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Diary entry by Gertrude Bell

Reference code
GB/2/11/3/13
Creator
Bell, Gertrude Margaret Lowthian
Creation Date
Extent and medium
1 entry, paper
Language
English
Location
Coordinates

34.27037, 42.173981

Sat March 13. [13 March 1909] Last night late a grizzled soldier came
to my tents and said he had long prayed for a son and this night God
had given him one. It being such an exceptional occasion wd I kindly
help with the expenses. So I kindly helped. I rode off at 6.35 with the
Khanji' Ghashash and Jusef. We met my soldier Khalaf outside the
seraija and rode on to opposite the island 7.25. There was no shahtur
so we repaired to a neighbouring coffee house and sat for near an
hour till it came. The talk with the assembled company turned on the
new rule. They said it was all hopeless, the country was ravaged by
the Arabs, the govt did nothing and they themselves cd do nothing.
Also they had no capital and everyone was poor. Not a flicker of
enterprise anywhere. Khalaf told me there that [sic] been 14
kaimakams in 6 years and not one had done anything. He has been
to India and related a tale of a poor man whose passport was stolen
and the judge fined the thief and cut off 2 of his fingers. That he said
was Government. They told me the Afghans had never submitted to
us however much we had warred against them. The boat came and
was unloaded of the stores they are bringing over and we crossed.
The island is a little paradise of gardens, fruit trees, palms, corn and
vegetables. There is a village of some 30 houses in it. But all the
ruins that remain are comparatively modern Arab. Some round
bastions at the upper end and a minaret with a well below it. The
minaret has an inscrip. scratched on the plaster inside at the top. I
read the date 900 but don't know if that is the date of its creation. But
there has been an Assyrian castle here They said at the upper end
there were big slabs with pictures and nail writing but the water had
washed them away recently. Also they brought me a little scrap of
Assyrian relief - unmistakable palm fronds or feathers and curls. I
bought a Jew bowl, a seal or charm and a scrap of I think Assyrian
pottery. On the way back we drew up the nets between the piers of
the ruined bridge and got 2 fish. We started off again at 9.50, the
baggage having long since passed. At 10.55 there was a big tell on
the opposite bank called Tell Abu Thor (it is natural rock but there
seem to be a good many mounds about it) and all the way up to that
point the ruins of old 'Ana ['Anah] stretch along the river. Just outside
'Ana in the Shamiyyeh [Shamiyah] are mounds by the roadside from
which Khalaf said the people got anticus after rain - gold ornaments
etc. At 11.10 we passed another tell in the Shamiyyeh also called
Abu Thor. It is natural and I cd see no trace of ruins round it. Fine view
of Tilbes from here - the river turns inland, we were opposite Tilbes at
11.44. There are masonry bastions on the upper end of the island
and on the Jezireh [Jazirah, Al] side there has been a castle of which
2 corner bastions remain and a bit of wall. No people on it. Then up
over rocky bare ground. The Arabs with their flocks all coming down
to cross to the Jezirah because there has been no rain for 40 days
and there is no grass or water. We asked for leben and a girl cried
out "If we had leben we should not be crossing to the Jezireh."
12.25-12.40 lunch. Khalaf says they have not been paid this year (the
Der [Dayr az Zawr] soldiers have been paid) the Baghdad officials
have eaten their pay. He has had no pay for 4 months and no clothes
for 2 years. The whole country is ruined by the Arabs and nothing is
done. (Here we are up against the eternal difficulty of holding tribes in
check.) "Ever since the days of the Beni Ghassan it has been like this
and who will change it" said he. When the telegram announcing
Liberty and Unity came the people assembled before the seraya and
told the Kaimmakam to be gone - they wd govern themselves.
Thereupon orders came from Baghdad that they were to be
dispersed and the Kaimmakam had meantime shut himself up in his
house. The soldiers dispersed them and killed 6. They don't know
what the telegram can have meant. The Kaimmakam was dismissed
and a wahil[?] sent from Baghdad - now a new K. is on the road from
C'ple [Istanbul (Constantinople)] and will arrive in a day or two. My
company in the coffee house were extremely surprised to hear that
the deputies were not life appointments. They haven't the least idea
what the deputies are for. About 2.45 we came down onto the river
and at 3.15 got to the Kishla of Fhemeh [Fuhaymi] and found the tents
pitched. They had been in about a 1/4 of an hour. The village of
Fhemeh lies about an hour upstream in the Jezireh. We passed up
on the rocky ground graves on both sides of the road. Khalaf said
they were graves of the Dlaim who had quarrelled together and about
70 of them had been killed about a year ago. They buried them
where they lay, one party on one side of the road and the other on the
other side. Khalaf told me that a fortnight ago they had news that Ibn
Rashid's uncle had raided Ibn Sa'oud and carried off a lot of mares.

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