Love Story from Bereh circa WW1

Excerpt From
Palestine the Land of my Adoption
By JW Clapham

In Bereh there is a spring, from which water has flowed delicious and cold since the time of Abraham.
Not far from the spring lives a fellah woman in a humble dwelling of stone.Daily, whether in the home, beneath the vines or in the field, she carries on her tasks in common with her fellow villagers.

During the first Great War, it was the custom of these village woman to sell fruit and vegetables besides the roadside to British soldiers camped in the vicinity. One day a British sergeant strolled along to make a purchase.There was something in the appearance of one of these women which arrested his attention. A stranger in a strange land, he was amazed to have the impression, growing steadily stronger, that he had seen the face of this woman before, but where?”Was it?….Could It be possible?”. Again their eyes met, and a startling revelation dawned upon him.Now he was sure of something. Stepping forward, he proffered her his hand, and uttered a name that must of set a thrill of astonishment through her very soul, And this is the story;

Many years ago a young Moslem set out from Bereh to seek his fortune in America. Being refused admittance to that country, he turned back to Liverpool, and found employment there in a city resteraunt. Here he met and fell in love with a young English girl, whom he finally induced to marry him and return with him to his native land of Palestine. Utterly confused and bewildered by her totally new surroundings, she resolved, none the less, with true British fortitude to adapt herself to her new way of life.This she did so sucessfully that she earned a just repute as a faithful housewife, and as a worker in the field.

Now hard times had come, and her husband had died.This Brtish sergeant who chanced to stroll along was her own cousin, and by accident of meeting the mystery of her whereabouts had been discovered. Stirred by this romantic reunion, and also by her present need, he offered by gallant impulse to return with her to England when the war should be over. But though her position to him seemed forlorn, nothing could induce this modern Ruth to forsake the company of her mother-in-law. Reluctantly the sergeant bade her farewell, leaving her to live out her life in the land of her adoption. The prospects of the woman again brightened, married to a kinsman of her former husbands, she still continues to pick figs,and grapes and pomegranates in the land of Benjamin, and mingle with the sun browned daughters who draw water from the ancient spring at Bereh.

The Government of Palestine

But who issued identity cards in Palestine nine years Before Israel claimed State hood?

 

But who issued identity cards in Israel nine years prior to it gaining Independence?

A Palestine Motoring Story circa 1920

From the book “Among the Arabs in Bible Lands”
By WK Isling,pub 1924

We went dow to Bethel, where we suceeded in securing a car for Jerusalem. Our driver had spent a number of years in America, and told us he had inaugerated the first service between the Holy City and Ramallah. Soon others followed his example, and then he had brought a more expensive car, when his competitors  followed suit he brought a newer one.He was not sure what stratagem he would try next.There was now about 400 motor cars in Jerusalem and 200 in Jaffa, and many garages and repair shops provide new means of employment.The native handle these cars with such skill that accidents are very rare and this is inspite of limited opportunity for technical training.

A Visit to Al Haram Al Sharif

Excerpt taken from- Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood byWilliam Holman Hunt; published 1914

…….Early in April, however, the Duke of Brabant, the heir-apparent of Belgium, arrived in Jerusalem, and it was whispered that the very enlightened and francophile Pasha of the day was making great efforts to gratify the Duke’s ambitions to enter the enclosure. The Prince had been provided with a firman to enter the Mosque area, yet it was probable, as with many previous travellers coming from Constantinople, that His Highness would be told it would be fatal to the lives of all who attempted to act on the Sultan’s favour; but gossip had not much to indulge in, and soon it was said that the Duke would be privileged to enter the Hareem.

…..presented myself at the appointed place of entrance to the Mosque, and found the secretary nearly alone. The company increased by ones and twos, and the Pasha had just counted twenty-one when our Consul arrived with a train of some thirty English subjects, clergy with their wives, and other ladies connected with mission work. Very obvious was the bewilderment of the Pasha, but his politeness was equal to the need. ….. I was inclined to suspect that he had as poor an estimate as I had of the interest which the majority of the crowd were likely to take in the features of the Mosque, that he would therefore consider that the risk should not be incurred ….

…….. of a summons issued to all the dervishes of the Mosque to assemble in a chamber of the Hareem to discuss a point of great moment, which had to be considered by the holiest authorities. Concluding it was the question of admitting the Belgian prince which had to be debated, they thronged into the building to utter their loudest protests. Delays arose in making certain that all the dervishes were assembled, and then the doors were locked, and a company of soldiers posted outside for an hour to turn the council-chamber into a prison.

(It appears here that, the Duke ad his party showed a complete lack of respect for the Haram al Sharif similar to the Israeli settlers of today)

…….. and we were bidden to follow; passing a few courts belonging to the house, we emerged from a dark passage into the great area which includes the site of the ancient Temple.It was a moment in life to make one’s heart stir as the door was turned on its hinges, and the way into this long-dreamed-of, much-longed-for, yet ever-forbidden sanctum was at last open to us.

…… Now the place was empty, and I gazed with boundless delight on the beautiful combination of marble architecture, mellowed by the sun of ages, of mossy-like cypresses, and Persian slabs of jewel hues.

….if all the Christian visitors to the Mosque that day felt the respect for Mahomedans which the sight of their reverent conservation of the sacred spot awakened in me, and if the sons of Hagar assembled at its doors had thus been able to read our feelings, their attitude towards us could scarcely have been other than that of brotherly pride in such hospitality as all followers of the Prophet are enjoined to exercise. From the day that Abraham met Melchisedek, this site has been the theatre of events which have struck deepest roots in the life of humanity. It has been the sanctuary of Jew, Christian, and Moslem. Had the Jews still possessed it, there would have been signs of bloody sacrifice. Had any sect of Christians possessed it, the place would have been desecrated either by tinselled dolls and tawdry pictures, as is the case in the Church of the Sepulchre, or else by the ugliness, emptiness, and class vulgarity of the Anglican and Prussian worship, as found in the city of Jerusalem. In the case of the Moslem there was not an unsightly nor a shocking object in the whole area, it was guarded, fearingly and lovingly, and it seemed a temple so purified from the pollution of perversity that involuntarily the text, “Here will I take my rest for ever,” rang in my ears…

……The structures known as “The Dome of the Rock” and Al Aska divided the mind as to the site of the Holy of Holies, for the dimensions of the ancient Temple area were not enough to include both buildings; as though patiently sleeping, they rested like palled shapes in a heavy dream, detached by moonlight and moonshade. Although the platform was an open stage from which the actors had departed, yet fancy would people it with their spirits, prophets and martyrs stood arraigned there, delivering direful warnings from heaven

http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/nd467.h9.1914.2.rad.html

The Grand Vizier

 

Excerpt taken from Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood William Holman Hunt; published 1914

http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/nd467.h9.1914.2.rad.html

The Pashas of Jerusalem appointed from Stamboul were changed very frequently in these days; one came preceded by a reputation for superiority to fanatical prejudices, he arrived not only without a bevy of many wives, but without a single one. He was known as “Kiamil Pasha” Stories were told of   him as of a Turk of rare enlightenment…..

The Pasha soon avowed to the Consul that the European system of managing a house was distinctly to be preferred to that of the Oriental, in that dishonesty in the servants was effectually checked; this he declared was truly excellent, but still he added there is one point I cannot understand: your wife guards you from dishonest servants, but what check have you to prevent her from defrauding you herself?

 

 

.Eothen, or, Traces of Travel Brought Home from the East / Kinglake, Alexander William, 1809-1891

………I crossed the plain of Esdraelon and entered amongst the hills o beautiful Galilee.  It was at sunset …  There was one only shining point still touched with the light of the sun, ; a brave sign this to ”holy” Shereef and the rest of my Moslem men, for the one glittering summit was the head of a minaret, and the rest of the seeming village that had veiled itself so meekly under the shades of evening was Christian Nazareth!

…..I was left all alone to be taught and swayed by the beautiful circumstances of Palestine travelling- by the clime, and the land, and the name of the land, with all its mighty import; by the glittering freshness of the sward, and the bounding masses of flowers …; by the bracing and fragrant air …..

….. the Virgin’s home.  The mystic air was so burnt

with the consuming flames of the altar, .. laden with incense,

..  The hill was lofty enough to show me the fairness of the land on all sides, ….I looked away eagerly to the eastward.  There she lay, the Sea of Galilee.  .. she caught from the smiling heavens unceasing  light and changeful phases of beauty, and with all this brightness on her face, she yet clung so fondly to the dull he-looking mountain ather side, as though she would

“Soothe him with her finer fancies,

Touch him with her lighter thought.”

………I crossed the plain of Esdraelon and entered amongst the hills of beautiful Galilee.  It was at sunset …  There was one only shining point still touched with thelight of the sun, ; a brave sign this to”holy” Shereef and the rest of my Moslem men, for the one glittering summit was the head of a minaret, and the rest of theseeming village that had veiled itself so meekly under the shadesof evening was Christian Nazareth!…..I was left all alone to be taught and swayed by the beautiful circumstances of Palestine travelling–by the clime, and the land, and the name of the land, with all its mighty import; by the glittering freshness of the sward, and the abounding masses of flowers …; by the bracing and fragrant air

………. the Virgin’s home.  The mystic air was so  burnt with the consuming flames of the altar, .. laden with incense,..  The hill was lofty enough to show me the fairness of the land on all sides, ….I looked away eagerly to the eastward…there  she lay, the Sea of Galilee.  .. she caught from the smiling heavens  unceasing light and changeful phases of beauty, and with all this brightness on herface, she yet clung so fondly to the dull looking he- mountain at her side, as though she would “Soothe him with her finer fancies, touch him with her lighter thought.”

…One of old Shereef’s helpers was an enthusiastic Catholic, and was greatly delighted at having so sacred a lodging.  He lit up the altar with a number of tapers, and when his preparations were complete, he began to perform his orisons in the strangest manner imaginable.  His lips muttered the prayers of the Latin Church, but he bowed himself down and laid his forehead to the stones beneath him after the manner of a Mussulman. …

…. Jerusalem, never think of attempting to sleep in a “holy city.”  ……Old Jews from all parts of the  world go to lay their bones upon the sacred soil………. Jerusalem.  In the stead of the solemn gloom and the deep stillness that of right belonged to theHoly City, there was the hum and the bustle of active life.  It was the “height of the season.”  The Easter ceremonies drew near.  The pilgrims were flocking in from all quarters; and although their objects were partly at least of a religious character, yet their ”arrivals” brought as much stir and liveliness to the city as if they had come up to marry their daughters.

…..The votaries who every year crowd to the Holy Sepulchre are chiefly of the Greek and Armenian Churches…they perform the pilgrimage as a plain duty strongly inculcated by their religion.  A very great proportion of those who belong to the Greek Church contrive at some time or other in the course of their lives to achieve the enterprise. .. .

…The authority exercised by the Mussulman Government in relation to the holy sites is in one view somewhat humbling to the Christians, for it is almost as an arbitrator between the contending sects … that the Mussulman lends his contemptuous aid; he not only grants, but enforces toleration.  All persons, of whatever religion, are allowed to go as they will into every part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, ……, the Turkish Government assigns the peculiar care of each sacred spot to one of the ecclesiastic bodies.

…..The Turks have a maxim which, like most cynical apophthegms, carries with it the buzzing trumpet of falsehood as well as the small, fine “sting of truth.”  ”If your friend has made the pilgrimage once, distrust him; if he has made the pilgrimage twice, cut him dead!”  The caution is said to be as applicable to the visitants of Jerusalem as to those of Mecca, but I cannot help believing that the frailties of all the hadjis,  whether Christian or Mahometan, are greatly exaggerated.

…the village of Bethlehem lies prettily couched on the slope of a hill.  The sanctuary is a subterranean grotto, and is committed to the joint-guardianship of the Romans, Greeks, and Armenians, who vie with each other in adorning it.  Beneath an altar gorgeously decorated, and lit with everlasting fires, there stands the low slab of stone which marks the holy site of the Nativity; and near to this is a hollow scooped out of the living rock.  Here the infant Jesus was laid.  Near the spot of the Nativity is the rock against which the Blessed Virgin was leaning when she presented her babe to the adoring shepherds.

…..Gaza is upon the verge of the Desert, to which it stands in the same relation as a seaport to the sea.  It is there that you CHARTER your camels (“the ships of the Desert”), and lay in your stores for the voyage….

..A caravanserai is not ill adapted to the purposes for which it is meant.  It forms the four sides of a large quadrangular court.  The ground floor is used for warehouses, the first floor for guests, and the open court for the temporary reception of the camels, as well as for the  loading and unloading of their burdens, and the transaction of mercantile business generally.  The apartments used for the guests are small cells opening into a corridor, which runs round the four sides of the court.

..The camel kneels to receive her load, and for a while she will allow the packing to go on with silent resignation; but when she begins to suspect that her master is putting more than a just burthen upon her poor hump she turns round her supple neck and looks sadly upon the increasing load, and then gently remonstrates against the wrong with the sigh of a patient wife.  If sighs will not move you, she can weep.  You soon learn to pity, and soon to love, her for the sake of her gentle and womanish ways…… The camel, like the elephant, is one of the old-fashioned sort of animals that still walk along upon the (now nearly exploded) plan of the ancient beasts that lived before the Flood.  She moves forward both her near legs at the same time, and then awkwardly swings round her off shoulder and haunch so as to repeat the manoeuvre on that side.  Her pace, therefore, is an odd, disjointed and disjoining, sort of movement that is rather disagreeable at first, but you soon grow reconciled to it.  The height to which you are raised is of great advantage to you in passing the burning sands of the Desert, for the air at such a distance from the ground is much cooler and more lively than that which circulates beneath.

…..For several miles beyond Gaza the land, which had been plentifully watered by the rains of the last week, was covered with rich verdure, and thickly jewelled with meadow flowers so fresh and fragrant, ….. But as I advanced the true character of the country began to display itself …… I was surrounded on all sides by a tract of real sand, and had nothing at all to complain of except that there peeped forth at intervals a few isolated blades of grass, and many of those stunted shrubs which are the accustomed food of the camel.

….Before sunset I came up with an encampment of Arabs (the encampment from which my camels had been brought), and my tent was pitched amongst theirs.  I was now amongst the true Bedouins.  Almost every man of this race closely resembles his brethren.  Almost every man has large and finely-formed features; …..    His gait is strangely majestic, and he marches

along with his simple blanket as though he were wearing the purple.

…….The Bedouin women are not treasured up like the wives and daughters of other Orientals, and indeed they seemed almost entirely free from the restraints imposed by jealousy.  The feint which they made of concealing their faces from me was always slight.  They never, I think, wore the yashmak properly fixed.  When they first saw me they used to hold up a part of their drapery with one hand across their faces, but they seldom persevered very steadily in subjecting me to this privation

…..They (the Bedouin) were always courteous, however,

and were never backward in offering me the youart, a kind of whey, which is the principal delicacy to be found amongst the wandering tribes…

….In passing the Desert you will find your Arabs wanting to start and to rest at all sorts of odd times.  They like, for instance, to be

off at one in the morning, and to rest during the whole of the

afternoon.

……The Arabs adhere to those ancestral principles of bread-baking

which have been sanctioned by the experience of ages.  The very

first baker of bread that ever lived must have done his work

exactly as the Arab does at this day.  He takes some meal and holds

it out in the hollow of his hands, whilst his comrade pours over it

a few drops of water; he then mashes up the moistened flour into a

paste, which he pulls into small pieces, and thrusts into the

embers…..

……The same day we fell inwith a Sheik, the head of a family, that actually dwells at no great distance from this part of the Desert during nine months of the year.  The man carried a matchlock, of which he was very proud. We stopped and sat down and rested awhile for the sake of a little talk.  . … that this man and his family lived habitually for nine months of the year without touching or seeing either bread or water.  The stunted shrub growing at intervals through the sand in this part of the Desert enables the camel mares to yield a little milk, which furnishes the sole food and drink of their owner and his people.  During the other three months (the hottest of the months, I suppose) even this resource fails, and then the Sheik and his people are forced to pass into another district……..  The Sheik was not a good specimen of the effect produced by the diet to which he is subjected.  He was very small, very spare, and sadly shriveled, ……., a mere cinder of a man.  I made him sit down by my side, and gave him a piece of bread and a cup of water from out of my goat-skins.  This was not very tempting drink to look at, for it had become turbid, and was deeply reddened by some colouring matter contained in the skins, but it kept its sweetness, and tasted like a strong decoction of russia leather. The Sheik sipped this, drop by drop, with ineffable relish, and rolled his eyes solemnly round between every draught, as though the drink were the drink of the Prophet, and had come from the seventh heaven.

http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/etext95/eothn10.htm

As well as the beautiful desriptions of Palestine, what fascinates me about this book is the comparison made between Islam and Christianity….the Pilgrimages, the style of  Christian prayer that so closely resembled the way Muslims pray…

Old Jews from all parts of the world go to lay their bones

upon the sacred soil…. (Jerusalem)

William Holman Hunt’s “Oriental Mania”

BY George P. Landow , Professor of English and the History of Art, Brown University

http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/whh/selfport3.html

……the painter represents himself in the roles he had enacted when he traveled to the Middle East — those of adventurer, explorer, ethnographer, and pilgrim. Like so many European travelers, he had a love affair with the Middle East; and despite all the hardships and difficulties he endured while painting in Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, he remained enthralled by these lands which had provided the setting for both sacred history and the Arabian Nights. As he told William Bell Scott in 1860 …his vocation as a painter would not let him stay in England for long: “I cannot believe that Art should let such beautiful things pass as are in this age passing for good in the East without exertion to chronicle them for the future, and I promise myself to return in spirit to the land of good Haroun Alraschid if I can’t get there in body before the present year is out” (…. Princeton University). The painter’s words well capture the complex attraction that this part of the world had for him. At the same time that he felt the urge to play the historian, anthropologist, and ethnographer and thus record the facts of life in these countries, he also indulged the romantic desire to enter the magic realm of the Thousand and One Nights. Syria, Egypt, and Palestine were, as he put it, his version of “the land of good Harun Alraschid.

…. The wonder and delight that Hunt experienced in the Middle East encouraged him not only to depict himself in garb of the region but also to return again and again…….., the painter attempted to make William Bell Scott understand that he found “true wonder” in traveling through Palestine. “We pass not merely from village to town, and from town to desert, or to an Arab encampment, lying down for the night’s rest under the unscreened stars; but we pass from century to century, from Abraham to Cambyses, from Herodotus to Jesus Christ, then to Mohammed and so to the Crusaders” (April 7, 1870; Jerusalem; Autobiographical Notes , ed. William Minto, 2 vols., London, 1892, II, 89).
…..The Holy Land, in other words, gave Hunt, as it gave David Roberts, J. F. Lewis, Thomas Seddon, and so many other nineteenth-century artists of all nations, the opportunity to combine the appeals of realism and imagination, physical fact and fantasy.

Orientalist Travelers

Orientalist Travelers                              Written by Michael Simpson

1- Alphonse de Lamartine;The Romantic Poet     Lamartine traveled to Palestine, where he drank from the soft, agreeable waters of the Jordan and walked with wonder through places whose names he had often read in the Bible. On his trips to holy places and monasteries, he was highly impressed by the tolerance shown by the Muslim population and their Turkish rulers toward Christianity. “In this respect,” he wrote, “we have greatly calumniated the Muslims. Religious toleration …is profoundly imprinted in their manners.” Monks, he found, were treated with great reverence by both Muslims and Christians, stimulating him to the conclusion that monks were “the happiest, the most respected and the most formidable inhabitants of these regions.Despite his appreciative eye, however, Lamartine could also be condescending. Writing of a beautiful woman, he mentions that “beauty which exists only in the East: a form perfect as that of a Grecian statue; the soul revealed in a look,… and that sweet innocence of expression which is known only among a primitive people.”…. He had found and noted great religious tolerance among Muslims in the territories he visited….

Alphonse de Lamartine

2-W.M. Thackeray;The Victorian Novelist

The trips ashore took in most of the regular tourists haunts – markets, mosques and monuments. Sometimes Thackeray was impressed with local customs. He spoke admiringly of a storyteller in the market at Jaffa who enthralled a crowd of over 100 people, and “delivered his tale with excellent action, voice and volubility.”

W.M. Thackeray.

These quotes come from an article about literature written by  travellers to the Middle East in the 19th century, though they may have enjoyed parts of their travel they were not able to drop their preconcieved notions and stereo types….Its a very interesting read.It ends by saying “Stereotypes of foreign peoples have a disturbingly long life span. For Westerners, there is still very little literature available about the Middle East that looks at Arab life as it appears to Arabs themselves. It is literature with that difficult and different viewpoint, unlike most accounts by travelers today or in the 19th century, that is most likely to contribute to greater understanding of the Arab world in the West.”

http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/198904/orientalist.travelers.htm

groves of orange trees, citrons, and pomegranates

THE ROMANCE OF ISABEL LADY BURTON

THE STORY OF HER LIFE

Originally published by Dodd Mead & Company in 1897

…….We remained twenty-four hours in Jaffa, and then rode on to Ramleh. The gardens around this town were exceedingly beautiful, groves of orange trees, citrons, and pomegranates. We soon entered the Plain of Sharon. The whole road was green and pretty. The country was a beautiful carpet of wild flowers. We reached Ramleh early, and I went at once to the Franciscan Monastery.

….. There were several other travellers along the road, all bound for the Holy City. We occupied seven and a half hours on the journey. We passed two cafés on the road, impromptu donkey sheds, where we found good Turkish coffee and narghílehs; and there were shady orange groves, and fields of marigolds, poppies, and such-like.

….I reined in my horse, and with my face towards the Sepulchre gazed down upon the city of my longing eyes with silent emotion and prayer. Every Christian bared his head; every Moslem and Jew saluted.

….

In the evening I was able to sit on the terrace and realize the dream of my life. The sun was setting on the Mount of Olives, where our Saviour’s feet last touched the earth; the Mosque of Omar glittered its rosy farewell; the Arch of Ecce Homo lay beneath; the Cross of the Sepulchre caught the ruddy glow; out beyond were the Mountains of Moab, purple and red in the dying day; and between me and them, deep down I knew, lay the Dead Sea.

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/b/burton/isabel/romance/complete.html#chapter26

Alot of these reminisces are written by English travellers of the 19th centaury era. So at times there are remarks that these days we would not consider PC.The attitudes  reflect the soical mores of  a certain class of citizen of that period.

 

 

Oriental Encounters

ORIENTAL ENCOUNTERS-

PALESTINE AND SYRIA (1894-5-6)

by MARMADUKE PICKTHALL

…….And then I made acquaintance with a clever dragoman and one of the most famous jokers in all Syria, who happened to be lodging at my little hostelry, with nothing in the world to do but stare about him. He helped me to throw off the European and plunge into the native way of living. With him I rode about the plain of Sharon, sojourning among the fellâhîn, and sitting in the coffee-shops of Ramleh, Lydda, Gaza, meeting all sorts of people, and acquiring the vernacular without an effort, in the manner of amusement. From dawn to sunset we were in the saddle. We went on pilgrimage to Nebi Rubîn, the mosque upon the edge of marshes by the sea, half-way to Gaza; we rode up northward to the foot of Carmel; explored the gorges of the mountains of Judæa; frequented Turkish baths; ate native meals and slept in native houses—following the customs of the people of the land in all respects.

….And I was amazed at the immense relief I found in such a life. In all my previous years I had not seen happy people. These were happy. Poor they might be, but they had no dream of wealth; the very thought of competition was unknown to them, and rivalry was still a matter of the horse and spear. Wages and rent were troubles they had never heard of. Class distinctions, as we understand them, were not. Everybody talked to everybody. With inequality they had a true fraternity……… But in that easy-going Eastern life there is a power of resistance, as everybody knows who tries to change it, which may yet defeat the hosts of joyless drudgery.

…. I remember well a long day’s ride with Emile and Samuel Baldensperger, round by Askelon and Ekron, and the luncheon which a village headman had prepared for us, consisting of a whole sheep, roast and stuffed with nuts and vegetables;…..

The full text of this book can be found at…   http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/19378