Desert Queen-Gertrude Bell and the Creation of Modern Iraq

Left-Bell with Winston Churchill and T.E.Lawrence -Lower Right King Faisal is in foreground on the right`-On Right Bell at an unknown age-````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
I prefer biographies in which the author both admires and would appear to have enjoyed the company of the subject. In Desert Queen,a biography of Gertrude Bell, Janet Wallach meets both of these criteria.
Bell was an upper class Englishwoman (1868-1926), who, perhaps more than any other, defined the boundaries and political structures of modern Iraq. A headstrong woman and one of the first female graduates of Oxford, she was a first rate mountaineer and archeologist and an incredibly astute judge of people. A woman of prodigious physical energy and will, she was considered an honorary man by Arab sheiks and Moslem holy men. Wallach paints a vivid picture of the late and decaying Ottoman Empire and gives many vivid accounts of its' cosmopolitan flair and incredible diversity. Arabs, Christians, Greeks, Persians, Jews, Turks, businessmen, Bedouins, Shiites, Sunnis and other Europeans come to life. The noises and smells of the souk and the starkness and beauty of the desert give the book a physical dimension that complements the character and ethnic portraits.
Selected Quotes
"She stepped carefully away from the piles of dung left by camels and mules parading through the labyrinth of alleys. The narrow streets were a storefront for fortune tellers reading palms, public scribes and seal engravers selling their services…a cacophony of cries from ragged beggars and sweaty street merchants and wailing muezzins…pistachio nuts, roasted peas, sweet Damascene pastries, licorice, biscuits and all kinds of breads…. sherbet sellers in bright read aprons…." A description of Damascus: "…. pashas in gold embroidered robes, sheiks in gilt-edged cloaks; Turks covered in long silk coats with colorful turbans wound round their heads; Christians in frock coats holding rosaries in their hands; Jews with long beards, their heads in turbans, their pants in Turkish style; Armenians and Greeks in colorfully embroidered tunics; old men proudly wearing green turbans that announced they had made the pilgrimage to Mecca; Bedouin just in from the desert, in their striped blue abbas and kafeeyahs……."

The heat, dust and other physical discomforts are contrasted with the gardens of dates and magnificent flowers. The stark beauty of the desert, the poetry, the rhythm of the souk, the concept of honor and the feudal nature of society are all apparent from the narrative. It is not clear how much of these descriptions are derived from Bell herself or are Wallachs interpretations, however Wallach a woman who has apparently traveled extensively in the Middle East, is capable of painting or at least transcribing the essential "feel" of specific locales. She is able to bring to life a society of gracious manners, cutthroat rogues, and cunning sheiks while not ignoring the timeless poverty and the slavish condition of women.
Bell, a women bitterly disappointed in her love life, is overwhelmed by the romance of the Middle East. She is consumed with the vision of an Arabian kingdom which will progress in tandem with its' British guides and which will be able to integrate British legal, educational and economic features, while maintaining the essential features of an Arabian identity. At the core of the vision of Bell, as filtered through Wallach (as I have not read any of the primary source material), is a dual vision of the Arab world. At once romantic in both the noble savage sense, as well as the cosmopolitan world of the late Ottoman Empire, and yet capable of progressing into a modern democracy. These considerations are obviously important today and not much has changed in the last 80-90 years.

I suspect that Bell, although a realist and imperialist at heart, succumbed to this vision of the Middle East and particularly of Iraq.

The issues we face today, as liberators are in most ways analogous to the situation faced by the British after the Versailles treaty in the early 1920's.
*...The only unifying concept in Iraq was anti British feeling
*...The conflict between Sunni (town) and Shiite (country)
*...The Ottoman pluralistic society versus a Moslem theocracy
*...Fear of Zionism
*... Commercial interests (British navy switched from coal to oil prior to WWI by Churchill at admiralty) versus humanitarian
*...Lack of constitutional history
*...Tribal fealty primary
*...Conflict with Wahabbi sect-war with Ibn Saud's forces constant
*...Greater Arabia (Arab or Moslem).
*...Failure of will and willingness to commit resources to stay the course

Considering the difficulties then, the imposition of the Hashemite dynasty, which reigned until 1958, was remarkably long lived, although it ended and was punctuated by assasinations. Bell would seem to deserve a great deal of credit for at least bringing about some stability although I suspect she considered the effort a failure on one or more levels. The author does not offer a direct opinion on this issue.

I believe the romantic viewcan be a form of disease like so much of nostalgia. Nostalgia has been characterized as a mild form of depression. (I have seen this attributed to Abby Hoffman but I hope he cribbed it from someone else). Bell committed suicide at the age of 58. (Aside-could Bell have been bipolar-the suicide, the compulsive physical and mental exertion, inappropriate romantic attachments). This romantic view is dangerous when it progresses beyond the trivial towards a framework for policy. It ignores the painful dislocations necessary for political, material and indeed moral progress and is a real anchor weighing most heavily on those least able to carry the load. In extreme cases, it leads to phenomenon such as enabling and excusing the worst excrescences of the cult of victimization, such as rationalizing Palestinian barbarity towards their own children.

Romanticization is nostalgia for something you have never experienced.

Since the book was a biography of Bell, it ended essentially with her death. It was written in 1996 between the two Gulf War's. I would like to know the success in nation building during the nearly 40 years of Hashemite rule and the lessons for the US today.
Last point from following link-

"Gertrude Bell was afraid of a Shia majority in Iraq. She believed that if the Shiites had majority status in the new country, they'd soon be demanding an Islamic republic that would be anti-western and anti-modern. Again this has a modern resonance. Paul Aarts believes that the main factor driving the United States' charge into Iraq was that they wanted to isolate the Shia-dominated Islamic Republic of Iran. Oil interests and lucrative arms contracts were an attractive by-product of this war, but not the main motivation for it."

If the Americans plant a ruler who is seen to be too pro-American, he may well share the same fate as the unhappy Hashemites

Comments

[gianluigi pisapia]

good day to all of you and thanks for the nice web site
I'm an italian lecturer in History and particularely intrested to the Mrs Bell work.- Red lot obout her I only miss an exhaustive photo book of her work .-
Any idea??
any help highòy appreciated

Dr Gianluigi Pisapia

[email protected]

[jamileh yazdi]

where did yo get the photo of gertrude on the right.

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It ignores the painful dislocations necessary for political, material and indeed moral progress and is a real anchor weighing most heavily on those least able to carry the load. In extreme cases, it leads to phenomenon such as enabling and excusing the worst excrescences of the cult of victimization, such as rationalizing Palestinian barbarity towards their own children.

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