SINAI IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

THE close of the eighteenth century witnessed events in Egypt which directly affected the conditions of life in Sinai; they further reduced the man of the desert in his resources.

Since the conquest of Egypt by the Turks in 1517 the country was administered by a pasha who was appointed by the Sultan at Constantinople. But the order of the Sultan to Ali Bey to join in a war against Russia in 1769 met with a direct refusal; the Egyptian saw his chance of proclaiming his independence. The revolt of the pasha of Egypt gave Bonaparte an ostensible reason for occupying Alexandria in 1796. Bonaparte’s imagination was fired by the thought of incorporating Egypt, the land of antiquity, in his world dominion. As part of this wider scheme he addressed a letter as gÉnÉral en chef to the monks of Sinai in 1798, in which he took them under his protection, “to the end,” as he said, “that they should hand on to future races the tradition of his conquest, as he was filled with respect for Moses and the Jews, and because the monks were learned men living in the barbarity of the desert.” He further decreed that henceforth the Arab Bedawyn had no claim whatever on the monks, that they should be left to devote themselves unmolested to the claims of their religion, that they should be exempt from paying tribute or tax on imports or exports on the produce of their property in Schio (i.e. Chios) and Cyprus, that they should freely enjoy their rights in Syria and in Cairo, and that their ruler should be independent of the patriarch.[303]

At the order of Bonaparte the gentlemen Coutelle and RosiÈres were sent on a tour of inspection to collect material for the work which he planned. On this tour they came to the convent of Sinai in 1800, where they found six monks and twenty-two lay brothers in residence. The east wall of the convent, built by Justinian, had collapsed. By order of General KlÉber at Cairo, the monk Hallil, with forty-two masons and a hundred and fifty camels, were dispatched from Cairo to do the necessary repair. The camels were furnished by the Towarah.[304]

In the meantime Nelson, scouring the seas in search of the French fleet, came upon it near the coast of Egypt, and attacked and scattered it at the Battle of the Nile (Oct., 1798). The Turks, aware that Bonaparte’s descent on Egypt was prompted by his desire for self-aggrandisement, felt called upon to declare war on the French in Egypt (1799). Hereupon Bonaparte, with nearly the whole of his army, marched along the desert road to Gaza and took Jaffa by assault, but a few months later he was in full retreat. A Turkish army soon afterwards reached Aboukir and joined forces with the British fleet, but Bonaparte inflicted a crushing defeat on them. He then left Egypt leaving his army in charge of General KlÉber. But a further expedition was launched by the Turk, one detachment of troops was landed at Damietta, another under Yussuf Pasha approached by the El Arish road. They were defeated by the French, but General KlÉber soon afterwards was assassinated (June, 1808). The English now effected a landing at Aboukir (March, 1801), and the French, after some struggles, evacuated the country.

In Egypt itself confusion reigned. The Mameluks were regaining their influence, when Mehemed Ali († 1849), the leader of an Albanian corps, secured the adherence of the sheykhs and claimed the Pashalik with the support of the French. An expedition made by the British to oppose him in 1807 miscarried. In 1811 he caused a massacre of the Mameluks and extended his influence by carrying war into Arabia and invading Syria. The interference of the English reduced, but did not break, his power. In 1841 he secured the hereditary sovereignty of Egypt.

The period of upheaval naturally reacted on the desert and rendered travelling unsafe. Seetzen visited the convent under Russian orders and found the road dangerous. There were twenty-five monks in the convent, who longed for the end of the Turkish government and the establishment of European influence in Cairo.[305] Seetzen was murdered in Syria on a later journey. Again the traveller Boutin was in Serabit in 1811, where he scrawled his name on a stone in the temple where RÜppell found it. Boutin also was murdered in Syria. Burckhardt travelled in the disguise of a Bedawyn and repeatedly visited Sinai, and the convent (1816, 1822). Both RÜppell and Burckhardt travelled in the interest of geography.

With the return of more settled conditions travellers became more numerous. Lord Prudhoe and Major Felix (1827) were among those who visited the ruins of Serabit. The account of their journey was lost, but Lord Prudhoe, after inspecting the temple ruins, was the first and, as far as I am aware, the only traveller to whom it occurred that this might be the sanctuary that was visited by the Israelites. The fact was recorded by Edward Robinson who came into Sinai in the interest of Biblical research in 1838 and 1852 (i. 79) and who was himself immensely impressed by the ruins at Serabit. Other travellers who made a prolonged stay were Laborde and Linant (1828), to whom we owe the first detailed and illustrated account of the convent church, its architecture, its great mosaics and its numerous side chapels; Tischendorf, who secured the famous MS. for Petrograd, as mentioned above; Bartlett, whose rapid visit in 1839 established interesting geological facts, more especially with regard to the lie of the land between Sinai and Syria; and Lepsius, who came into Sinai in 1845 for the express purpose of copying the hieroglyph inscriptions at Maghara and Serabit, which he incorporated in his DenkmÄler (1860).

Under the rule of Mehemed Ali safety was restored to the hadj route across Sinai by the rebuilding of the forts at Adjrud (near Suez), Nakhl and Akaba. The settlement of a garrison brought regularity of transport which reacted favourably on the Bedawyn who undertook it. Mehemed Ali, also, was favourably disposed towards the convent. His nephew, Abbas Pasha, who succeeded him in 1849, visited Sinai in 1853, and formed the plan of building himself a summer residence on Mount Horeb. A road was therefore planned leading up from Tur on the coast, which crossed the desert and then led through the relatively luxurious valley of Hebron, with its many streams and the tamarisk grove of Solaf. It was partly completed in 1854, when the Pasha was assassinated. His successor Said Pasha (1854-63), was in friendly relations with Ferdinand Lesseps, whom he zealously supported in the scheme for constructing a canal through the Isthmus of Suez. The enterprise was financed by French and Turkish subscriptions, and was at the outset worked by means of forced labour, later with the help of modern engineering appliances. The canal was completed under Ishmael Pasha (1863-79) in 1869, and the British Government became a large shareholder. Ishmael Pasha was an Oriental despot who depleted the treasury and robbed the people, but who modernised Egypt by building schools, laying down railways, and setting up telegraph communications. In return for a large annual tribute he was raised to the rank of Khedive, or viceroy, of Egypt by the Sultan in 1867. But the financial difficulties, in which he became involved, were such that France and England brought pressure to bear on him and finally deposed him. He was succeeded by his son Tewfik Pasha (1879-92).

Among the visitors to the peninsula in 1845 was Major Macdonald, who came to inspect the turquoise that was left, and who settled near the mines at Maghara in 1855, where he remained ten years. His mining was done with the help of Bedawyn labour. He took considerable interest in the great inscriptions, and it was not he, but a French engineer, who took up the work after he left, who destroyed by blasting a large number of valuable rock inscriptions, including those of King Khufu and of the Pharaohs of the Sixth Dynasty. The general interest taken in the peninsula led to the sending out an expedition under General Wilson in 1868, who engaged in a survey of Sinai, i.e. the mountains of the south, under the auspices of the Palestine Exploration Fund. The work was published in 1871 and contains text, maps and a number of photographic views. Among those working on the Survey was the Rev. F. W. Holland, who had previously stayed in Sinai in 1861 and 1867; and the distinguished Arabic scholar, Prof. E. H. Palmer, who made the acquaintance of Sir Richard Burton on this occasion, and who was brought into prolonged contact with the Bedawyn. Prof. Palmer published in 1871 a special account that deals with the story of the Israelites in Sinai under the title The Desert of Exodus. Another visitor to the peninsula was the Egyptologist, Prof. Ebers, who published his work Durch Gosen zum Sinai in 1872. The interest in geography now caused travellers to journey along different routes and to explore different parts of the peninsula, but, in spite of the work accomplished then or undertaken since, the central part of the peninsula is still insufficiently known.

From these writers we gain a further insight into the state of things at the convent, and the attitude of the Bedawyn.

The number of monks at the convent remained much the same. Seetzen found twenty-five monks there and a “guardian” who acted for the absentee bishop (i. 73); Edward Robinson found twenty monks in residence (i. 131); Lepsius in 1845 found twenty-five; Ebers in 1871 found twenty-eight. In 1890 there were between twenty and thirty.

Of the property that is at present owned by the monks I fail to find a complete list. At different periods mention is made of priories in Alexandria, Jerusalem, Tripoli, Gaza, Constantinople, Crete and Cyprus, besides the house owned at Cairo.[306] Wolff, in 1839, mentioned property held by the monks at Constantinople, Cyprus, Belgrad, Bukarest, Jassy, Athens, India and Calcutta;[307] Robinson mentioned houses at Bengal, Golconda, Crete and Cyprus (p. 549). According to Burckhardt the monks received their supplies from Gaza and Cairo.

After an interregnum of eight years Constantius II ruled as archbishop from 1804 to 1859, and was succeeded by Cyrillus III (1859-67). The next archbishop, Callistratus (1867-85), was the first prelate who returned to the convent in 1872, but his installation was attended by difficulties. His successor, Porphyrius, fell out with the patriarch of Alexandria, who caused him to be expelled from Cairo. He was in residence at the convent in the winter of 1905-6.

Modern accounts give a further insight into the temper of the men of the desert.

The pilgrims of the Middle Ages generally dreaded the Bedawyn who were apt to swoop down on them, clamouring for dues, as they passed from the territory of one tribe into that of another, but we hear of few excesses committed by them. Burckhardt, Prof. Palmer and Sir Richard Burton gave an account of the different tribes.

The Bedawyn of southern Sinai are collectively known as Towarah from Towa, Arabic for mountain, as distinct from the Tiyaha, or Bedawyn of the Plain and the tribes who hold the northern districts.

Among the Towarah Prof. Palmer included (1) the Sawaliheh, who are divided into three clans or families, of which each has its sheykh, so that there are three sheykhs to each tribe. In 1870 the sheykhs of the Sawaliheh were Fatir, Kadir Ibn Simhan and Abu Farh, of whom Fatir was agyd or commander-in-chief of all the military operations undertaken by the Towarah generally. Burton spoke of the Salihi (i.e. Sawaliheh or Benu Saleh) as the principal tribe of the Sinaitic Bedawyn.

The next tribe, included among the Towarah, were (2) the Auled Said, who include several families. The sheykhs in 1870 were Hasan Ibn ’Amir and Embarek ed Dheiri.[308]

The next tribe mentioned were (3) the Garrasheh, who are principally found in the neighbourhood of Wadi Feiran. Their chief sheykh, Ibn Nasir, was made responsible to the Egyptian government for the good conduct of the Towarah. He had died when the expedition returned to England. Husein Abu Ridhwan was the only remaining sheykh in 1870, Mansur Ibn Gormah also having recently died.

Another tribe were (4) the Aleyat (or Aliki), whose district was the neighbourhood of the (western) Wadi Nasb. Their sheykhs were Suleiman Ibn Emdakkhal, Juma Abu Shawish, and Amdan Abu Ukri. This tribe was described as not numerous by Prof. Palmer.

There were further, (5) the Emzeineh, (Muzaineh) the descendants of an illustrious tribe who are regarded by the Towarah as comparative strangers, though not excluded from the right of intermarriage. They roam over the eastern coast of the peninsula and are said to have come into Sinai from the Hedjaz in comparatively recent times. According to Sir Richard Burton five persons, ancestors of the Muzaineh, were forced by a blood feud to fly from their native country and landed at Sherm, where they were received by the Aleyat. With these they jointly own the palm trees at Dahab, and the rights of transporting the people landing at Dahab and Sherm. “Anyone who knows the Bedawyn,” wrote Sir Richard, “can see that the Muzaineh are pure blood. Their brows are broad, their faces narrow, their features regular, and their eyes of moderate size, whereas the other Towarah clans are as palpably Egyptian. They are of an impure race, Egypto-Arabs, whereas their neighbour, the Hedjazi, is the pure Syrian or Mesopotamian.”

Besides these tribes Prof. Palmer named (6) the Auled Shahin as the branch of the Towarah, who occupy the country immediately around Tur and the mountain which borders on the plain of El Kaa; they are, properly speaking, a branch of the Aleyat.

There are also, (7) the Gebeliyeh, the so-called serfs of the convent, who are held to be the lineal descendants of the four hundred Wallachian and Egyptian slaves whom the emperor settled in the peninsula. Their district comprises the Wadi esh Sheikh and the immediate neighbourhood of the convent. Their chief sheykhs in 1870 were Awwad Ibn Atiyeh, Eid Ibn Suad and Suleiman Ibn Ghanaim.

Of these tribes the Saidi and the Aleyat are the recognised ghufara, or protectors of the convent. The MS. account of 1710 calls them Waled Sahin, three tribes, the sons of Saleh, i.e. the Selim, the Saidi and the Haliq (Aleyat). These met at the annual festival at the tomb of Nebi Saleh.

The fluctuations of the tribes are insufficiently known. In Burckhardt’s days Harun Ibn Amer, sheykh of the Saidi, was accounted one of the most powerful sheykhs of the Towarah (p. 594).

Of the Towarah generally, Sir R. Burton wrote that in the reign of Mehemed Ali no governor of Suez dared to flog or lay hands on a Turi, whatever offence he might have committed in the town of Suez. Later the wild man’s sword was taken from him before he was allowed to enter the gates. In his estimation “the most good-humoured and sociable of men, they delight in a jest and may readily be managed by kindness and courtesy. Yet they are passionate, nice on the point of honour, revengeful and easily offended when their peculiar prejudices are misunderstood. I have always found them pleasant companions, and deserving of respect, for their hearts are good and their courage is beyond a doubt” (p. 102).

In distinction to the Towarah or men of the mountain, the Bedawyn further north are known as Tiyaha, or men of the plain, who go south as far as Nakhl. They have for their neighbours the Terrebin, a powerful tribe, whose territory extends from about forty miles south-east of Suez on the Sinai road as far as Gaza in the north. There are also the Heiwatt occupying the land between Akaba and Nakhl, who have a bad reputation for raiding, and their neighbours the Anazeh, whose pasture grounds extend from about Medina in Arabia to Palmyra in Syria, including the Arabah. Another wealthy tribe are the Howeitat who can raise as many as twelve hundred camels.

The difficulty of dealing with the Bedawyn, was shown by the events that attended the rising of Arabi in Egypt, in 1880. When Tewfik became Khedive in 1879 dissatisfaction reigned. A military revolution broke out in Cairo, and Arabi Bey, a fellah officer, arose determined to diminish European influence. When rioting began at Alexandria the Khedive sought the protection of the British Fleet, and Sir Garnet Wolseley occupied the Suez Canal, whereupon Cairo surrendered. But the dread of Arabi’s influence among the men of the desert led the British Government to request Prof. Palmer to bring his influence to bear on the Bedawyn of Et TÎh. His work in the Ordnance Survey had brought him into friendly relations with many of the sheykhs, and he was instructed to prevent them from joining the Egyptian rebels. With a firmÂn signed by Tewfik, Prof. Palmer left Jaffa as Abdallah Effendi, and crossed the peninsula to Suez, being conducted by Hamdan, the head man of the Tiyaha, and on his way met the great sheykh of the Heiwatt. His plan was to raise 10,000 of the Tiyaha and Terabin to fight Arabi. From Suez he therefore departed carrying the sum of £3000 in gold in order to buy camels, and arranged for a great meeting of the sheykhs. It was in vain that Sheykh Ode Ismaileh of the Aleyat, and Umdakhl, a minor sheykh, advised him not to go. He and his three companions were lured into an ambush in the Wadi Sudr, and were murdered, August, 1882.[309]

Following upon the mission of Prof. Palmer to Sinai was the expedition to the Sudan for which General Gordon volunteered. He was killed in 1885, whereupon General Kitchener set out to reconquer the Sudan and occupied Khartoum. In 1892 Tewfik in Egypt was succeeded by Hussein Kamel. A misunderstanding with Turkey in connection with the Sinaitic frontier caused a passing difficulty in the year 1906-7. The Turco-Egyptian frontier was drawn from Rafa, now in Egypt, to the Gulf of Akaba, Akaba itself being included in the domain over which Turkey claimed supremacy. At this it stood at the outbreak of the Great War.

The population of the whole of the peninsula at the time was estimated as below 40,000 persons, including the settled inhabitants of El Arish, the Gebeliyeh (400-500), and the rest of the Bedawyn. From a military point of view these were looked upon as of small importance, except as possible secret agents and scouts, and no effort was apparently made to organise them. Although Sinai was politically an Egyptian dependency, with the frontier line between Rafa and Akaba, the Suez Canal was chosen as the means of defending Egypt, and bridgeheads were constructed along it, chief of which was the one at Kantara. The peninsula was therefore open to the Turks, who advanced across it along three routes, i.e. along the coast, along the pilgrim road from Akaba by way of Nakhl, and by a route half-way between the pilgrim route and the Mediterranean. Nakhl became a Turkish military centre. The attacks made at different points along the canal were defeated. The Turk, from the first, engaged the help of the Bedawyn of the eastern desert, but he failed to raise much enthusiasm among them. Only the Terabin, the Ayayme, and some of the sub-tribes of the Howeitat supplied irregular lines, the Ruala and the Anazeh promised to defend Syria, other tribes failed altogether. When a raiding party of Turks advanced from Nakhl on Tur, they were joined by some Bedawyn from Midian and Sinai, who were tempted by the promise of loot. On the way, they requisitioned food at the convent, but they found Egyptian troops in occupation of Tur and were repulsed.

The advance along the shore of the Mediterranean, and expeditions from the bridgeheads and secured posts, engaged the Allied forces in 1916. Ayun Musa was fortified and connected with Suez by means of a light railway, and a railway was constructed along the Mediterranean. In the course of this progress the walls and water cisterns on which the enemy depended were naturally destroyed, and one does not wonder to find the Bedawyn acting in concert with the Turk in their defence. It was not till January, 1917, that Rafa was captured, and the Turk swept out of northern Sinai. Along the eastern frontier the Arabs were prepared to side with the Allies. As early as 1916 Prince Hussein of Mecca organised his forces to resist the Turk, but his progress was indifferent, when he was sought out by Capt. Lawrence, who urged him to advance and persuaded Auda Ibn Tayyi, the great sheykh of the Howeitat, to act in concert with him. The result was a camel charge on the fort of Akaba, which wiped out the Turkish battalion stationed there, and freed the Arab and the Allies from a centre of enemy plotting. By their action the Arabs made a further step in realising themselves as a nation.[310]

In the light of these recent events, one is set wondering how they will affect the chances of well-being of the men of the Sinai desert, and what future may be in store for the convent.