me up to horse to try. I am excellently lodged in two rooms with a balcony
> from whence I see all across the bay and Acre at the end of a long stretch
> of sand, and the Plain of Esdraelon with Kishon [Qishon] running through
> it, and far away Hermon [Sheikh, Jebel esh] white with snow. Later. But
> for all that I find I shall have to d‚m‚nager. Abu Nimrud came up this
> morning and gave me a long lesson, but he declared that it was too far for
> him to come and that he could only get me a Persian on condition that I wd
> come down into the town, so I rode down this afternoon and inspected the
> two hotels and fixed on one standing in a charming garden where I could
> get 2 big comfortable rooms; it has the further advantage of being kept by
> Syrians so that I shall hear and speak nothing but Arabic. Mr Monaghan
> came to see me while I was out, but I met him as I rode up - I was riding
> a horse something like a clothes horse, but I'm to try another tomorrow
> and Mr M. also has one in his eye that would do for me. Mr M. is most
> obliging. He is coming up here on Saturday and on Sunday we are going to
> ride to Athlit ['Atlit], a wonderful Crusader castle on the sea some 3
> hours from here. Husein Effendi's brother in law is going to teach me
> Persian. He is a cheerful young man with a round face
> 
> 13/04/1902
> 
> Sun. 14. [sic] [13 April 1902] Rode over to Acre ['Akko]. Visited the
> mosque wh is charming and went to the house of 'Abbas who was out. Got a
> letter to Abu Kasim his gardener at the garden by the Nahr Na'man, Shahuta
> is its name [Persian[?] characters] where I lunched under the trees Abu
> Kasim discoursing to me the while on religion and Abbas in Persian.
> Reg.[?] oriental untidy garden full of flowers. Came rain and I sat on his
> balcony and drank tea. Then rode off to the Bahjeh a really lovely place
> with a big tank and pines and cypresses. Went into the house and talked to
> the women. Then on to the Bahjeh House behind where the Beha's tomb is,
> where the gardener gave me flowers and so back to Acre where I succeeded
> in seeing 'Abbas. He was most polite but not very cordial I thought. His
> servants treat him with immense respect. We spoke chiefly of the
> possibilities of a universal language. So home getting in at 6.45. Talked
> to Mr Khaddar and Mr Rust who left next day early.
> 
> 14/04/1902
> 
> Mon. {13} 14 [14 April 1902] After lunch called on Amin Abd ul Nur's wife
> and went to Marun's where I photographed his Arab. Then to Bahaj. Felt
> very ill and came home to find I had fever. Had a Persian lesson in a sort
> of nightmare and dreamt of it all night. 2 American globe trotters,
> husband and wife went off today to see Abbas with Balora. Nice old things.
> 
> Wed 23 [23 April 1902]
> 
> All the 4 Americans went off early to my great
> regret. There remain in the hotel a party of Syrians Fuad Saad and his
> wife and children and governess, nice people, from Akka ['Akko (Acre)].
> Muhammad Ali and Badi' Allah live in his house. Rode up from Balad esh
> Sheikh meaning to find my way up to Khureibeh, but I missed it and got
> into impossible places and was obliged to turn back. Found the lovely wild
> broom.
> 
> Sun 4. [4 May 1902]
> 
> Drove with M. Abdullah and A. and R. Khanums to Akka
> ['Akko (Acre)]. Got to[?] Baghjle[?] about 11.30 where we lunched with his
> mother, sister and brother in law. A son of Muhammad 'Ali's was also there
> Shu'a Allah. Then I was taken to see the tomb set about with lamps and
> covered with carpets. Zitt Allah is also buried here. Then to see
> Fughuriyeh Khanum and her husband Sayyid 'Ali. Then to the greatest widow
> Bibi Kh. [Arabic characters] or Khanumi or Hazrat Haram where there were a
> lot of young women probably granddaughters and a daughter I think.
> Samadiah Khanum. Drove off to Akka ['Akko (Acre)] where I called on
> Muhammad 'Ali and Badi Allah and saw the other wife Ghauhar[?] Khanum.
> (Abba's Mother's name was [Arabic characters] So home getting in at 7.
> 
> Tues 6. Wed 7. Thurs 8. Fri. 9. Sat. 10. [6-10 May 1902]
> 
> On Tuesday I dined with Amir Abd ul Nour to meet Mr Monahan [i.e. Monaghan]; Badri Beg
> and Mr P. Abela made up the party. After dinner they had in old Mushkin
> Kalam who did tricks for us. Amin Effendi and I went to see him one
> afternoon this week. Very hot.
> 
> Mon 23. [23 January 1905]
> 
> Began the day by chasing a thief who had
> stolen a belt of Sim'an's. Found the thief but not the belt. Got off at
> 8.15. Very delightful day, cold but sunny. Inspected the great bi'rs at
> Ras ul Ain. The road lay over two great headlands, Ras el Abyad and Ras en
> Nakurah [Naqoura, Ras ed], very splendid with the sea beating up against
> them. Then a long plain past Zib and the orange gardens of the Akka ['Akko
> (Acre)] plain. Just before I reached the Bagheheh my horse fell dead lame
> and I had to change with Sim'an. At the Bagheheh Sayyid Ali Effendi made
> me most welcome and his wife and mother in law fell on my neck and gave me
> good Persian tea. Stayed talking with them over an hour. Badi 'Allah has
> joined Abbas Effendi but Muhammad Ali is irreconcilable. They loaded me
> with flowers and I rode off in the dusk. Went to see Miss Ramsay and found
> her just going out to dinner. Camped outside the gate. Coldish.
> 
> Tues 24. [24 January 1905]
> 
> One of Sayyid 'Ali's sons is at school in the
> Lebanon and he thinks of sending him to the Colliyeh or to America.)
> Breakfasted with the Ramsays. I sent Abbas Effendi a message through Dr
> Gould asking if he would like to see me and received the answer that he wd
> prefer not. I think he is afraid of me because I know too much of the
> ikhtilaf. The stream of Americans has begun again and the money flows in.
> Miss Ramsay says that Abbas is very much on his guard against her and she
> no longer teaches the girls English. Perhaps what Ba Hajj says is true
> that the Americans have taught Abbas that he is the Messiah. Walked about
> the town with Miss R. and say [sic] a very beautiful khan, the Persian
> khan with great columns all round and rough capitals. Lunched with the
> Ramsays and drove to Haifa in the streaming rain. Ibrahim Nassar and his
> wife delighted to see me. Walked into Abdullah's tea house and drank tea
> with him. Then to the hospital where I saw Miss [space left blank]. My
> horse is I fear incurable. Streaming rain and wind.
> 
> 8 January 1907
> 
> After H. left yesterday I went to the Khedivial library and
> had a very interesting talk with Dr Moritz who showed me lots of beautiful
> things. We became so deep in talk that I brought him home to lunch with me
> and then he came up to see Father for a few moments. After he went I sat
> with Father most of the afternoon except for half an hour when I had to go
> and see Countess Bernstorff whose day it was. Sir John Harrington came in
> late and stayed till nearly dinner time but Father did not see him as his
> doctor was there. This morning I went at cockcrow to Dr Moritz's house and
> we looked at photographs and talked of Sassanian ornament for three happy
> hours. It really was delightful. I got home at 12 and found Father quite
> brisk. He rested after lunch and Mrs Napier and I went to the bazaars
> where I found some Persian friends and was entertained with tea. They knew
> the Acre ['Akko] people and had seen my photograph in their houses. They
> were Beha'is of course.
> 
> 10 January 1907
> 
> I went to the library yesterday morning and had out books and discussed
> some ornaments with Moritz. While Father rested after lunch I went out
> with Mrs Napier and showed her some mosques. After tea I was flooded out
> with Persians! They were all Beha'is who came to see me thinking I was a
> believer! I had to tell them at once I wasn't, however they have asked me
> to tea undaunted.
> 
> 18 January 1907 Cairo
> 
> I paid a visit on a lot of Persians today; most delightful it was. They
> are Beha'is of course, nice people. It's become quite a habit to be in
> this hotel! a bad habit. Your affectionate daughter Gertrude
> 
> [10 October 1920]
> 
> I had my usual group of colleagues, Major Yetts, Capt.
> Clayton and Major Murray to dine last week and with them Saiyid Husain
> Afnan, the editor of one of the vernacular papers and a great friend of
> Capt Clayton and me. His remarkable career is as follows: he is the
> grandson through his mother of Baha Ullah, the Persian reformer (father of
> 'Abbas Effendi whom Lisa met in London) who was exiled by the Shah and
> allowed by the Sultan to live at Acre ['Akko]. There Saiyid Husain was
> born - a direct descendant of the Prophet through Husain who was killed at
> Karbala. He was educated at the Quaker school at Brumana in the Lebanon,
> graduated at the American college at Beyrut [Beyrouth (Beirut)] and at
> Cambridge. During the war he was in charge of a prisoner's camp in India.
> You saw him here - he was then in business with Mahmud Shabandar. He is a
> free thinker, talks English as well as I do, almost, is bi-lingual as far
> as Persian and Arabic are concerned and has a profound knowledge of the
> near East coupled with a complete understanding of the European point of
> view and a great sympathy with it. I think him one of the most interesting
> people I know. He is not very hopeful about the East. What strikes him -
> and I must say it strikes me as far as I know about it - is the
> viciousness of private life and the entire lack of morals. The mode of
> existence of most of the young and ardent nationalists would surprise you,
> added to which, says Saiyid Husain "What can you expect of people who
> never go to bed sober?" Don't for a moment think that it's all due to
> western contact. Town life has always been the same, and whether they get
> drunk on champagne or on araq doesn't affect the matter. The fact is I
> don't think you will ever find - or very very rarely - a Mohammadan who
> lives a decent existence, but not beginning to be decent. And he pays the
> price physically, which means mentally also. The remedy I don't know. It's
> surprising, when you come to think of it that we in Europe should have
> found out that a reasonable minimum of virtue and honesty are essential
> concomitants of any successful society. They haven't found it out in Asia,
> no matter what religion they happen to belong to.
> 
> 26 February 1922
> 
> I ended the day with a dinner party in my own house to
> which came Mr Cooke, Saiyid Muhi al Din (the second, and far the
> cleverest, son of the Naqib) the Governor of Baghdad (Taufiq Khalidi)
> Hikmat Sulaiman, an able cynical man - his brother was a famous War
> Minister under the Turks - and 'Abdul Latif Nuri, a member of the 'Iraq
> Army General Staff. Muhi al Din, Taufiq and Hikmat are all men of singular
> breadth of mind. People who think that the East has a wholly different
> mentality from the West should hear men of this kind when they are talking
> freely together as I think they do in my house. The real difference is in
> character; they are very reluctant to give themselves away in public - the
> weight of popular ignorance and superstition bears too heavily upon them.
> These three were discussing that night an episode which may possibly give
> the 'Iraq Govt some trouble. There's a house in Baghdad which belonged to
> Baha Ullah, the Persian founder of a reformed sect of Islam. The Bahais
> regard it with great reverence because Baha Ullah lived there for a time
> after he was exiled from Persia, some 60 years ago. The Shi'ahs, always
> the most fanatical and conservative element, treat the Bahais as
> schismatics, and are protesting against their retention of this house on
> the ground that it is a nest of heretics. The King and the Naqib are
> equally indignant at the agitation. The Naqib loathes the superstition of
> the Shi'ahs and to hear the King, in his more expansive moments, on the
> Shi'ah divines - well, it's a privilege. My Sunni guests, all of them
> really free-thinkers, were equally outspoken, and I can't help hoping that
> in this matter of the Bahai house the mujtahids - damnation to all of them
> - may find that they have embarked on a pretty tough proposition.
> 
> [13 February 1924] Baghdad
> 
> But how to prevent the King from interfering in administration - that's
> the problem. There has been a terrific affair today. (This is all secret.)
> It arose out of an order given by H.M. which quashed a decision of the
> Court of First Instance, confirmed by the Court of Appeal. It's a
> complicated case, a Shi'ah suit against the Bahais for the possession of a
> house; religious fanaticism lies at the bottom of it and H.M., who is
> playing up to the Shi'ahs, backed them. The Council backed H.M., Ja'far
> not being one who would ever go against him. It was a clear case of the
> executive overruling the judicial and Sir Henry took an absolutely firm
> stand. He pointed out that if such things occurred the Courts would lose
> all credit and the abrogation of capitulations would become impossible. He
> insisted on the King's withdrawing his order and the King has undertaken
> to do so - I've not yet heard the details of the conversation which took
> place between H.M. and Ken this morning (poor Ken was of course the person
> who had to represent H.E.'s views to H.M.!) but I saw the King this
> afternoon at the Arab polo. He was all smiles, I'm bound to say; he was
> dressed in his most beautiful Arab clothes and he was playing the part of
> King of the Arabs in his finest manner. He was surrounded by shaikhs of
> the tribes of Najd [(Nejd)] who had fled from Ibn Sa'ud and come up to
> Faisal, much to the gratification of the latter! There are persistent
> rumours that Ibn Sa'ud is dead but I doubt if they are true. They will be
> soon, for we hear he has cancer, poor Sultan. On the whole the world will
> be simpler without him, I fear.
> 
> [9 January 1924] Baghdad
> 
> On Saturday afternoon I rode down to see Haji Naji. He really is a
> wonderful old thing. His natural good sense and breadth of view are
> surprising. There has been a silly fuss made by some extreme Shi'ahs,
> confound their politics, about a house in Kadhimain [(Al Kazimiyah)]
> belonging to the Bahais, indeed to members of Saiyid Husain Afnan's
> family. It's all because they're jealous of him, poor dear, but they put
> it on religious grounds - confound religion - an infidel house in a sacred
> city and so forth. A deputation came to Haji Naji to ask him to sign a
> petition in this sense. Said he, relating the episode: "I like Saiyid
> Husain; he is a good young man. So I said: Look you at India. There are
> people who worship stones and those who worship men and idols and trees
> and bits of rag. What do the English? they pay no attention. And why
> should we trouble as to what others worship. Suppose I wish to worship
> this ass (that is donk" explained Haji Naji, in parenthesis, in case I
> shouldn't understand, for he used a colloquial word.) I say it is a very
> good ass and fit to be worshipped. Does it concern you? And 'Wallah! true'
> they answered and went away."
> 
> 2. Links to photos
> search for more, e.g. gerty.ncl.ac.uk/search_photos_results.php?search_photos=acre
> 
> Photo of Akka June 1900, gerty.ncl.ac.uk/photo_details.php?photo_id=512
> 
> Akka "The Babi House" (?) 1899-1900, gertrudebell.ncl.ac.uk/photo_details.php?photo_id=510
> 
> June 1900 Akka Citadel, gerty.ncl.ac.uk/photo_details.php?photo_id=511
> 
> June 1900 Akka from the sea, gerty.ncl.ac.uk/photo_details.php?photo_id=509
> 
> Haifa June 1900, a Persian [Persian man in courtyard in Wadi Salib area of Old City], gertrudebell.ncl.ac.uk/photo_details.php?photo_id=516
> 
> This is a well known photo of Azal. The description says Gertrude Bell is the photographer (?). It's a photo of good quality; maybe she *is* the photographer. Caption: [Portrait of an Arab man - seated. Printed on card]. gerty.ncl.ac.uk/photo_details.php?photo_id=517
> 
> Harbor and Sea wall of Akka June 1900, gerty.ncl.ac.uk/photo_details.php?photo_id=518
> 
> Akka from harbor, gerty.ncl.ac.uk/photo_details.php?photo_id=519
> 
> Corn market in Haifa June 1900, gerty.ncl.ac.uk/photo_details.php?photo_id=520
> 
> METADATA
> 
> Views3998 views since posted 2019-06-29; last edit 2025-03-27 03:43 UTC;
> 
> previous at archive.org.../bell_pilgrims_notes
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> Shortlink: bahai-library.com/5124
> Citation: ris/5124
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> — *Gertrude Bell Archive, excerpts (Used by permission of the curator)*