For someone credited
with being an architect of the nation, the grave of British archaeologist,
writer, diplomat, and spy Gertrude Bell in the Iraqi capital Baghdad is hard to
find.
اضافة اعلان
Down an alley in the
heart of the capital, through a heavy locked gate into the Protestant cemetery,
and then amid a confusing maze of gravestones, caretaker Ali Mansour leads the
way.
“Miss Bell”, as the
Iraqis call her, played a key role in forging modern Iraq a century ago.
She helped redraw the
map of the Middle East as the Ottoman Empire was crumbling after defeat in
World War I, based on intelligence she gathered during extensive travels with
Bedouin tribes.
The controversial role
Britain and its rival France played in dividing the region by creating new
borders and nations reverberates in conflicts and politics today.
But the role Bell
played in the formation of the nation — especially remarkable back then as a
woman in a very male-dominated world — is largely unknown by most Iraqis.
Scattered artificial
flowers lie on her simple yellow-stone tomb.
“Those who do come
leave real ones, but I take them off quickly because they wilt in heat,” said
Mansour, the 77-year-old caretaker, who inherited his job from his stepfather,
who got it from the British more than 60 years ago.
Bell’s role was key in
expanding Iraq to include the vast northern regions of Kurdistan and Mosul,
including valuable oil fields.
‘Author’ of Iraq’s
creation
The inscriptions on
her gravestone are weathered and hard to read, but record that she died in
1926, at the age of 57.
“I felt tremendously
sad for this woman, who I feel had done so much for the country — not only in
terms of being an author of its creation,” said writer and historian Tamara
Chalabi, a specialist on Bell.
“She was in a sense a
‘mother of Iraq’ if you like, for better or worse.”
Fiercely intelligent
and a masterful linguist fluent in Arabic and Farsi, the daring Bell carved out
a unique place for herself in the macho world of British colonial
administration.
She was instrumental
in Faisal I becoming the ruler of the new Kingdom of Iraq, founded in 1921,
under the grip of British forces.
But her greatest pride
was the construction of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, a treasure trove of
priceless items from some of the most ancient civilizations.
When Chalabi, from an
influential Iraqi family but who grew up in exile, returned to Iraq in 2005
after the US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, she was surprised at how few
knew about Bell.
For Chalabi, it is
“not only” because Bell was a woman that she has been largely forgotten.
“I think there is a
problem with the way history has been taught in Iraq ... people don’t have good
sense of their heritage, so it goes beyond Gertrude,” Chalabi told AFP.
“For me, it’s a
problem of Iraqi and Baghdadis’ identity. ... When you talk about culture and
heritage and history, it is a very monolithic story.”
In a country which
will celebrate its centenary next year, the history books have been modified by
revolutions, coups, dictatorships, and regime changes — and schooling disrupted
by years of devastating war.
“I studied the modern
history of my country between the ages of 12 and 15,” said Heidi, a 23-year-old
Iraqi student.
“You had to learn
dates, but Gertrude Bell’s name was never mentioned.”
‘Interests of the
Crown’
But there are critics
too.
For Ali al-Nashmi,
professor of history at Baghdad’s Munstansariya University, Bell has faded from
the country’s story for a reason — her role benefitted Britain and “only served
the interests of the Crown, not those of the Iraqis”.
In the West, on the
other hand, Bell’s role has been somewhat rehabilitated in popular memory in
recent years, with several new biographies and histories written, and Werner
Herzog’s 2015 film “Queen of the Desert”, in which Nicole Kidman played Bell.
Chalabi helped repair
and clean Bell’s grave, planting trees around it and attaching a small metal
plaque beside it.
“In recognition of
Gertrude Bell’s historic contribution to Iraq,” it reads.
To find a trace of
Bell today, you have to go to the Iraq Museum.
In his office, Laith
Hussein, the director of Iraq’s state board of antiquities and heritage, shows
a wooden board on the wall inscribed with the names of his predecessors.
Top of the list is
Gertrude Bell, with her dates as director, 1922–1926.
“She has never been
forgotten,” Hussein said. “She established the Iraq Museum and contributed to
the country’s first archaeological structure.”
However, her statue,
erected by Faisal I, disappeared during the looting of the museum amid the
chaos that followed the
US-led invasion of 2003.
“We still have not
found it,” Hussein said.
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