Gertrude Bell

Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) was an English author and adventurer who influenced the formation of Iraq, when, in 1932, that state gained independence from the United Kingdom. "The best known traveler in the Middle East and Arabia in the years before World War I, the British intelligence bureau in Cairo hired her as an advisor on Arabia."

Biography

Bell's life was unusual, and her accomplishments were unique for a British woman living during the reign of Queen Victoria. Bright and athletic, she was the first woman to attain a "First" at Oxford. An accomplished equestrian, she spent years leading her own personal expeditions across the sands of Middle Eastern deserts - on either horse or camel. Reputedly a person of a forthright charm, she managed to befriend British men, including T.E. Lawrence, British women, including Vita Sackville-West, Iraqi and Bedouin men, including Faisal, and women. She was comfortable in the drawing rooms of the British upper class, the government offices of the British civil service, the mountains of the Alps, and the Baghdad Archaeological Museum, which she founded. To a large extent, she was accepted by both the British and Iraqi societies of her time and the perspective she gained from understanding these peoples became invaluable during her career. When the lands that are now Iraq became removed from the political domination of the Ottoman Empire by mandate from the League of Nations in 19XX, the next step in government of the region was an open question. The fact that rich supplies of oil were likely to be present intensified the interest of all concerned.

Gertrude Bell argued that, rather than be allocated to Indian rule, the native people of Iraq should control their own government.

She initially travelled to the Middle East to visit an uncle, who was then the British Ambassador to Persia, stationed in Tehran. "In 1899 Bell studied Arabic in Jerusalem. During the spring of 1900 she went to visit the Druse in the mountains of southern Lebanon. Bell also visited Palmyra, the ruins of a Roman city in Jordan. She described it as "a white skeleton of a town, standing knee-deep in the blown sand." She then went mountain climbing in the Alps and took two trips around the world with her brother."

She spent months crossing uncharted portions of the desert in XXX and XXX during the years 19XX-19XX, mostly on camelback. Unlike most English travelers of her day, she was fluent in both Persian and Arabic and had a propensity to make maps. Her personal acquaintance with the ___, and the records of the routes she took, all came into practical use when she was asked, during the Great War, to put her skills on the side of the British. Being respectful of the native people of Iraq, she also carried out her duties with constant effort towards facilitating their independent self-government.

References

Primary Sources

Gertrude Bell. The Arabian Diaries, 1913-1914. Rosemary O'Brien, ed. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2000. xvi + 258 pp; ill. ISBN 0-8156-0672-9 (hb).