Gertrude Lowthian Bell

A collection of essays recounts the author's time in the Middle East.

The Writings of the Queen of the Desert

A Woman in Arabia

Sir William Mitchell Ramsay

The Thousand and One Churches

Amurath to Amurath

A fascinating look at the politics of the Arab world in the 1920’s. These were originally Confidential Information Despatches for General Headquarters (in England) written by Gertrude Bell which were gathered and printed in the 1940’s.

The Arab War

14th Cent Hafiz

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Poems From the Divan of Hafiz

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

With a Map

Syria, the Desert & the Sown

Ḥāfiẓ

"Miss Bells [translations] are true poetry of a very high order and, with perhaps the single exception of FitzGerald's paraphrase of the Quatrains of Omar Khayyam, are probably the finest and most truly poetical renderings of any Persian poet ever produced in the English language..." -- Edward G Browne. "No book has been so reverenced, no poet so celebrated, and no verse so cherished as Hafez's ghazals. Auguries from his divan have decided the fates of individuals and empires, rebels and heretics as well as the pious have died with lines by Hafez on their lips, and religious and philosophic arguments have been won by apt quotation of a hemistich. Hafez sang a rare blend of human and mystic love so balanced, proportioned, and contrived with artful ease that it is impossible to separate the one from the other; and rhetorical artifice is so delicately woven into the fabric of wisdom and mysticism that it imparts a freshness to ideas..." -- Wheeler M Thackston.

With the Original Persian on the Facing Page

The Hafez Poems of Gertrude Bell

John Singer Sargent

"By the standards of any age, the life of Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) was extraordinary. During her travels in the Middle East, she rode with bandits; was captured by Bedouins; and sojourned in a harem. Her colleagues and friends included Winston Churchill, T. E. Lawrence, and Arabian sheiks. During World War I she worked for British intelligence and later played a crucial role in creating the modern Middle East." "Bell's adventurous career belied her privileged upbringing and sharply contrasted with an era when the parlor and the nursery marked the expected, conventional boundaries of an Englishwoman's life. (Still, it would take Bell a dozen years to be recognized by, and admitted to, the patriarchal Royal Geographical Society.)" "Passionate about Arabia, then an inhospitable land of nomadic and warring tribes under Turkish control, she wrote this now classic account of her 1905 trip across the Syrian Desert from Jericho to Antioch. To read it is to be transported."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The Syrian Adventures of the Female Lawrence of Arabia

The Desert and the Sown

Hafiz

"Hafiz has no peer." — Goethe Poetry is the greatest literary form of ancient Persia and modern Iran, and the 14th-century poet known as Hafiz is its preeminent master. This collection is derived from Hafiz'sDivan(collected poems), a classic of Sufism.nbsp;This 19th-century translation by historian Gertrude Bell remains widely acclaimed by scholars and readers.

Poems of Hafiz

The Garden of Heaven

Reproduction of the original: Amurath To Amurath by Gertrude Lowthian Bell

Amurath To Amurath

Blending photographs with descriptions of customs and communities, Bell's volume recounts a portion of her groundbreaking 1905 expedition across Syria.

"He fears nothing. He sees too far, he sees throughout; such is the only man I wish to see or be...Hafiz is a poet for poets." Emerson. In Islamic cultures of the Middle East, a Divan - or a Diwan - is a collection of poems by one author. Hafiz is one of the most celebrated Persian poets. He was acclaimed throughout the Islamic world during his lifetime, and his works are now regarded as a pinnacle of Persian literature. His mystical poetry has been inspirational for poets of all cultures influencing early European Romantics including Schiller and Goethe. Hafiz "is considered by many to be one of the seven literary wonders of the world.

Easy to Read Layout

Poems from the Divan of Hafiz

The Letters of Gertrude Bell

Reproduction of the original: Palace and Mosque At Ukhaidir by Gertrude Lowthian Bell

Palace and Mosque At Ukhaidir

"Here in the dust and the sunshine is an epitome of the living East, and standing unnoticed in a doorway, you will admit that you have not travelled in vain. But as the procession of people files past you, you will realize what a gulf lies between you. The East looks to itself; it knows nothing of the greater world of which you are a citizen, asks nothing of you and your civilization."This brilliant, vivid and impressionistic series of sketches, formed during her 1892 stay in Persia, is Gertrude Bell's first published work. Infused with a distinctive orientalism, "Persian Pictures" is an evocative, virtuosic meditation, moving sinuously between Persia's heroic complex, mythical past and present decline; the public face of Tehran and the otherworldly "secret, mysterious life of the East;" the lives of its women; its enclosed, quasi-medieval gardens; from the bustling cities to the lonely wastelands of Khorasan. Bell's documentation of Muharram - the month of mourning for Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed - and Ramadan, display a mind finely attuned to the differences and similarities between Islam and Christianity, East and West. "Persian Pictures" is both travelog and meditation, an elegaic and beautifully observed account of a spellbinding land.Scholar, historian, linguist, archaeologist, photographer, secret service agent and traveller, Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) was a hugely significant figure. Her early travels were made in Europe and Persia; she made two round-the-world trips (1897-8 and 1902-3), while her climbing exploits in the Alps from 1899-1904 earned her renown as a mountaineer. Like other British 'orientalists' of the early 20th century, she explored the Ottoman Empire during and after World War I and was hugely instrumental in the post-war reconfiguration of the Arab states in the Middle East. She was a prime mover in creating the new state of Iraq and establishing a constitutional monarchy there with a parliament, civil service and legal system; as Honorary Director of Antiquities in Iraq, she established the Iraq Museum in Baghdad.

Gertrude Lowthian Bell

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