Aww, Poor Things: Daily Mail Laments Plight of Vacationers Inconvenienced by Migrant Refugee Camp

The pesky Third World has created another First World problem: that paragon of journalism the Daily Mail bemoans the fact that the Mediterranean refugee crisis has inconvenienced Europeans on holiday on the Greek island of Kos:

Admittedly, the photos suggest the irony, though the tone of the headline doesn't.

The homeless migrants were not asked their opinion of the tourists.

Red Storm Rising: Blood Red Sandstorm in Benghazi

The photos above, from the Libya's Channel website, shows a Ghibli sandstorm painting Benghazi red. Much of the Middle East has been suffering from high heat and late spring sandstorms, but the deep red of the Libyan storm is particularly striking. The good news is it's temporarily stopped the fighting.

Cairo, too, has been suffering from high temperatures and a  khamsin  blowing, though not as colorful:

May 1915: "Go and Run Amuck in the Marmara": The Adventures of Submarine E-11 at Constantinople

Cheering E-11 as it Returns from its Operations

As we continue to observe the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign, it is worth noting that a century ago during the closing weeks of May 1915, a British submarine made a daring raid through the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmara to the very approaches to Constantinople.

Submarine warfare was one of  the new dimensions  added to warfare in the Great War. I previously  told the story of HMS B-11's sinking of the Turkish Mesudiye in December 1914; by May of 1915 submarine warfare was fully engaged around the Gallipoli landings; The German U-21 sank HMS Triumph on May 25 and HMS Majestic on May 27. But the British had submarines as well, and in May of 1915 HMS E-11's commander, Lieutenant Commander Martin Dunbar Nasmith, was reportedly given he order to "go and run amuck in the Marmara." On May 18 he entered the Dardanelles. He surfaced and captured a small sailing vessel which he strapped to his conning tower as camouflage, though he would later abandon this. On the 19th he encountered the Turkish battleships Turgut Reis and Heiruddin Barbarossa but was unable to engage with them.

Nasmith

E-11 proceeded into the Sea of Marmara. On May 23 Nasmith sank a gunboat and several small craft. On the 24th he sank two Turkish transports and ran a third aground. In one case he exchanged fire with a Turkish cavalry patrol onshore

On May 26 E-11 arrived off Constantinople and torpedoed an old Turkish transport, the Stamboul, by the Arsenal Quay at the entrance to the Golden Horn. Diving to avoid shore battery fire, E-11 bumped the bottom and made its way to calmer waters. But the appearance of an enemy submarine at the Ottoman capital created a sensation in the city.

E-11 continued to operate in the Marmara for several more days until running low on torpedoes. Withdrawing though the Dardanelles, she used her last torpedoes to sink another transport. She also snagged a mine and proceeded to drag it through the straits into open water before disentangling itself.

The Constantinople raid won Nasmith the Victoria Cross and was highly praised; she had sunk or run aground some 11 vessels. In July and August she made two more sorties, finally sinking the Barbarossa and raiding Constantinople again. By the end of the Dardanelles campaign, E-11 would be credited with more than 80 vessels.

E-11 officers and crew

Linguistic Notes II: An Extremely Early Arabic Inscription in Greek Letters

My second linguistics post tonight will be more erudite than my first, but perhaps less popular, with no four letter words more objectionable than "will" and "four," But it's important.

Lameen over at the Jabal al-Lughat blog calls our attention to  a discovery of "Old Arabic in Greek letters, in 3rd/4th century Jordan."

In linguist-speak he notes

There are a fair number of Arabic names transcribed in Greek at this period in various sources, but this seems to be the only known attempt to write Arabic text in Greek letters until much later. Most contemporary Arabic inscriptions were instead written in the Safaitic script, which does not indicate vowels. A text like this thus enables us to see much more clearly how the Arabic of the nomads of 3rd/4th century Jordan was pronounced. It confirms two crucial points. In Arabic, case is usually indicated only by final vowel choice; in this inscription, accusative case (-a) is clearly marked, but the Classical nominative and genitive (-u, -i) are not transcribed, suggesting that this dialect had dropped final short high vowels and thus developed a case system like that of Geez. Also reminiscent of Geez is the fact that intervocalic semivowels elided in Classical Arabic were unambiguously pronounced - thus 'atawa rather than 'atā for "he came". There may well be more material like this out there in the deserts on the Syrian-Jordanian border; let's hope research on the Syrian side becomes possible again soon.

Many of the pre-Islamic inscriptions this early are in Old North Arabian, Arabic's presumed immediate ancestor, but Old North Arabian has the definte article h- while this inscription uses the article al-, unique to true Arabic.

The emergence of Classical Arabic is a fascinating topic for another day but for those of you seriously interested the article is "New Epigraphica from Jordan I: a pre-Islamic Arabic inscription in Greek letters and a Greek inscription from north-eastern Jordan," by A. Jallad with A. al-Manasser.

A part of the inscription:

Linguistic Notes I: Skolnik on "Hebrew Slang"

Language warning: this post on Arabic slang in Hebrew includes strong NSFW language some readers will find offensive. Please proceed only if very strong language (though in a scholarly context) does not offend.

During my slow blogging while recovering from surgery I've let a lot of bloggable material go by. Tonight I'll comment on a couple of linguistic topics.

The first is a piece by Fred Skolnik, Editor of the Encyclopedia Judaica, at the Ilanot Review, entitled simply "Hebrew Slang." It deals with the multiple origins of slang in Modern Israeli Hebrew (Hebrew itself, Yiddish, Arabic, English, Russian, etc.). My own knowledge of Hebrew is far too rudimentary to comment linguistically (though others have done so, particularly on  the role of Russian slang in Israeli Hebrew). I am, however, going to cite his comments on Arabic slang in  Hebrew, a subject of interest to me. Any Arabist spending time among Hebrew speakers (at least outside  a synagogue, and most especially in an Army camp) will have noted many Arabic cusswords in Hebrew.

It's impossible to discuss the subject without quoting Skolnik and discussing his comments, which requires one of my rare Not Safe for Work language warnings. The easily offended should proceed at their own risk. I am not kidding here. It does, however, allow me to comment in a normally taboo area.

Skolnik writes:

Chronologically, it may be said that the early settlers brought the Yiddish with them from Eastern Europe, picked up the Arabic from the Arabs here, and got the English first from the British during the Mandate period and then from the Americans through their films (which furnished the ubiquitous “happy end” – “heppy end” – of Hebrew speech, the -ing getting lost somewhere between Hollywood and Tel Aviv) and other cultural imports. Sometimes, too, Israelis were too provincial, or ignorant, to recognize the force of the foreign words they adopted. Kus (rhymes with puss) for cunt, adopted from the Arabic, is not only used in the street but heard regularly in the sitcoms and soap operas, not to mention the less dignified talk shows, and now we have kus’-eet too, referring to a woman as such, even affectionately, as has occurred with the word nigger (or “nigga”) among American blacks. In actual fact, despite the Arabic origin of the Hebrew word, it is precisely the English “cunt” or “pussy” that is the real inspiration, as Arabs do not habitually talk about women the way Westerners do. Also “fuck,” which becomes fack (rhymes with sock), is regularly exclaimed without any real sense of what is being said, though focking is perceived as somewhat strong even if one does not grasp the full force or resonance of the word. At the same time, a word like manyak with its independent Arabic (cocksucker) and English (maniac) origins became totally confused in Hebrew speech and has been used in both senses, sometimes with the (inexplicable) force that the British “bloody” had fifty years ago and therefore not heard in polite society, and sometimes with far less sting for someone acting in a crazy or outrageous way. I would guess that the word was first used in the Arabic sense by Oriental Jews and then picked up by Ashkenazi Jews in the mistaken belief that it derived from the English word.

The supposed conflation in Hebrew between relatively mild English "maniac" and obscene Arabic manyak is intriguing, though I can't testify  to the Hebrew usage. Translating manyak as "cocksucker" is at best arguable,  Manyak (منيك) is a dialectal variant of the more standard manyuk, (منيوك), which literally translates as "fucked," and is indeed used to refer to a homosexual taking the passive role, while the feminine form manyuka is one of Arabic's several words for "whore," also giving rise to ibn manyuka (son of a whore) addressed to males. Though Skolnik's article doesn't seem to accept comment, the linguistics blog Language Hat linked to the post and has a vigorous comments thread now up to 34, many dealing with the manyak/maniac conflation.

I also have to take exception, despite it involving even more offensive language, to Skolnik's comment:

In actual fact, despite the Arabic origin of the Hebrew word, it is precisely the English “cunt” or “pussy” that is the real inspiration, as Arabs do not habitually talk about women the way Westerners do.

This royally misses the point. The fact that "Arabs do not habitually talk that way" means that when they do, watch out. Kuss ummak, or in Palestinian and Hebrew pronunciation, Kuss immak (كس أمك) and its variants are the strongest Arabic obscenity, at least in general use. (I warned you the language was strong.)  If "your mother's cunt" is  coarse and offensive in English, it is vastly more so in Arabic, intentionally so, and makes "fuck you" sound tame and limp, though it fills a similar semantic role. But it is a native Arabic usage of long standing, and intended to be as obscene a possible. (Hebrew has other equivalents to "fuck you," including the purely [or impurely?] Hebrew lech li-hizdayen, also noted by Skolnik, which is literally "go fuck yourself.") (Hizdayen and its cognates are another story, and produced a wondrously funny Menachem Begin anecdote from Amos Oz, but that's a tale for another day.)

The taboo doesn't originate in English, as Skolnik suggests, and while it certainly is equivalent  to "cunt" and stronger than "pussy," (speaking in American terms; Brits use the "c-word" more liberally and apply it to males), it's a Classical Arabic (and I think is used in the 1001 Nights though I can't find it just now, though I think etymologically Persian in origin) word. Skolnik is way off base here. Patriarchal societies consider attacking one's mother far more offensive than attacking the individual. Both Spanish (Iberian and American, though using multiple different verbs) and Chinese consider "Fuck your Mother" the standard insult, as Arabic does with the Kuss insults. (It has even gotten to the point where some Arabs simply use Kuss umm as equivalent to English "fuck," leading to phrases like Kuss umm al-hukuma, essentially "Fuck the Government," though the government presumably lacks a vagina.) If that isn't intense enough, other female relatives starting with your sister, grandmother, etc. can be used for escalation. But at least given the weakening of taboos and ubiquity of "fuck" in English media, kuss ummak is far more offensive. Hebrew has, if anything, defined the term down from its Arabic offensiveness. (The American "motherfucker," originally black, has also become common if  taboo, and is somewhere in the same semantic register.)

Actress Natalie Portman once used Kuss immak  on US TV, calling it "a curse word that is also humorous. That is priceless." Israelis may find it humorous. (And "vagina" is a euphemism, but it was TV.) Arabs will find it fighting words.

Khaled Diab for Al Jazeera Notes Closing of Cafe Riche

I recently noted the closing, perhaps permanent, of Cairo's famous Cafe Riche. Now Khaled Diab has a lengthy piece for Al Jazeera: "A cultural shift as iconic Cairo cafe closes."

Apparently Neo-Ottomanism Isn't Limited to Erdoğan, and Other Talk of Empires Past and Future

When the New Zealander/adoptive British Imperial apologist J.B. Kelly, author of Arabia, the Gulf and the West, and other works died in 2009,  I called him "the last Imperial Briton" and treated him as an anachronism. But even then, American neocons were exulting in an American neo-imperialism of sorts, and one was already hearing  revisionist historians like Niall Ferguson in his books Colossus and Empire seemingly yearning for the good old Empire days. Now, much of the world will be surprised to learn that most Americans don't see ourselves as an imperialist people. Perhaps back in the days of Teddy Roosevelt and Alfred Thayer Mahan, but not today. We rationalize our global ambitions as bringing stability, order, and democracy, as France once rationalized its Empire as la mission civilisatrice.

But nostalgia for the Ottoman Empire is still, for the most part, limited to right-wing Turkish nationalists and to "Neo-Ottomanist" President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

At least until now. 

Robert D. Kaplan's piece at Foreign Policy, "It's Time to Bring Imperialism Back to the Middle East," actually goes there. Kaplan has written a number of popular works. I never read his Balkan Ghosts so i won't comment on it here. I must confess that his Arabists: the Romance of an American Elite annoyed me, though giving the pleasure one gets from yelling at a book as one reads it, Since it dealt with many friends, teachers, mentors, colleagues, and former bosses (some of whom weren't even technically Arabists as they didn't know the language), I read it a least twice.. (The cover shows the late Talcott Seelye, Ambassador to Syria and Tunisia, whom I was lucky enough to know well and whose daughter Kate is now my colleague as Senior Vice President of MEI.)

So I admit to some bias in judging Kaplan's arguments because, to use the academic terms, I consider them dangerous imperialist bullshit. Read it for yourself. His conclusion:

Thus, the near-term and perhaps middle-term future of the Middle East will likely be grim. The Sunni Islamic State will now fight Iran’s Shiite militias, just as Saddam’s Sunni Iraq fought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Shiite Iran in the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran War. That war, going on as long as it did, represented in part the deliberate decision of the Reagan administration not to intervene — another example of weak imperial authority, though a successful one, since it allowed Reagan to concentrate on Europe and help end the Cold War.

Back then it was states at war; now it is sub-states. Imperialism bestowed order, however retrograde it may have been. The challenge now is less to establish democracy than to reestablish order. For without order, there is no freedom for anyone.

Ah, yes, Ordnung supersedes democracy, human rights, and other frills. Notice how it's more sinister if I use the German word? I wonder why that is?

While Kaplan doesn't urge a reestablishment of the Ottoman Empire in its original form, I rather expect he's going to have some 'splainin' to do with his Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian friends, if he has some.

In another area, the current anti-Iran hysteria in the US, Israel, and the Gulf Arab states has led to much talk about Iran pursuing a "new Persian Empire," Professor Hamid Dabashi, Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies at Columbia University takes this apart very nicely at Al Jazeera in "Persian Empire, Anyone?"

I truly believe the age of empires is gone. We may have a (I believe false) nostalgia, for a (falsely?) remembered stability, and no one prefers the barbarity of ISIS, but Kaplan's solution is to treasure an anachronism.

Three-Day Holiday Weekend

Today is the Memorial Day holiday in the US. Regular blogging resumes tomorrow.

The Ironies of ISIS at Palmyra: What would Zenobia Say?

Zenobia

As I have said many times, expressions of concern over ISIS' destruction of antiquities in no way is intended to underplay or undervalue their toll in human lives; on the contrary, the concerns over their destruction of heritage sites help generate attention to the human toll.

A denarius of Zenobia

There is an irony in the Islamic State's latest conquest: that a movement not known for its respect for women finds itself in possession of a site associated with one of the strongest female figures of antiquity. Second in fame only to Cleopatra (but unlike her, not in the shadow of a Caesar or an Antony), Queen Zenobia of Palmyra challenged Rome, ruled both the Levant and Egypt until he Emperor Aurelian brought her to heel.

The Palmyrene Empire

When her husband King Odenathus died in AD 267, she became Queen Regent for her minor son. She then proceeded to expel Rome from Egypt and invade Anatolia, ruling over a short-lived but extensive empire until defeated by Aurelian and carried off to Rome in 273.

Renaissance interpretation by Michele Tosini

She seems to have fascinated the Romans, and in subsequent centuries would inspire paintings, sculpture, novels, operas,and much romanticization of her story. In Arab tradition she is Zaynab and remembered in folklore. I thought the Renaissance Italian portrait by Michele Tosini at right, believed to be of Zenobia, would be particularly upsetting to ISIS, so I chose it.
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She was the last queen of Palmyra and ruled the city at the moment of its greatest splendor. She saw the very ruins ISIS threatens today before the city's fall. What, indeed, would she think of ISIS?

Personal photos from a trip to Palmyra in 1972, over 40 years ago. I haven't been back since, having assumed it would always be there:

Egyptian Court Bans Internet Pornography. Yet Again. This Time Due to Alleged Friskiness at the Pyramids

Egypt's Administrative Court has moved to ban pornographic sites on the Internet this week, (link is in Arabic; English summary here).

This latest move should probably not be confused with a May 2009 ban on pornographic websites, nor with the state prosecutor's ban on such websites in 2012, nor with a separate case in the Morsi era that was adjourned, not to mention the fact that Egypt-based sites have long been illegal anyway.

The latest rebanning of something already banned seems to be a feelgood response to public outrage at two reported cases of pornographic films being surreptitiously made at the pyramids. The first case erupted in March when a Russian couple apparently filmed a partially explicit video at the pyramids.

Then at the beginning of May reports said that the Ministry of Antiquities had opened an investigation of reports that a porn star known as Carmen de Luz had posed for "indecent' pictures at the pyramids. She denied it, saying she visited the pyramids and posted modest pictures to Facebook, and a reading of the link suggests the Ministry is partly concerned that she was at the site after hours. Given the earlier Russian incident, the mere visit of a known porn star to the pyramids may trigger suspicion.

Need I note that even the first incident and its resulting video were not posted on an Egyptian website and presumably were already banned under existing law?

It's a good thing Egypt has solved all its problems of poverty, human rights, social violence, terrorism etc., and can now concentrate on the important stuff like pyramid porn, real or imagined.  Meanwhile, tourists, please remember, if you feel like getting promiscuous at the pyramids or sexy at the Sphinx, don't film it or post it to the Internet.

The Fall of Tadmur and the Threat to the Ruins of Palmyra

The fall of the Syrian town of Tadmur, adjacent to the ruins of ancient Palmyra, to the Islamic State, has drawn much attention because of concern about the UNESCO World Heritage Site, in light of ISIS' destruction of antiquities in and around Mosul. The spectacular Roman-era ruins have been in danger in earlier rounds of fighting in the Syrian civil war, but the threat there was collateral damage, not deliberate destruction.

Appalling as the threat to Palmyra is, some perspective is in order Tadmur is not a major town, except as a tourist site, though there are military bases nearby; it is not a major prize like Raqqa or Deir al-Zor, but the fame of the ruins and the recent fall of (the far more important) Ramadi in Iraq combine to create a sense of alarm in the media. I keep hearing that ISIS "now controls 50% of Syria." But it controls a lot of desert and few real population centers, and Tadmur doesn't change that.

A Personal Note

I'm still recovering from surgery 10 days ago and trying to get up to speed with both the Journal and the blog. Expect a more normal blogging pace soon.

The Emad Shahin Death Sentence

Emad Shahin

 Over the weekend Egypt indulged in another round of multiple death sentences, including some 106 people in a so-called prison break case and 16 people in an alleged espionage case. The former group includes ousted President Muhammad Morsi, and convicts him in a case dating from before his election to the Presidency.

The second case is particularly outraging the scholarly community, as it includes a death sentence against Professor Emad Shahin, one of Egypt's most respected political scientists, normally based at AUC.

Fortunately, the sentence against Shahin is in absentia, as he is currently here in Washington at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. A respected authority on political Islam and the Editor-in-Chief of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics.

Though some Egyptian media accuse him of being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, studying a subject is not the same as supporting it.  The court apparently accepted the charges without investigating the evidence; as Professor Shahin notes in a statement on his website, " two defendants sentenced to death today had already been dead and one has been in prison for the past 19 years."

He has also given an interview with Al Jazeera about the case.

Good News and Bad News on the Cairo Bar Scene: El-Horriya Still Going Strong, but Cafe Riche is Closed for Now, Perhaps for Good

This blog has occasionally commented on the bar scene in Cairo, especially the baladi or local hangouts as opposed to those in five-star hotels. I bear both good news and bad news: El-Horriya is  apparently going strong after 70 years, but the Cafe Riche, which goes back a century, is closed and unlikely to reopen.

I imagine most people who know downtown Cairo will be familiar with both. CairoScene has a piece, "El-Horreya Cafe: 70 Years Strong," dealing with the enduring coffeehouse/bar off Midan Falaky in the Bab al-Luq neighborhood. Always a sort of cross between a classic qahwa with men playing chess or backgammoin over tea or coffee, and a bar inside,Though the story throws in words like "infamous" and "notorious," those aren't really deserved unless you're a temperance campaigner. Centrally located not far from Tahrir Square and the old downtown campus of AUC, it has long been a place that cut across divides of class. They interview a barman who has worked there since the 1960s.

According to a 2010 story in Egypt Independent, the bar closed for several months that year for renovation, including a new paint job, but it doesn't sound like it spoiled the place.

But the news is not so good about an even older and more famous venue. After the death of its owner, the Cafe Riche has closed, and may never reopen.

The legendary cafe and bar, which in recent years has been selling its legend, is a few doors south of Midan Tal‘at Harb on the street of the same name, deep in the beating heart of downtown Cairo.

In 2011 I posted about the Riche: "Cairo's Cafe Riche: a Classic or Living Off its Reputation?" 

When I first lived in Egypt under Sadat in the 1970s, it was more or less a daily hangout. On multiple visits in the 1980s, I stopped by whenever possible. It suffered serious damage in the devastating 1992 Cairo earthquake and was, I believe, closed for much of the 1990s.

The Riche I knew was an egalitarian, welcoming place. Literary types and intellectuals rubbed elbows with students and workers, as well as backpacking tourists. I haven't seen the reopened post-earthquake version, which reviews say capitalizes on its historical reputation (the Free Officers, .Naguib Mahfouz, etc.) and was selective in its clientele.  My 2011 post linked above, a great piece in The Economist the same year (unsigned but probably by Max Rodenbeck) and the Ahram Online piece linked above all allude to the changes that have occurred. My Riche from the 70s and 80s had put on airs.

The Ahram article holds out some hope that developers will acquire and reopen the Riche, but in the wake of its owner's death and uncertainty about its ownership, it's closed for now. Even if it is resurrected, it will probably resemble the post-earthquake version rather than the glory days.

Bibliographica Iranica

Bibliographia Iranica describes itself as "a predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies."

It seems to have a strong (but not exclusive) focus on pre-Islamic Iran, both historical and linguistic, and on Zoroastrian studies, though some of the works deal with later periods, It appears to be a great resource for those fields.

Nakba Day

Today is May 15, the date traditionally marked by Palestinians as Nakba Day, coinciding with the end of the Palestine Mandate on May 15 and the Israeli Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948, Israel celebrates its independence day according to the Jewish calendar date, so the two rarely coincide.

More posts coming soon; I'm still recovering.

The Mulid of Sayyida Zaynab

Daily News Egypt

The mulid (celebration of a saint's birthday) of Sayyid Zaynab, the Prophet's granddaughter and one of he patron saints of Cairo, was this week, and Daily News Egypt has a photo gallery. Sayyida Zaynab's is probably the largest nd most colorful of the Cairo mulids, centered around the neighborhood around the mosque where she is buried. (She is also buried in a town south of Damascus, but she is a saint and the Prophet's granddaughter, and miracles happen.)

Daily News Egypt

One of the legacies of the Fatimid era in Egypt is the fact that several of Cairo's patron saints are actually ‘Alids, including Imam Hussein, Sayyida Zaynab and Sayyida Nafisa, though Egypt's few Shi‘ites are usually not allowed to conduct separate ceremonies, and the people celebrating the mulid are Sunni. (Another Cairo saint with a big mulid, Imam al-Shafi‘i, was a Sunni, but a legal scholar who didn't much approve of venerating saints. Now he is one.)

Daily News Egypt

Islamists frown on mulids as saint-worship, and during the swine flu hysteria of 2009 there was an attempt to ban public celebrations of mulids, but they remain a popular event, part festival, part carnival, part religious devotion; the Sufi orders come out in force, but so do hucksters, vendors, fortune-tellers and what-not.

Go take a look at the photo essay if you can't get to any mulids in person.

Kenan Evren, 1917-2015

I'm very much still recovering from my surgery and have not yet resumed work, nor is this a resumption of blogging at the full old pace. But I thought I should note the passing on May 9 of former Turkish President Kenan Evren at the venerable age of 97.

Evren led the 1980 coup and headed the military junta that followed. The coup was sparked by a period of political violence and anarchy, but the period of Evren's military rule responded with harsh repression and a suspension of political rights. After writing a new, more restrictive constitution, Evren was elected President in 1982, serving until 1989.

Though the Turkish military would continue to wield its power to put pressure on political leaders throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, it never again assumed direct military rule.

In 2012 Evren was brought to trial for the 1980 coup and in 2014 sentenced to life imprisonment, but died hospitalized due to extreme age and illness.



http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32679281

A Short Medical Hiatus

Tomorrow I am undergoing surgery that I have put off for years.  If there are no complications I should be home quickly but out of commission for a few days at least. After my hip surgery in 2010 I discovered that strong painkillers do not mix well with blogging in coherent English, so blogging will be light or nonexistent for however long that is. I hope only a few days, but I'll be working from home when I do resume.

Inshallah I'll be back here soon.

Houthi/Saudi Escalation, North and South

The Saudi-Houthi conflict in Yemen has been escalating, showing signs of tuning into a ground war at both the northern and southern extremes of the country. In the south, where troops loyal to the former Yemeni government are fighting to keep the Houthis out of Aden, there were reports last week of some Saudi ground forces, though perhaps only special forces, and that Sudan and Senegal had agreed to send ground forces. These could substitute for the troops Pakistan refused to provide, but like the Pakistanis could be a two-edged sword, seen by many anti-Houthi Yemenis as foreign mercenaries.

Meanwhile, on the northern frontier, border clashes have increased, and now the Houthis have reportedly fired mortars into civilian areas of the border town of Najran. Najran is a substantial town and provincial capital, and while the Saudis have confirmed some of their border guards have been killed, there are also reports of civilian casualties.

Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Egyptian Army learned some harsh lessons about getting involved in a ground war in a Yemeni civil war,  but the Saudi/Gulf intervention is threatening to enter a ground war phase,

At Last Possible Moment, Netanyahu Gets Narrowest Possible Government

Just an hour and a half before the clock was to run out at midnight Israel time, Binyamin Netanyahu was able to notify President Reuven Rivlin that he had succeeded in forming a government. The last minute deal, in doubt after Avigdor Lieberman balked at joining several days ago, is the narrowest possible majority, 61 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. It will be fragile and the member parties will be able to threaten to bring it down over any disagreement. It is arguably the most undiluted right-wing coalition yet, but also the weakest possible.

Likud won its victory by taking votes from its allied parties on the right, but they have had their revenge of sorts, by hard-bargaining for key portfolios, leaving Likud somewhat underrepresented in a Cabinet it leads. The exact details of the final deal with Naftali Bennett's HaBayit HaYehudi will not be finalized until next week.

May 5, 1915: The ANZACs First Meet "Beachy Bill"

Soldiers like to name things on their battlefields. Not with the mapmaker's dry names like "Hill 904," either. The American Civil War was fought in a country full of cornfields, peach orchards, roads and ponds, but by its end "The cornfield" was at Antietam, as was the Sunken Road (also called Bloody Lane as Fredericksburg already had a sunken road), "The peach orchard" was at Gettysburg, as was Devil's Den, Little Round Top, etc., and Shiloh had the Bloody Pond.

The ANZACs who found themselves ashore at Gallipoli on April 25 soon realized that they were unable to get beyond the landing beaches due to strong Turkish positions on the ridgeline above, and they were subjected to constant shelling from artillery beyond the protective ridge.

Some ANZAC names (Wikipedia)

Stuck as sitting targets below, they named the hills and natural features around them. There were Gun Ridge, Battleship Hill, Baby 700, the Sphinx (remember they'd trained by the Sphinx) the Nek (an Afrikaans word, probably named by a Boer War veteran), and so on. One of the landing beaches was named Brighton Beach, presumably ironically.

One such named location was "the Olive Grove," in a plain near Gaba Tepe, where a well-concealed Turkish artillery position was set up in a place from which it had a clear view of the ANZAC beaches. It could shell the beachhead at will and regularly did so, also dropping shells and shrapnel offshore where the ANZAC troops regularly swam to escape the heat of the Aegean summer.

The Olive Grove position first came into action 100 years ago today. It would be a persistent threat to the beachhead right up to withdrawal months later, which  took place under its gunnery. The Australian and New Zealand troops not only named the Olive Grove, they named the gun.

They called it "Beachy Bill." 

According to the Australian National University website, "Glossary of Slang and Peculiar Terms in Use in the A.I.F": 

Beachy Bill The Turkish guns emplaced in the Olive Grove (Gallipoli) which caused considerable casualties at Anzac, mostly on the beaches.

World War I. 1915 (Partridge). Attested in F&G and Partridge.
While Partridge does not note this as specifically Australian, ‘Beachy Bill’ clearly has special relevance to the Australian experience of the war.

There’s a certain darned nuisance called ‘Beachy,’

   Whose shells are exceedingly screechy;

               But we’re keeping the score,

               And we’re after your gore –

So look out, ‘Beachy Bill,’ when we meet ye.

1916 ANZAC Book, p. 96.

They never got to meet him up close, but certainly felt his presence. (They speak generally of a single gun, though other guns in the vicinity contributed.) "Beachy" presumably refers to its threat to, and nearness to, the beaches.

From a Turkish website about Gallipoli, quoting a British source:

According to the unknown author of a 1917 publication, The Story of the Anzacs, ‘ On an average, “Beachy “ is said to have accounted for twelve men a day.’ Whether ‘ accounted for’ meant killed or killed and wounded is not clear; but an average of twelve men a day over eight months, added to nearly 3,000 casualties, which was not a bad score even if it included wounded. B Depot made its contribution, most of the casualties being amongst the infantry fatigue parties who were men ‘resting’ from the front line.

"These Things Happened", (Melbourne 1975), F.F. Knight, p. 147

According to a letter to the Editor of the Western Mail (Perth), Thursday 28 December 1933, page 2, as cited by the Australian Light Horse Studies Centre, they tried quite hard to silence the position, including naval shelling. (The writer refers to the "Olive Grove" as the "Orange Grove," perhaps due to a trick of memory:)

Unless Australian soldiers' vocabulary has changed dramatically in 100 years, which I rather doubt, I would assume that "was seldom referred to in complimentary terms" probably means the name was usually preceded by some rather pungent adjectives particularly popular down under. Particularly the one beginning in "f" and ending in "ucking." (I believe someone once called it "the great Australian adjective," though it's hardly unfamiliar to Brits and Amricans.)

The Australian War Museum has a sketch, "View Southward from Anzac Position to Olive Groves" that shows the position with the Kilid Bahr ridge rising behind. The artillery concealed in the grove could shell the beach:

Perhaps easier to read with the contrast sharpened:

The 7th Light Horse Regiment revisited the battlefield in 1918 after serving in Gallipoli and Palestine, and the Australian Light Horse Studies Centre offers an excerpt from their official history about the Olive Grove and Beachy Bill:

Lieutenant Colonel John Dalzell Richardson produced a unit history published in 1919 called The History of the 7th Light Horse Regiment AIF which included a section specifically related to the battle of Beersheba and is extracted below.

Richardson, JD, The History of the 7th Light Horse Regiment AIF, Sydney, 1919, pp. 107 - 113:

CHAPTER VII.

THE OLD BATTLE-FIELDS . . .

The hill system of Anzac, which culminates in the height of Chunuk Bair to the north, slopes gradually downwards in undulating ridges almost to sea level at Cape Helles-the height of Achi Baba being the one outstanding feature, not far from the village of Krithia. But between the village of Maidos on the Straits and the headland of Gaba Tepe lies a level plain of no great width, and on the side farthest from Anzac is the famous "Olive Grove," from which Beachy Bill used to fire with such deadly results. The enemy position, known as Pine Ridge, on the right flank, looks down on this plain, and the gully held by the Turks at the eastern end of Lone Pine opens into it. If this gully and the ridge beyond, as well as Pine Ridge, could have been taken, the valley would have been open for an advance at any time as far as the Kilid Bahr Plateau without any natural obstacle.

Finally, a modern photo of the former site of a gun emplacement at the Olive Grove:

For Cinco de Mayo, Remember the Egyptian Troops in Maximilian's Mexico

Today is Cinco de Mayo, a holiday more widely celebrated in the United States as an excuse to drink Mexican beer, than it is in Mexico, where it's mostly confined to the state of Puebla. (I can't partake this year as I'm having surgery later this week and must avoid alcohol.)

It commemorates a Mexican victory over the French in 1862. The French, however, came back stronger and eventually installed the Emperor Maximilian. And that gives me an excuse to bring up once again the little-known subject of my 2012 post: "A Sudanese-Egyptian Battalion in Maximilian's Mexico." 

I repeat the original post here:
The caption on the illustration of military uniforms above, left, though it may be difficult to read, says "Egyptian Battalion in Mexico 1863-1867." This has to be one of the more curious expeditions in the history of European colonialism.

The strange French adventure in Mexico during the American Civil War, in which Louis Napoleon installed a Hapsburg Prince, Maximilian, as Emperor of Mexico, is a strange interlude, one that ended badly for Maximilian (in the firing squad sense of "badly"). Benito Juarez and Mexican Revolutionaries on the one hand, and the United States on the other (which, once the Civil War ended, decided to enforce the Monroe Doctrine and get rid of a European Emperor in Mexico) spelled the end of the strange adventure. But if a Hapsburg Emperor of Mexico installed by a Bonaparte wasn't strange enough, part of Maximilian's Army was a battalion of Egyptian troops (mostly Sudanese enlisted men with Egyptian officers), the bright idea of someone who thought Sudanese troops would be more easily acclimated to the Mexican heat than Frenchmen.

Said Pasha, Wali of Egypt 1854-1863

The Egyptian Wali Said Pasha agreed to provide an "Auxiliary Battalion" of 447 men in four companies. They sailed from Alexandria on January 9, 1863, aboard the troopship Seine. Said Pasha died nine days later, succeeded as Wali by his nephew Ismail. (The title Khedive, though in popular use, was not officially recognized by the Ottoman Sultan until 1867.)

Arrival in Veracruz

The expedition suffered severely from disease en route: a typhus outbreak aboard ship, a yellow fever outbreak after arrival in Veracruz, that killed the commanding officer, and other bouts with dysentery and pulmonary diseases. The force did see action against the Juaristas, and their French commander is said to have remarked that they fought like lions. The French used some Algerian troops as translators.

The Egyptian Battalion Arrives in Paris

In 1867, the 326 survivors of the Egyptian battalion sailed from Mexico after the fall of Maximilian. Louis Napoleon reviewed them in Paris before their return to Egypt.  Accounts of the Egyptian battalion here and here; a contemporary New York Times report here.

Does Not Compute: Hizbullah Swimsuit?

At first I thought this must be some kind of kinky hipster chic (it even looks like the mannikin has nipples), but it has been pointed out to me that Lebanon has some all-female beaches and one is even known as the "Hizbullah beach," Who knew?

Saudis Restructure Aramco, Separate it from Oil Ministry

Saudi Arabia continue to make changes announcing it is restructuring Saudi Aramco and making it more independent of the Oil Ministry.

As you'll see at the link, some are speculating that  King Salman may be positioning his son ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Salman, who is Deputy Oil Minister, may be positioning him to succeed oil Minister ‘Ali Na‘imi, who is bout 80. The job is usually held by a technocrat, ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Salman has held positions in the ministry for years.

A lot of analysis of this week's reshuffles has centered on talk about family factionalism, a "Sudeiri coup," and the like.  I have long felt there are three rules for understanding Saudi Arabia:

1. Those who talk about the internal dynamics of the family don't know.
2. Those who know, conversely, don't talk.
3. The king is a real King, not a constitutional monarch, and can do what he wants.