Alfred J. Butler, Egypt, and the Copts: Part I

I'm on vacation. As I have done each year, I have prepared a number of posts on historical and cultural subjects unlikely to be overtaken by events, with at least one appearing daily.

Alfred Joshua Butler (1850-1936) seems, at first glance, a typical donnish sort of 19th century Englishman. He certainly looked the part (photo at left) and his Who's Who entry (below) seems stereotypical: son of an Anglican clergyman, "the late Rev. A.S Butler, Rector of Markfield, Leicestershire"; married "1882, Constance Mary, d[aughter] of Col. Heywood, of Ocle Court, Herefordshire"; Scholar of Trinity College, Oxford; Fellow of the wonderfully-named Brasenose College at Oxford, Visitor of the Ashmolean museum, winner of poetry and other prizes, and of course, "Recreations: shooting, fishing, boating, whist, chess. Club: Royal Societies." Just your typical late Victorian and Edwardian donnish dilettante scholar, at first glance.

And then you notice, "Tutor to the Khedive of Egypt, 1879-81," and the string of publications that followed. For in fact, Butler was a pioneering Orientalist in the study of Egypt, with two main and overlapping specializations: the Coptic Church, its history and its ancient churches and monasteries, and the period of the Arab Conquest of Egypt. More than a century after the publication of most of his major works, they are still of value, and none can be said to have been completely superseded despite  a century of subsequent research.

His works on the Copts earned him his own entry in The Coptic Encyclopedia.

This blog  has often provided profiles of those who have made contributions to the study of Egypt, from Egyptians like ‘Ali Pasha Mubarak and Prince Omar Toussoun, to Western scholars from Edward William Lane, through Sir K.A.C. Creswell, to the recently deceased George T. Scanlon. Butler also deserves to be mentioned in such company.

As I said, his works, except for a memoir of his service as a tutor at the Court of Khedive Tawfiq, fall into two broad categories: the Copts, particularly their ancient churches, and the period of the Arab Conquest. In this post I plan to deal with the memoir and the works on the Copts; and tomorrow address the works on the conquest. 

Because his entire body of work was published before 1923, it is out of copyright and is available in digital form. As a result in addition to summarizing his work I am able to link you to the full texts.

Although not his first book in terms of publication date, thematically one should probably begin with his memoir of his work as a tutor to the sons of Khedive Tawfiq, a job for which he was recruited in January, 1880. He traveled up and down the Nile, but with the stirrings of the ‘Urabi revolt, left the job, "for reasons, which I need not here record," but note that he married the year after his return.

His 1887 book Court Life in Egypt (Google Books version; multiple formats at Internet Archive) is a narrative of his experiences and impressions; there are some anecdotes about the Khedivial family and a lot of impressions of Egypt by an observer who, apparently, had no previous experience of it.

It was, however, during that stay that he began, in what he described as his leisure time, his study of Coptic churches.He would later admit that at the time he began his researches he lacked the training in architecture and ecclesiology necessary, and that the lack of access to scholarly works meant his researches had to be supplemented on his return to Europe. He later mentions that he was just learning Arabic at the time,and it is not clear if he knew any Coptic then, though that was not uncommon for an Oxford scholar due to its importance in Biblical studies.

On that first period of living in Egypt, he was also unable to visit the monasteries of the Wadi Natrun, the center of Coptic monasticism, due to Bedouin unrest in the region.

Soon however, able to return to Egypt to complete his researches, referring to a stay of seven months. In 1884 he published the two volumes of The Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt. (Volume I: Google Books version; multiple formats at Internet Archive; Volume II: Google Books version; multiple formats at Internet Archive).

He explains the purpose of the work in the Preface to Volume I , sounding very much the Victorian Orientalist and clergyman's son:

The aim of this book is to make a systematic beginning upon a great subject-the Christian antiquities of Egypt. Few subjects of equal importance have been so singularly neglected. One writer admits that the Coptic Church is still 'the most remarkable monument of primitive Christianity'; another that it is 'the only living representative of the most venerable nation of all antiquity'; yet even the strength of this double claim has been powerless to create any working interest in the matter. No doubt the attention of more travellers has been bewitched and fascinated by the colossal remains of pagan times, by the temples and pyramids which still glow in eternal sunshine, while the Christian churches lie buried in the gloom of fortress walls, or encircled and masked by almost impassable deserts. Yet the Copts of to-day, whose very name is an echo of the word Egypt, trace back their lineage to the ancient Egyptians who built the pyramids, and the ancient tongue is spoken at every Coptic mass: tlie Copts were among the first to welcome the tidings of the gospel, to make a rule of life and worship, and to erect religious buildings : they have upheld the cross un-waveringly through ages of desperate persecution : and their ritual now is less changed than that of any other community in Christendom. All this surely is reason enough to recommend the subject to churchman, historian, or antiquarian.

The two-volume illustrated work is a treasure-house of information, including floor plans and descriptions of churches no  longer standing. Volume I begins with a chapter on the structure of Coptic churches in general, including layout and decoration. Then he begins his systematic tour: first with the major and minor churches of Old Cairo, then with the old churches in other parts of the city. Then he proceeds to the Wadi Natrun and the churches of Upper Egypt.

Volume II begins with n extensive description of the Coptic altar and the various liturgical vessels, two chapters on priestly vestments, and an extensive discussion of the legends of the Coptic saints. Despite his apologies, it is a tour de force, though it is limited to the ancient, or at least pre-modern, churches. The sections on liturgical vessels and vestments, however, are still largely valid.

Butler continued his researches and studies and in 1895 made another contribution to the field of study of ancient churches and monasteries: providing annotations to a book translated by B.T.A. Evetts, The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt and Some Neighbouring Countries, attributed to Abu Salih, the Armenian (Google Books version; various formats at Internet Archive). It is now known that the attribution to "Abu Salih al-Armani" was in error; the manuscript Evetts worked from had been owned by a man of that name, and it was the only name on the title page. The work was in fact written by a Coptic priest known as Abu al-Makarim, writing in the late 12th/early 13th century AD. Butler added many notes to Evetts' translation, based on his familiarity with the sites described in the older work.

Butler also wrote the entries on the Coptic and Ethiopian churches in the 10th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Butler continued his studies (he would receive his Ph.D. in 1902, the same year his work on the Arab Conquest appeared; and that work is even better-known than his studies on the Copts.

Tomorrow: Butler and the Arab conquest.

Lameen Souag on "Some Minority Languages of the Mosul Plain"

My daily vacation post will be up this evening. Meanwhile, I thought I'd point you to a post sadly relevant to the current events in northern Iraq:  linguist Lameen Souag at Jabal al-Lughat  on "Some Minority Languages of the Mosul Plain."

He addresses Neo-Aramaic, the two main forms of Kurdish, related languages such as Gorani, the dialects of Turkmen and Yazidis, etc.

Goeben Part IV: The Germans Don the Fez

I'm on vacation. As I have done each year, I have prepared a number of posts on historical and cultural subjects unlikely to be overtaken by events, with at least one appearing daily. This is the second of four posts on the escape across the Mediterranean of the German warships Goeben and Breslau to Constantinople in August, 1914, a century ago. Part I appeared last week and introduced the main players and the ships. Part II Tuesday with the chase itself and the rapid negotiations between Germany and Turkey during the course of their flight. Part III yesterday dealt with the idea of transferring the ships to Turkey and their entry into the Straits, and his final part deals with their reception in the Turkish capital. 

Goeben Docked in İstinye Bay, on the Bosphorus, Istanbul

When Goeben and Breslau arrived in Constantinople (Istanbul), there was much celebration on the Turkish side, where the claimed "sale" of the ships to Turkey was seen as a suitable riposte to Britain for its seizure of the Turkish dreadnoughts two weeks earlier.

Meanwhile, Britain and France first protested that the ships must be disarmed, and once he "sale" was announced demanded that the German crews be replaced/. Hast was not done and over the next two months, Turkey's neutrality would be further eroded until its formal entry into the war in late October, a story we will follow in the coming months. We'll tell those tales at the appropriate time.

Yavuz Raises Her New Flag

Meanwhile, the two ships were officially becoming Turkish warships with German officers and crews. On August 16, SMS Goeben ceased to be officially German, becoming instead the battle cruiser Yavuz Sultan Selim. Usually shortened to Yavuz, she raised the Turkish flag. Ironically, she would serve longer than any oher ship in the Imperial German Fleet and longer than any other Dreadnought-era battleship or battle cruiser in any fleet. We'll deal with her later career another time.

On the same day SMS Breslau was recommissioned as Medilli; she would serve the Ottoman fleet until January 20, 1918, when she was sunk in battle off the island of Imbros.

German Adm. Souchon

The ships might have a new flag and new names, but they preserved their German officers and crews. To maintain the fig leaf of Ottoman neutrality, however,

Turkish Adm. Souchon 

Souchon and his crews made a sartorial change: they donned the Turkish fez. Souchon was also, under the deal with Germany, to assume command of the Turkish Fleet, as commander of its most modern ships.

The Goeben crew

The new uniforms of the German officers and crew seem to have both charmed the Turks and become a source of curiosity and amusement back in Germany, where photo postcards and news photos of the new headgear became extremely popular.

Souchon and his staff in Fezzes

The whole affair seems to have fascinated the Turkish and German publics, though the German government was still frustrated by Turkey's official neutrality (though she would close the Straits in September, thus blocking Russian exit from the Black Sea. As Britain and France in coming weeks would labor mightily with a mix of carrots and sticks to keep Turkey neutral, the Turkish government soon realized that "their" new ships were a mixed blessing,since Constantinople was now literally under the guns of a ship whose Admiral, fez or not, was taking orders from Berlin as well as themselves. Finally, in October,Goeben and Breslau would unilaterally shell the Russian Black Sea ports, finally forcing the issue. But those details can wait till September and October.

German postcard of crewmen in Fezzes

There were, still, some issues for the Turks to resolve internally. They had promised Germany that Souchon was to command the fleet. But there was another commander in place, and he happened to be British.

Just as the Young Turks had entrusted the training and modernization of the Army to a German Military Mission under Liman von Sanders, they had turned for their Navy to the premier naval power, Britain. Since 1912, the British Naval Mission had been under Admiral Sir Arthur Limpus. He took command just as Turkey lost the Dodecanese to Italy, and had headed to England to receive the two dreadnoughts just as Churchill seized them for Britain. Djemal Pasha's previously-cited memoirs explain what happened next:

The most delicate part of the business, however, was to get the Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet, Admiral Limpus, and all the English officers out of the fleet without causing excitement The very next day I had a report from the Admiral in question. . He congratulated the Ottoman Government on having secured possession of two such vessels, and assured me that as the two ships came under his direct command, he would have the selected officers and men ready within a month to manoeuvre with these most modem units. I asked the Admiral to call on me, and began to discuss the matter with him. I asked him that, in view of the fact that the German Admiral and ships' companies were very exhausted, so that the date on which they would leave the ship was still uncertain, he would occupy himself in making out the list of officers and men who were to be employed on them.

By a stroke of luck it happened that four or five days later I received a short letter from the Admiral in which he told me that he was enclosing a copy of a report in English which he had submitted direct to the Grand Vizier. I had the report translated. In view of the condition of our fleet and army, he recommended the Government to preserve the strictest neutrality, and expressed his opinion that the Turkish officers and men needed at least four or five years' training instruction before they would be efficient enough to handle the recently-acquired units. I immediately replied to the Admiral that he was there solely to reorganise the fleet, that he was directly responsible to the Ministry, and must therefore present his reports to that Ministry alone. As those reports were to concern themselves with the reorganisation of the fleet and nothing else, he had no authority to recommend any political course to the Ottoman Government when dealing with the situation in the navy.

The next day I received a very short reply from the Admiral. "Your letter shows me the true position. For the future I will be extremely careful not to exceed the limits you have imposed for my activities. In any case, I am feeling very tired, and I should be very grateful to you if you would allow me to spend some time with my daughter, who is living in Therapia."

I told him that his wish was granted, but also. pointed out that during his absence there might be many misunderstandings in the fleet between the English officers, mechanics, &c., and the Turkish crews, and asked him to prevent such occurrences by sending the officers to the Ministry, so that they could be distributed among the different sections of the arsenal. The day after this order was carried not a single English officer remained on service with our fleet. Thereupon an Imperial irade was issued, wherein Admiral Souchon was appointed to the service of the Ottoman Government with the title of Commander- in-Chief of the Imperial Fleet. The next day the Goeben and Breslau, which were now called Jawus and Midilli, hoisted the Turkish ensign, entered Stambul harbour, and anchored in the roads of Moda.

A few days later His Majesty the Sultan, who had gone on board the yacht Erthogrul, reviewed the Turkish Fleet, which now definitely included the Jawus and Midilli, during the regatta which was in progress at the Princes Islands. It is utterly impossible to describe the enthusiasm and pleasure which seized on the people of Constantinople in those days.

In September, Limpus was transferred to Malta.

British cartoon in Punch

The British had achieved their goal of neutralizing the Goeben and Breslau in allied waters in the Med. But Souchon was well on the way to achieving his goal, and Germany's of course, of de-neutralizing Turkey. Kut and Gallipoli, the Palestine Campaign and the Armenian massacres all lay ahead. It is worth repeating the Churchill quote cited at the beginning of Part II: By 6 o’clock therefore on the morning of August 7 the Goeben, already the fastest capital unit in the Mediterranean, was steaming on an unobstructed course for the Dardanelles, carrying with her for the peoples of the East and Middle East more slaughter, more misery and more ruin than has ever before been borne within the compass of a ship.

 

Goeben and Breslau Part III: Entering the Straits

I'm on vacation. As I have done each year, I have prepared a number of posts on historical and cultural subjects unlikely to be overtaken by events, with at least one appearing daily. This is the second of four posts on the escape across the Mediterranean of the German warships Goeben and Breslau to Constantinople in August, 1914, a century ago. Part I appeared last week and introduiced the main players and the ships. Part II yesterday with the chase itself and the rapid negotiations between Germany and Turkey during the course of their flight. This third part will deal with the idea of transferring the ships to Turkey and their entry into the Straits, and the fourth with their reception in the Turkish capital.

When we left our story yesterday, Admiral Souchon had escaped into the Aegean after the British pursuit was called off after Admiral Milne ordered Captain Kelly in HMS Gloucester not to proceed beyond Cape Matapan at the southern tip of Greece. But Souchon needed to coal and also had no idea whether he would be allowed to enter Constantinople or might have to force the issue. His collier Bogadir was waiting off Greece disguised under a Greek flag. They proceeded to a more obscure island, Denusa, away from international sea lanes, where the Germans could coal undetected on August 8 and 9. The German Embassy in Athens had persuaded Prime Minister Venizelos not to consider this a violation of Greek neutrality as long as it was not done with Greek coal in a Greek port.

Souchon still was uncertain if he would be welcomed in Constantinople. Though he had shaken off Greek pursuit any radio signal that could reach the German Embassy in Constantinople might be detected by the British as well. He had asked another German vessel to contact the Embassy by land from Smyrna on the Anatolian coast.

Meanwhile the divided counsels of the Turkish Cabinet continued in Constantinople. The Turkish Admiralty Chief at the time, Djemal (Jemal, Cemal) Pasha, takes up the story in his Memories of a Turkish Statesman (New York: Doran, 1922, online versions here)

Djemal Pasha

On August 8th, 1914, Captain Hamann, Naval Attache to the German Embassy, came to the Ministry. He informed me that the German Mediterranean squadron, pursued by the English, was withdrawing in the direction of the Dardanelles, and as, to judge by his reports, the Goeben had practically no more coal, they were compelled to send some from Constantinople. But as there was  no English coal available he asked me to lend him five or six thousand tons from our naval depots. I immediately telephoned to the Grand Vizier, Enver Pasha [Minister of War], and Talaat Bey to ascertain their opinion.

They replied that I should agree. I ordered that the required quantity of coal should be supplied from the Derindji depots, and also sent a naval labour section to assist with the loading of the vessel. It was loaded within a few hours, and then set out for the Aegean Sea.

Back in the Aegean, Souchon on the early morning of August 10, heard transmissions from the British ships to his south and received a strangely imprecise message from his earlier inquiry: Enter. Demand surrender of forts. Capture pilot." Did this mean he was to force his way through, or was it a ruse to maintain Turkish neutrality? In any event, he proceeded towards the Dardanelles.

Enver Pasha

Meanwhile, independently of the Cabinet,  Enver Pasha had been meeting with the German Ambassador and German Military Mission about the Goeben and Breslau question. As the German ships arrived within range of the fortress of Chanak (Çanakkale), the Germans insisted Enver must delay no longer in giving them an answer: would the ships be allowed to enter the Dardanelles? After another attempt to say he must consult the Cabinet first, the Germans insisted they were out of time with the British in pursuit. Finally Enver said yes. If the British followed them through, the Germans wanted to know, would the Turkish forts fire on them? Yes, they were told. Enver had not consulted the rest of the Cabinet.

Since the Dardanelles was mined, Souchon had signaled for a pilot to guide the ships through, Still uncertain if he would be welcomed, the pilot boat came out and signaled "follow me." At 9 pm on August 10, Goeben and Breslau entered the Dardanelles. It was still unclear how Turkey could continue to claim to be neutral.

Djemal Pasha explains how the other Young Turk leaders learned of it the next day, as the German ships made their way the 250 miles to the capital:

As usual, the evening of August 11th found us assembled in council at dinner at the Prince's [Grand Vizier Prince Said Halim] house. [Interior Minister] Talaat, [Finance Minister] Djavid, and I had been the first to arrive. Enver Pasha, who came in later, remarked with that quiet smile which was peculiar to him "Unto us a son is born!" Of course we did not know what he meant. To put an end to our feverish impatience he continued: "The Goeben and the Breslau appeared off the Dardanelles this morning, and as they were being followed by the English fleet, they asked that they should be allowed to pass through the Narrows. I granted the permission, as I did not wish to condemn the ships of an allied State to certain destruction, and by now the ships are in the Dardanelles under the protection of the forts of the Narrows. The sequel is that we are faced with a political problem. We shall have to come to a decision about it this evening!"

It was certainly a very ticklish question. Two ships of one of the combatants had fled into Turkish waters.

According to the rules of neutrality, we were bound either to make them leave our waters within twenty-four hours or to disarm and intern them in one of our harbours.

As Germany's ally we could not for a moment consider the first alternative, as it would have been equivalent to handing the ships over. Besides, such a course conflicted as much with our interests as our duty.

Yet, as regards the second alternative, it was certain that the Germans would never consent. Looked at from that point of view, the Allies were entitled to consider our action a casus belli and declare war upon us. Of course that was bound to happen sooner or later, and we should be forced to intervene in the war. Yet the state of our army compelled us to postpone that intervention for as long as possible.

At this point the French and English Ambassadors called on the Grand Vizier in a state of great excitement to protest against the passage of the German warships through the Dardanelles and against the audacity of their commanders in searching a post steamer which had left Constantinople the previous evening with a number of Frenchmen as passengers on board. They alleged that this was an infringement of the neutrality which the Imperial Government had declared.

After a very thorough discussion we decided to ask the German Government to consent to the two ships being disarmed — temporarily and superficially only. Talaat Bey and Halil Bey went to the German Embassy in Therapia to communicate our decision to the Ambassador, von Wangenheim. An hour later they returned with the news that the Ambassador had declared that under no circumstances could he consent. He had consented to the Ottoman Government's refraining from taking part in the war under the form of neutrality, but was convinced that the arrival of the German ships, compelled to withdraw into Turkish waters, had completely changed the situation. If this piece of provocation involved the breaking off of diplomatic relations, or even war between the Entente and the Ottoman Government, we must accept it as the logical consequence of events.

Enver Pasha identified himself with the views of the Ambassador, but I insisted that, come what may, we must arrive at some compromise, so that in view of our position at the moment we could delay our entry into the war as much as possible.

The Grand Vizier and Djavid Bey were of my opinion. Ultimately one of us proposed the following formula: "Could not the Germans have previously sold us these units? Could not their arrival be regarded as delivery under the contract?"

It's curious that Djemal doesn't name the person ("one of us") who came up with the famous idea which would both provide a fig-leaf for the Ottomans and also would win popular support as a suitable retort to Britain for her earlier seizure of two Turkish dreadnoughts (discussed in detail in this post). Perhaps it was Djemal himself, being modest?

Everyone heaved a sigh of relief. The ground for a friendly settlement of the affair had been discovered! Shortly afterwards we decided to ask Wangenheim to come to the Prince's house to hear what we had agreed to do. One of Enver Pasha's aides-de-camp was sent to the Embassy, and a quarter of an hour later — after midnight — the Ambassador reached the palace. After an hour of lively discussion between the Grand Vizier, Talaat Bey, and the Ambassador, the latter promised to get into communication with Berlin the same night and get a favourable answer before morning. We then decided to wait at the Grand Vizier/s house until the answer arrived. It came about four o'clock in the morning. It empowered us, on condition that we accepted Admiral Souchon in the Ottoman service, to say that the ships had been sold to Turkey. It was not a real, but merely fictitious, sale. We were informed that as tlie Emperor could not sell a single ship in the navy without a decree of the Reichstag, the real sale could not be carried out until the end of the war and the Reichstag had conveyed its assent. As a solution which saved appearances had now been found, the Ministers separated about five o'clock. All matters of detail were to be left to the Naval Ministry in accordance with the terms of the agreement.

Early next morning I sent to the papers an official communique referring to the purchase of the Goeben and Breslau by the Government and the arrival of these two ships in the Dardanelles. I asked the Press to speak enthusiastically of the circumstance that we had obtained possession of the ships as compensation for the Sultan Osman and the Reschadieh, of which the English had robbed us.

Goeben and Breslau in the Straits, Goeben firing a salute

As Goeben and Breslau made their way through the Dardanelles and Marmara towards Constantinople, protests flowed in from the Allies, demanding the ships be disarmed and as yet unaware of the ruse of the "sale."

Goeben and Breslau, Part II: The Chase to Constantinople, While Turkey Bargains: "The Terrible 'If's' Accumulate"

I'm on vacation. As I have done each year, I have prepared a number of posts on historical and cultural subjects unlikely to be overtaken by events, with at least one appearing daily. This is the second of four posts on the escape across the Mediterranean of the German warships Goeben and Breslau to Constantinople in August, 1914, a century ago. Part I appeared last week and introduiced the main players and the ships. This post deals with the chase itself and the rapid negotiations between Germany and Turkey during the course of their flight. The third part will deal with the idea of transferring the ships to Turkey, and the fourth with their reception in the Turkish capital.

Wikimedia Commons (Creator Attribution: MartinD)

By 6 o’clock therefore on the morning of August 7 the Goeben, already the fastest capital unit in the Mediterranean, was steaming on an unobstructed course for the Dardanelles, carrying with her for the peoples of the East and Middle East more slaughter, more misery and more ruin than has ever before been borne within the compass of a ship.

—Winston Churchill, The World Crisis, Volume I, Chapter XI

Churchill always had a way with words, and in his discussion of the Goeben affair in the same chapter quoted above, he delivers another passage that opens with an often-quoted line:

The terrible ‘If’s’ accumulate. If my first thoughts on 27 July of sending the New Zealand to the Mediterranean had materialized; if we could have opened fire on the Goeben during the afternoon of August 4; if we had been less solicitous for Italian neutrality; if Sir Berkeley Milne had sent the Indomitable to coal at Malta instead of Biserta; if the Admiralty had sent him direct instructions when on the night of the 5th they learned where the Goeben was; if Rear-Admiral Troubridge in the small hours of the 7th had not changed his mind; if the Dublin and her two destroyers had intercepted the enemy during the night of the 6th-7th — the story of the Goeben would have ended here.

This is in part self-justification and rationalization; as Churchill acknowledges, it occurred to none of the British actors in the comedy that Admiral Souchon might be heading for Constantinople or that Turkey was on the verge of entering the war. They assumed he would either head west or into the Adriatic. The tactical failure was greatly compounded by a fundamental intelligence failure.

At the end of Part i, we left the Goeben and Breslau in Messina, with Admiral Milne and two battle cruisers 0ff the northern exit to the strait, but with only the light cruiser HMS Gloucester watching the southern exit. Despite Berlin's having rescinded an earlier order to proceed to Constantinople (because Turkey's cabinet was unready to make its treaty of alliance signed August 3 public until Ottoman mobilization was complete and Bulgaria's intentions became clear), Souchon decided to head there anyway; leaving Berlin and German Ambassador Wangenheim scrambling to cut a deal with the Turks before the ships could arrive, and the Ottoman Cabinet seeking to demand every concession possible in the same time frame. As Souchon raced to outrun his British pursuers, Berlin and Constantinople raced to cut a deal.

Souchon, in Messina, had been forced by the declaration of Italian neutrality to coal his ships from German merchant vessels in  the harbor, and had been ordered to leave within 24 hours.

Milne still expected Souchon to head west, but was also ordered to make sure he could not enter the Adriatic and join the Austrian fleet at Pola. Vice Admiral Troubridge's squadron of heavy cruisers were already on station there. Now Milne sent the light cruiser HMS Dublin and two destroyers to join him. As I noted in Part I, the Dublin's captain was John Kelly, brother of the Howard Kelly who was captain of the Gloucester, watching the southern exit.

HMS Gloucester

Souchon left Messina on the afternoon of August 6 and as soon as it exited Italian territorial waters, he was spotted by Gloucester. Gloucester and Breslau were comparable, but the much bigger Goeben outgunned and outranged the British ship and so could destroy her from outside the range of her guns. So she kept the two ships in sight but pursued them out of gunnery range.

Said Halim Pasha

Meanwhile, in Constantinople, the Grand Vizier, the Egyptian-born Prime Minister Said Halim Pasha, had held a post-midnight meeting with the German Ambassador. As I have noted before, Said Halim was not a member of the Committee or Union and Progress (CUP, the "Young Turks"),and even though he had been a signatory to the German alliance, had been reluctant about announcing it publicly until Turkey was ready.

Baron von Wangenheim

Now, at around 1 am on August 6, the day Souchon would be leaving Messina, Halim met with Wangenheim, who was being pressured by Berlin to win passage for Goeben and Breslau through the Dardanelles. Said Halim offered several conditions. Germany must agree to support an end to the system of "capitulations," under which foreign nationals had extraterritorial rights in the Ottoman realm; it must guarantee Ottoman territorial integrity; restoration of Rhodes and the Dodecanese islands, taken by Italy in 1912, to Turkey; "a rectification of the eastern frontier," presumably meaning territory from Russua; and reparations. Though some accounts imply Germany accepted these conditions, in fact Berlin seems to have rejected them for several days while Goeben and Breslau were drawing nearer. The bargaining continued.

Meanwhile, Gloucester was still pursuing Goeben and Breslau, out of gunnery range and keeping them in sight though the moonlight. Souchon had feinted a northeasterly course which the British assumed meant he was headed for the Adriatic. But he had to shift to a southeasterly course to meet his coalers in the Aegean, and Gloucester signaled the turn. Milne, finally aware that Souchon was headed east, headed for Malta, while Troubridge, at the mouth of the Adriatic, started looking for Goeben.

Troubridge ordered Dublin, en route from Malta with two destroyers, to intercept Goeben, while he ordered his own heavy cruisers to head south in pursuit.

Troubridge's actions on the night of August 6-7 have been much studied; they were the subject of a Court if Inquiry and  subsequent Court Martial, and though Troubridge was found innocent of any wrongdoing, the events ended his naval career. In Part I we noted Churchill's early order to the Mediterranean fleet, including the line, "Do not at this stage be brought to action against superior forces, except in combination with the French, as part of a general battle."

HMS Defence, Troubridge's Ship

Churchill would explain that those words were intended to refer to engaging the Austrian Navy, which had battleships, except in conjunction with the French, but Troubridge, expecting Milne to send the battle cruisers his way, interpreted it as meaning his four cruisers should not take on Goeben alone, since Goeben, though outnumbered, had greater range and could stand off and sink each of his ships in turn; hence, for Troubridge, she constituted a "superior force." When he had not found the German by 4 am, he decided that he could not risk a meeting in full daylight, and fell back. He soon sailed into port on the Greek island of Zante (Zakynthos). HMS Dublin also failed to locate the German ships.

So by daylight on August 7, only Gloucester was still in contact with Goeben and Breslau. Milne ordered Gloucesteri to fall back at 5:30 am but Kelly continued to shadow the Germans. At one point Breslau fell back to challenge him. Kelly, intent on delaying Goeben until help arrived (though no help arrived (though no help was imminent), exchanged fire with Breslau, forcing Goeben to turn and defend the smaller ship. The exchange of fire, which was inconclusive, was witnessed by an Italian passenger vessel en route to Constantinople, which happened to be carrying the daughter of US Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, so the news would soon reach Constantinople.

Milne, who had returned to Malta for fuel, ordered Gloucester not to pass Cape Matapan in Greece, and Kelly broke off pursuit. Milne left Malta only early on August 8, in a leisurely pursuit since he thought he had the Germans "bottled up" in the Aegean, still unaware that they had no intention of coming back out.

There would be one more blunder in the British comedy of errors. The Admiralty sent out an erroneous report that Austria had declared war on Britain, and so Milne and Troubridge changed course to block the Adriatic. By the time the error was discovered, Milne knew only that Souchon was somewhere in the Aegean, and felt he had neutralized the threat. Souchon, of course, was right where he wanted to be; now all he needed was permission to enter the Straits.

But that is a tale for Part III.

A Note on Vacation Postings

I'm going on vacation for two weeks. I won't be traveling the entire time, but will be off the clock as it were. As I've done in previous years, I've prepared/am preparing blog posts ahead of time on historical and cultural topics that won't be overtaken by events. These will include, but will not be limited to, the second and third parts of the Goeben/Breslau saga and the rest of the unfinished Lady Hester Stanhope story, as well as two other subjects already nearing completion. I had intended to put up part two of the Goeben and Breslau tale tonight when I remembered belatedly (forehead-slapping moment) that the Ottoman Minister of Marine/Head of the Admiralty/Member of the CUP Triumvirate Jemal (Djemal/Cemal) Pasha's memoirs exist in English translation! (I have no Turkish at all.) They contain a lot of great first-person anecdotal material. As a result I'm deferring Part II to Monday to mine Jemal for anecdotes.

Since the Middle East never takes a vacation (during my 2011 vacation Tripoli fell to the anti-Qadhafi forces; 2012 Morsi reshuffled the Army and named Sisi commander [oops!]; 2013 Sisi crushed the Morsi backers at Raba‘a Square),and given the fact that everything is so much in flux right now, I'm sure I'll be checking in with commentary as well. But there will be a minimum of at least one post a day on weekdays in my absence.

Baghdad has Also Been Bombing ISIS, Delivering Relief

With the US media obviously focused on the first rounds of US airstrikes against ISIS on the front near Erbil, it is only fair to note that the Iraqi Air Force also struck last night at targets in Mosul. Presumably using the Su-25 ground attack aircraft it acquired this summer from Russia and Iran, Iraqi aircraft reportedly hit a building they believed was an ISIS headquarters in Mosul, and also claimed that ISIS forces retreated unto the city from positions in the north.

Various estimates claimed an ISIS death toll of 60, 76 (suspiciously precise), or 130, or simply "large numbers," all of which estimates are unconfirmed.

At least one Iraqi helicopter has already landed on Jabal Sinjar, delivering relief supplies, as well.

"Some" Yazidis Rescued; Qaraqosh Falls to ISIS as Christians Flee; Turkey Sending F-16s

 There seems to have been a lot of movement in and around northern Iraq in the past 24 hours, with seemingly conflicting reports about what is happening in and around the Jabal Sinjar, where as many as 40,000 to 50,000 Yazidi refugees were trapped in recent days. Now the United Nations says that "some" of the trapped Yazidis have been rescued, though in the fog of war it is unclear how many "some" may be.

The Islamic State forces are still being challenged in the Sinjar region by Kurdish peshmergas, and some reports are saying Syrian and Turkish Kurds have joined forces with their Iraqi counterparts to rescue the Yazidis, Syrian Kurds already have been heavily engaged against ISIS inside Syria.

Prior to these reports of the rescue of "some" of the trapped Yazidis, there were reports that the refugees were beginning to starve and die of thirst on the barren mountaintop, that some had resorted to eating leaves, (Note that "Shingal" mentioned in some of these links is the Kurdish form of the name of Jabal Sinjar.)

Turkey has said that it is airdropping aid to the stranded Yazidis and to Turkmen refugees, and is resettling some refugees inside Turkey, but Kurdish sites have also reported Turkish F-16s from the Diyarbakır airbase had conducted reconnaissance missions over the battlefield and might even conduct air strikes. The US Administration is also considering humanitarian air drops and even possible air strikes.

Meanwhile the reported fall of the largely Christian city of Qaraqosh to ISIS has created a new mass exodus of the city's Christian population, reportedly leaving the city emptied. Some reports say ISIS has also taken Kalak, which would put them across the Greater Zab River and within about 35 km of the Kurdish capital of Erbil.

Things are clearly developing rapidly (and dangerously), and it remains difficult to sort out the multiple  and often conflicting reports.

Turkey Enters the War: The Flight of Goeben and Breslau to Constantinople, Part I

Recently, we looked at how, as Europe descended into war a century ago, Winston Churchill's seizure of two Turkish dreadnoughts under construction in British shipyards inadvertently provided support for the Ottoman Minister of War, Enver Pasha, in his efforts to form a Turkish alliance with Germany. The treaty was signed on August 3, but Turkey was not yet willing to acknowledge it publicly, as Germany would have preferred. The next steps in the road to war with Turkey involved an epic naval chase across the Mediterranean an  tense moment in the Turkish Straits, but forced Turkey to tilt openly towards the Central Powers. This was the famous pursuit of the Goeben and Breslau,  and it took place a century ago this week..

The story has been frequently told. It occupies its own chapter in Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August, in Robert K. Massie's Castles of Steel, in David Fromkin's A Peace to End All Peace, and in many general histories of the Great War in general or the war in the Middle East in particular, A leas one whole book in English, Dan Van Der Vat's The Ship That Changed the World: The Escape of the Goeben to the Dardanelles in 1914, not to mention works in Turkish and German. It produced a whole new front in the emerging war and led to a celebrated British Admiralty Court of Inquiry.

During the treaty negotiations on August 1, Enver, but not the other Turkish negotiators, ha held a private meeting at the German Embassy in Constantinople with Ambassador von Wangenheim and Geman Military Mission Chief Liman von Sanders (for all three men, see he earlier post.) The three men felt that deploying Germany's small Mediterranean fleet to the Black Sea could strengthen Turkey's (and Bulgaria's) position against Russia.

This first post introduces the ships and the Dramatis Personae. Part II later this week will deal with the chase across the Mediterranean, and Part III early next week with the aftermath in Constantinople.

Admiral Wilhelm Souchon

The secret treaty between Germany and Turkey had been signed on August 3. Germany was already at war with France and Russia and Britain's ultimatum to Germany was to expire at midnight. Early on August 4, the German Admiralty signaled to the German Mediterranean Division (consisting of only two ships) that the treaty with Turkey ha been signed, and ordering the commander, Admiral Wilhelm Souchon, to proceed to Constantinople. That was rescinded when it became clear Turkey was not about to announce the treaty and enter the war, but Souchon was about to do it anyway. Souchon had at his disposal the new, fast, well-gunned battle cruiser SMS Goeben, smaller but as well-armed and faster than a dreadnought, and the smaller cruiser SMS Breslau.

SMS Goeben

The strongest fleet in the Mediterranean was France's, with several modern battleships, since Britain's Royal Navy had pledged to protect Frances Channel and Atlantic coasts, allowing the French fleet to protect the movement of goods and troopships between North Africa and Toulon.

SMS Breslau

Austria-Hungary had a strong fleet on paper, but it spent the war in port in Pola at the head of the Adriatic (today Pula in Croatia). Italy had declared armed neutrality, so its fleet was not in play. With the French fleet protecting the lines of communication with North Africa, that left the British and Germans.

Admiral Sir Berkeley Milne

Souchon's ships have been mentioned. The British Mediterranean Fleet, based in Malta, had no battleships (those were in home waters) but three battle cruisers, HMS Inflexible, Indomitable, and Indefatigable. any one of which was a more or less even match for Goeben, as well as four armored cruisers, four light cruisers, and 14 destroyers. This force was commanded by Admiral Sir Archibald Berkeley Milne, son and grandson of admirals and well connected at Court, but not highly respected in naval circles.

Vice Admiral Sir Ernest Troubridge

Milne was to stay with the three battle cruisers during the campaign as his first squadron,  keeping his flag on Inflexible, while the second squadron, consisting of battle cruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers, was under the command of Rear Admiral Sir Ernest Troubridge. Troubridge had had a great-grandfather who served under Nelson at Cape St. Vincent and he Nile, so he too had a naval heritage; he has also been naval attache in Japan at the time of Tsushima and had seen what modern warships could do.

Neither Milne nor Troubridge was exactly a Nelson, but the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, had muddled thingss further on the eve of war; our earlier post noted how he was well out ahead of the Cabinet in preparing the Navy for war. On July 30, aware that war was likely, sent this order to Milne:

Your first task should be to aid the French in the transportation of their African Army by covering, and if possible, bringing to action individual fast German ships, particularly Goeben, who may interfere in that action. You will be notified by telegraph when you may consult with the French Admiral. Do not at this stage be brought to action against superior forces, except in combination with the French, as part of a general battle. The speed of your squadrons is sufficient to enable you to choose your moment. We shall hope to reinforce the Mediterranean, and you must husband your forces at the outset.

"Do not at this stage be brought to action against superior forces, except in combination with the French, as part of a general battle." What those words meant would be debated later by a Court of Inquiry and a Court Martial.

 Churchill kept sending Milne orders. On August 2, "Goeben is to be shadowed by two battle cruisers." On August 3:

Watch on mouth of Adriatic should be maintained, but Goeben is your objective. Follow her and shadow her wherever she goes, and be ready to act on declaration of war which appears probable and imminent.

Milne assumed, and London probably assumed, that the German ships had three likely destinations: 1) to interfere with the French troop transports in the western basin of the Mediterranean; 2) to escape via the Straits of Gibraltar into the Atlantic; and 3) to enter the Adriatic and join he Austrian fleet at Pola. The idea of  flight to the Turkish Straits does not seem to have been considered a likely scenario by the British side.

On August 1, as Milne prepared to leave Malta,he ordered Troubridge's cruisers to watch the mouth of the Adriatic, a light cruiser, HMS Chatham, to watch the Strait of Messina, and two of his battle cruisers, Indomitable and Indefatigable, to head west toward Gibraltar. Britain, remember, was still at that point three days from entering the war.

One of the German ships (note flag) with pursuing British

Souchon had indeed been at Messina, but left before Chatham arrived. On August 3, learning that Germany was at war with France, Souchon steamed towards Algeria.to try to intercept the French. But at 2 am on August 4 he received the previously-mentioned order to "proceed at once to Constantinople." Rather than wait for the French transports, he contented himself with shelling the Algerian coast; Goeben shelling Philippeville (now Skikda) while Breslau shelled Bone (now Annaba). The two ships headed back to Messina. They were spotted by Indomitable and Indefatigable, but Britain was not yet in the war. The ultimatum was to expire at midnight, but the German ships escaped to Messina, where they planned to coal from German ships due to Italian neutrality. Aware that Britain could enter the war at any time, Souchon laid on steam to outrun his pursuers, in the end shadowed by the light cruiser HMS Dublin.


Meanwhile, Milne had been ordered to strictly respect Italian neutrality to the point of remaining at least six miles from the Italian coast. Since at its narrowest point the Strait of Messina was less than two miles wide, that barred him from the Strait.

Milne decided to guard both exits from the Strait, since by morning Britain and Germany were at war. But Milne assumed Souchon would head west; Troubridge's cruisers were guarding the Adriatic and no one suspected Goeben was aiming for Constantinople.

HMS Dublin

So he kept the battle cruisers at the northern exit into the western Mediterranean, he stationed Inflexible and Indefatigable there, and sent Indomitable to fuel at Bizerte in Tunisia.

HMS Gloucester

To patrol the southeastern exit, he assigned the light cruiser HMS Gloucester as the only guard. Its Captain, Howard Kelly, was ironically the brother of the Captain of HMS Dublin, John Kelly, who had earlier been part of the pursuit and would be again..

Throughout August 4 and 5, the British maintained the watch on the exits. Meanwhile, though Enver had asked for German ships, Berlin learned that the Grand Vizier and the rest of the Turkish Cabinet were balking, and rescinded the "Proceed to Constantinople" order. But Souchon was given the option to decide on his destination, and he did not want to end up in Pola under Austrian command. He chose to head for Constantinople anyway.

In Part Two: the Chase.

Private Eye Comments

The British satirical magazine Private Eye comment on Gaza...

The Yazidis' Last Stand in Jabal Sinjar?

 There is an old Kurdish proverb, "The Kurds have no friends,except the mountains." But for Kurdish-speaking Yazidis, the mountains may not be a refuge: The Washington Post: "Iraqi Yazidis stranded on isolated mountaintop begin to die of thirst." Estimates are said to be between 10,000 and 40,000, numbers which certainly verge on the genocidal. Surrounded and isolated, having retreated to a barren mountaintop, these people need rescue.

At least when the Christians were driven from Mosul by the "Caliphate," Western Christians took note (even if they did little else). But outside of some Yazidi Diaspora groups in Europe and, to my surprise, Lincoln, Nebraska, where my wife went to college, the Yazidis get even less than the grudging concern accorded the Christians.

A Yazidi member of the Iraqi Parliament collapses in tears after pleading for her people (English subtitles):
Because I try to keep a certain objectivity even while expressing my opinion, I didn't post that much about Gaza, since the whole human rights community was loud and clear. But here we have a clear case of outright ethnic cleansing or even full scale genocide. IS considers Yazidis "devil-worshipers" and worthy of extermination (No collective group is, though I'm starting to wonder if IS is an exception.)

Unlike Gaza, my tax dollars have not gone to buy the ammunition killing the Yazidis (though maybe they have, since some was captured from the Iraqi Army). But US policy broke Iraq, and out of that breakage came the horror that is ISIS/IS/the Caliphate.

Regardless of how we got here, we're here, and an entire distinct ethnographic/religious group is in imminent jeopardy of destruction. If you ignore Kristallncht, you will have the death camps.

Sad to say, that's also true. I'm not urging US re-intervention in Iraq. But the international community has, I believe, the ability to supply the dying Yazidis on the mountain, and even to evacuate them from the damned mountaintop. And if that's not feasible, mount airstrikes against the IS forces down the mountain to save the Yazidis.

Gaza was and may soon be again, a horror. But that is no excuse to shrug off other horrors.

Jerusalem Quarterly Offers WWI in Palestine Issue

The Jerusalem Quarterly is marking the centennial of World War I with a special double issue devoted to Palestine under late Ottoman rule and during the war. The numerous articles include several dealing with photography,

The articles are accessible by clicking on the title and then looking for the Adobe PDF icon on the upper right, allowing downloading. I've only gotten through a few pages, but it looks great.

And for more on the centennial of the Great War, stay tuned.

UN Alarmed Over Threat to Yazidi Children

There may be a ceasefire in Gaza, but that doesn't men children's lives re not at threat in the Middle East: the United Nations is expressing concern over reports that some 40 Yazidi children have been killed in Sinjar,  now being ethnically cleansed by the "Islamic State." Other reports suggest many Yazidi men have been killed and their children taken.

Kurdish peshmergas continue to fight against IS forces in the region and are now being joined by hastily-raised Yazidi militias (most Yazidis are Kurdish-speaking)

Also see The Economist on the Yazidis here.

IS Takes Sinjar, Moving to Expel the Yazidis

Another Iraqi minority is now in jeopardy; over the weekend the Islamic State defeated a Kurdish peshmerga force and took over the town if Sinjar and its hinterland, the Jabal Sinjar, in western Iraq along the Syrian border, the traditional mountain  redoubt of Iraq's Yazidis. The other main concentration of Yazidis, at Shekhan near Mosul, was already threatened. As it previously expelled Christians an other minorities from Mosul, Yazidis are now reportedly being expelled from Sinjar.

Because the Yazidis are not "People of the Book" in Muslim eyes, they have had less protection than Jews, Christians, and Mandaeans. Their ancient syncretistic religion venerates an angel known as Malak Ta'us, they are often accused of idolatry or even devil worship. They have been under increasing pressure since 2003, but the present wave of Yazidi refugees seems unprecedented. The United Nations is warning of a major humanitarian disaster.


For more details, see (note that Yezidi and Ezidi are also used in these citations):

Matthew Barber at Syria Comment: IS Routs Peshmerga, Takes Control of Sinjar Mountains, Jeopardizes Yazidi Homeland. 

At the Kurdish news site Rudaw: "Yezidis: Living in the Shadow of the Islamic State."

At the Yazidi news site Ezidi Press: "IS terrorists Take Over Yezidi villages: A short chronicle."


The Rudaw an Ezidi Press sites also provide ongoing coverage.

"15 Maps That Don't Explain the Middle East at All"

Actually, these do explain quite a bit: From The Atlantic: "15 Maps That Don't Explain the Middle East at All."

A Century On From Sir Edward Grey, Are the Lamps Going Out Again, This Time in the Middle East?

Sir Edward Grey in 1914

A century ago today, as dusk gathered in London, the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, was awaiting a response from Germany to the British Ultimatum sent earlier that evening, promising war if Germany did not withdraw from Belgium. A friend (John Alfred Spender), who later confirmed the version Grey gives in his memoirs, dropped by the Foreign Office, and as Grey watched out the window while lamplighters were lighting the gaslights, the Foreign Secretary made the remark by which he is still remembered. As Grey recalled it:

A friend came to see me on one of the evenings of the last week — he thinks it was on Monday, August 3rd. We were standing at a window of my room in the Foreign Office. It was getting dusk, and the lamps were being lit in the space below on which we were looking. My friend recalls that I remarked on this with the words: "The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time."

The power has been out in Gaza for days now, and in Syria and Iraq and (increasingly) Libya,darkness seems to be settling in. So on this centenary of Grey's (only) famous remark, I wonder if this time the lights are going out in the Middle East. A gloomy thought for a grim anniversary.

The Oil Without a Country: The Flying Dutchman Tankers of Kurdish Oil

Like the legendary Flying Dutchman that can never make port, at least three oil tankers are standing outside territorial waters off Galveston, Texas, Mohammedia, Morocco, and in the South China Sea off Malaysia. (A fourth is said to be loading oil at the Turkish oil port of Ceyhan.) The vessel off Malaysia has offloaded some of its crude to another vessel, ultimate destination unknown. The oil, estimated to be worth some $300 million, comes from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq, and the government in Baghdad is claiming ownership until a revenue splitting agreement can be negotiated. After some initial openness to buying Kurdish crude, customers (at least open ones) are showing jitters about buying oil whose ownership is in dispute. After earlier reported deliveries of Kurdish oil to US and Israeli buyers, the Iraqi Oil Ministry is now vigorously challenging such deliveries in court as illegal sales of Iraqi oil.

The  KRG is locked in a dispute with the central government in Baghdad. and has sought to market its oil via Turkey. The tankers involved reportedly belong to a Greek company. (Russian source; use with caution.)

There are reports that at least one shipment was already delivered to Israel, sold to a private buyer. The US, which opposes the breakup of Iraq and Kurdish independence, has apparently been privately lobbying Turkey and other countries against marketing the oil.

The tanker off Galveston has provoked the most attention. Earlier cargoes had already been delivered in May, possibly bought, according to Reuters, by a Ukrainian-owned US-based oil company, LyondellBasell, but following legal moves to block delivery, the company has announced it will not buy any more of the disputed oil.

Officially, the US Administration has insisted it does not interfere with private oil sales, but one reason for the buyer's backing out was an order by a Texas judge in response to a suit by Baghdad that the estimated $100 million worth of crude carried in the Greek-owned but Marshall Islands-flagged United Kalavrvta (yes, that appears to be how it's spelled; don't ask me how it's pronounced) should be seized; but the judge also ruled that US Marshals could not seize the oil so long as it remained outside US territorial waters. The legal dispute over the ownership of the oil is having a chilling effect on other potential US buyers.

Meanwhile, a sister ship, the United Emblem, anchored outside territorial waters in  the South China Sea off Malaysia, has reportedly offloaded at least part of its cargo to another tanker, bound for an unknown mystery buyer.

The third tanker, United Leadership, has been anchored off Mohammedia, Morocco for some two months. A Kurdish report has said it is likely to be transported to Sicily. Earlier, after making port in Morocco, Moroccan authorities ordered it out of their territorial waters; and the ship reportedly headed towards the US, but then reversed course and has remained off Morocco.

The Truce Has Collapsed, But Egypt and PA Say Truce Talks are Still On

 The "72-hour" truce in Gaza collapsed in something more like two hours, but there's considerable confusion about whether the scheduled talks about a longer truce scheduled for Cairo are still possible. Israel and Hamas seem to believe they're off, and Israeli reports say Egypt "postponed" them, but Egypt's Foreign Ministry says they're still on, as does the Palestinian Authority, which says a joint PLO/Hamas/Islamic Jihad delegation has been appointed and plans to be in Cairo tomorrow.


In the welter of conflicting reports, I would merely note that unless both Hamas and Israel show up, Egypt and the PLO won't have much to talk about. What if they gave a peace and nobody came?

I suspect the prospects are not bright, however much Egypt and the PA may cling to hope, but I'd be glad to be proven wrong.

A Housekeeping Note about Hester Stanhope

Two weeks ago I ran Part One of an intended three part post on the eccentric Lady Hester Stanhope, "the mad nun of Lebanon." For those of you wondering what happened to the rest of it, the answer is Gaza, Libya, ISIS, the centennial of WWI, etc. In past years, I've prepared posts ahead of time for when I'm on vacation, and since I'll be starting vacation in a little over a week, I've decided to postpone the rest of Lady Hester to my vacation posts. Do stay tuned.

Tunisia Closes Border with Libya

Tunisia has closed its main border crossing with Libya after thousands of foreign workers, mostly Egyptians, tried to enter without visas, as the foreign flight from  Libya continues. Tunisia has urged its own nationals in Libya, estimated at 50,000-60,000, to leave.

The Greek Navy frigate en route to evacuate Greek nationals will also evacuate some 80 Chinese, while the Lebanese community is also seeking to leave. The Philippines is also evacuating its nationals.

Meanwhile in the eastern part of the country, Gen. Khalifa Haftar has denied media reports that he had fled to Egypt.