'Despatch from Civil Commissioner, Mesopotamia, to Secretary of State for India' [‎94v] (13/22)

museum, which is in process of being installed in the Madrasat Malik al Adil. The
repairs to the building had not been completed or the exhibits arranged nor aid
anyone, not excepting the curator, know anything about them, though they were
familiar local finds, some of which were of merit. Across the street is the library
of the Malik al Dhahir, one of the most beautiful monuments in the town. It also
is to form part of the Museum buildings. The pages torn from Kufic Qurans, sole
relics of the treasures of the mosque which were rifled for the German Emperor in
1898, were still, as I remembered them before the war, folded across and stuffed into
a corner of one of the bookshelves. But if Mithraic reliefs, Roman glass or Kufic
parchments were not receiving the care which a European curator would have
lavished on them, the pride and joy of the exhibitors could not h'ave been surpassed.
The institution was, as they said—and in more senses than one—genuinely Arab.
Far more remarkable, to my mind, than any Arab institution was the existence
of the committee of ladies which directed the school. Damascus, up to the time of
the war, was very backward as regards the position and activities of women, and
nothing resembling a philanthropic committee of this kind would have been con
sidered within the bounds of possibility, either by the men or by the women them
selves. Even now the Moslem women of Jerusalem hold that they have advanced
further along the path of emancipation than their sisters in Damascus. During last
winter a society of ladies, under the presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. of the wife of the Mayor, Kadhim al
Husaini, and of the Sitt Nasirah Haddad, has organized relief work among the poor
in Jerusalem. The Bait Husaini is one of the best families in the town, while the
Sitt Nasirah is the widow of one of the Khalidis, a family as respectable as the
Husainis, and on his death married a well-known barrister. She has been assiduous
in paying personal visits to the houses of those who were in need of relief, and her
example had been followed by the daughter of the Mufti. It is a New Jerusalem in
which well-born ladies visit the poor. The Sitt Nasirah complained of the great
drawback of not being able to interview men freelv if her work required; in this
respect she was somewhat more restricted than the" Sitt Naziq. The next'genera
tion, she said, would never wear the veil. Although she disclaimed any wish to take
part in politics, she had just come from Damascus, where she had presented the Amir
Faisal with a small gift, a picture of the Haram, on behalf of the ladies of the
society The episode is not without significance, for it shows that Faisal is the
natural recipient of homage in the eyes of Palestinian Arabs, and also that Moslems,
m respect of their womenfolk, have embarked on the slippery slope which admits of
no haJtmg-place between domesticity and active participation in politics. The
passage will be rapid, though it will not be completed without a period of ffreat
diversity. It so happened that the very next woman T saw in Jerusalem after the
. itt Nasirah was the wife of one of the notables (the Bait Nashashibi), sister-in-law
? an eX ; , P uj 7 ! She had begun a perfectly respectable career as a slave girl in the
thf w • ^ l ' where T she had s P ent ^ years, to which she looked back as
^e happ'est she had known. It would have been little short of an insult to suggest
w . .fVi S ^ uld V1Slt . a * tarvin g Peasant, and she would have been overcome by
unforgettable^ self-reproach if a strange man had seen her unveiled. Midway
between the two stood the sister of one of my Damascene friends, Izz-ud-Din
Saiujiyah who is betrothed to the Sitt Naziq. I went to a small luncheon party at
well over £ T H invited ^ Tazi ^ d one or two men - The sister, a stout lady,
was plrsuaded to sTrwTfw "Tv, d but after much coaxing ste
was persuaded to sit down to table with us, in my honour. GWline and with manv
coy snatches at the discarded veil, she was at length wooed tSforLfulness of ter
InZZ P Zr 0 so.S eXC ^ enee 0f l he ^ aSt - ' Like - el derly chick emerging—
t0 ° late ' P?P r SO" 1 !—from the egg. she chirped in the sunshine of a mixed sociStv
f t u ^ atmosphere of Damascus is of such vital importance to Bagdad
until the time when Baghdad takes the place of Damascus as the centre oP thp 4r«K
world that I make bold to describe further the pri.cipl perLns wC I let thtrf
the Amir Takf A tfof t |lTT entin ? I hiS br0ther wasTn Lond4 ^
engaging diffidenct ^ adLess H p V y< T r than 1 his ^ he is with an
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