Fragments of a Mirror: The Writing of Gertrude Bell

This chapter proposes to explore the writing of Gertrude Bell through a few prisms: first, her interest in history and archaeology, and second, her private letters. It will examine how Bell’s interest in archaeology mirrored her interest in politics: just as in her political role, in which she was building a state, Bell attempted through her archaeological work and photography to create a mythology about the Orient. Bell’s private letters also provide an insight into how she interacted with men and the role of this interaction in realising her political aims and in shaping her life. The chapter will examine how these interactions were informed by attitudes towards women in the Victorian world she inhabited, whether in England or the Middle East.

‘Better than Any Ruined Site in the World’: Gertrude Bell and the Ancient City of Assur

During Bell’s first journeys into Mesopotamia, undertaken in 1909 and 1911, she had occasion to visit the ancient sites of Babylon and Assur when they were being excavated by teams of German archaeologists. This chapter discusses in particular Bell’s visit to the ruins of the Assyrian capital of Assur, and her interactions with the site’s German director, Walter Andrae. Bell greatly admired Andrae’s excavation methods, given his attention to stratigraphy, his focus on both elite and non-elite urban contexts and his comprehensive system of architectural recording. She also valued their scholarly exchanges, which included discussions of the development of architectural forms such as the vault and the Parthian iwān. In all, Andrae had a profound effect on Bell’s archaeological scholarship, especially influencing her understanding of later Islamic architectural features such as those exhibited at the castle of Ukhaidir, and her admiration for Andrae would continue up to the end of her life.

Gertrude Bell and the Formation of the Iraqi State: The Kurdish Dimension

Almost all scholars agree that Gertrude Bell played a key role in the establishment of an Arab state in Mesopotamia, following the end of the First World War. But it is little known that her attitudes had a fateful effect on the political future of Southern Kurdistan (the present Iraqi Kurdistan). Some political analysts attribute the present ethnic and religious troubles in Iraq to Bell’s unrealistic plans. This chapter looks at Bell's position on the Kurdish situation within the context of the formation of the Arab state. It will examine how Bell’s insistence on subjecting Southern Kurds to Arab Hashemite rule was influenced not only by political and strategic considerations, but also by personal, cultural and social factors, her friendships with Arab notables and leaders, and her deep knowledge and appreciation of Arabic language, traditions and history.

Gertrude Bell’s Perception of Faisal I of Iraq and the Anglo-Arab Romance

This chapter analyses Gertrude Bell’s perception of King Faisal I during the former’s time as Oriental Secretary in Iraq. It tackles Gertrude Bell’s vision of Arabia as an authentic and pure area, which paved the way for her fascination with Faisal, a descendant of the Prophet born in that region, whom she saw as the embodiment of Arab gentlemanliness. For Bell, Faisal’s lineage and personality made him an ideal ruler, and once he was king, their relationship grew more personal as Bell became his confidante and endeavoured to legitimise his rule by including him in the narrative of Iraqi history as she saw it. However, the chapter tries to show that Bell’s high opinion of Faisal was put to the test of imperial politics, and the evolution of Bell’s discourse, in the context of the political crises which opposed Faisal to the British, is closely studied.

Gertrude Bell and the Evolution of the Library Tradition in Iraq

This chapter discusses Gertrude Bell’s involvement in the foundation of the Baghdad Public Library and the Iraq Museum Library, shedding light on issues that have surrounded their creation and development. It identifies Muriel Jesse Forbes as the person who actually initiated the concept for the library that, as a result of Bell’s energetic support, became the Baghdad Public Library and ultimately the National Library of Iraq. It also reviews Bell’s commitment to the development of a library as part of the Iraq Museum, and outlines its growth into a major information resource on the history and archaeology of Iraq. Finally, it considers the motives underlying the efforts of Bell and her contemporaries, and their impact on the subsequent development of library and archives services in Iraq.

Gertrude Bell in the Archive of the Iraq Museum

It is unfortunate that most of what is written and researched on Gertrude Bell tends to give a scant or short account of her work on the Antiquities Department. Most of the documents on her work in the last four years of her life are in the Iraq Museum (1922–1926), and were, until recently, not accessible to the public. This chapter explores the surviving documents to give a picture of the main issues that occupied Bell during this period – from her constant search for a place to store the deluge of artefacts coming from excavations such as Ur and Kish to the legislation of the Antiquities Law. Bell’s legacy for the antiquities of Iraq is as important as the creation of Iraq.

Gertrude Bell and the Antiquities Law of Iraq

As Director of Antiquities in the nascent Iraq, Gertrude Bell was instrumental in laying the groundwork for all archaeological work in the country, including formulating antiquities legislation. After several years of work and some intense political negotiations, Bell’s law was finally passed in 1924. Bell’s legislation is a hybrid which demonstrates her multiple loyalties – protecting both Iraqi heritage and the interests of foreign archaeologists and institutions. This element is most obvious in controversial Articles relating to the division of finds, where the law does allow, under certain conditions, for archaeological artefacts to leave the country.

Gertrude Bell and the Ottoman Empire

Gertrude Bell was the only senior member of the Mesopotamian Administration to have had any significant experience of the Ottoman Empire before the First World War. Percy Cox had spent most of his career in Persia and the Gulf before coming to Iraq. Arnold Wilson had spent his career in India, south-west Persia and the Gulf. Reader Bullard is probably the only exception, as he had served in Constantinople, Trebizond and Erzurum between 1907 and 1914, after which he was posted to the consulate in Basra and subsequently to Baghdad and Kirkuk. In contrast, Gertrude Bell had made extensive visits to various parts of the region, beginning with a visit to Iran in 1892. She spent 1899–1900 in Palestine and Syria, and also travelled elsewhere in the region, as described in Syria: The Desert and the Sown (1907) and From Amurath to Amurath (1911). The chapter discusses what Bell wrote about the Ottoman Empire, both in these books and in her letters, and the extent to which her views of its politics and administration may have influenced her thoughts on the future administration and structure of Iraq.

Introduction

Gertrude Bell’s judgments as both a scholar and a civil servant were informed by her education, social position and patrician views. Her travel writings, photography and archaeological work reveal the tensions that existed between Bell’s industrial, rational background and an imagined timeless ‘Orient’, the racial origins of which were being understood as a source of Western civilisation. Bell’s expertise became strategically vital with the outbreak of the First World War and, as a member of British Army Intelligence and then ‘Oriental Secretary’ – the only woman serving as a political officer – her cultural, archaeological, historical and ethnographic knowledge and understandings were transformed into political intelligence and administrative reason. They shaped Bell’s views about those she felt should govern in Iraq, which had a fateful and lasting effect on the organisation of power and privilege in the state, and underpinned the importance she placed on the region’s archaeological past as an element in the state-building process.

A Critical Examination of Gertrude Bell’s Contribution to Archaeological Research in Central Asia Minor

This chapter considers the contribution made by Gertrude Bell to developing archaeological method in the early 20th century and its legacy. The Thousand and One Churches, written with Sir William Ramsay and published in 1909, remains the key study of Byzantine churches in central Anatolia. While it set high standards in the recording of buildings, it also served to reinforce the culture-historical approaches of the early 20th century. Left behind by most archaeologists in the second half of the 20th century, such approaches have continued in some circles. The chapter considers the extent to which Bell was following and contributing to established archaeological practice. It considers also the problems of her methodological approach in order to inform a critique of the legacy of her research and to provide insights into her critical thinking and strategies for networking.