Category Archives: Syria

Loti on Palestine

Bible and Holy Land, Books You Should Read, Lebanon, Orientalism, Palestine, Photography, Syria, Travel

First English translation of ‘La Galilée’, an account of Pierre Loti’s travels in the Holy Land from Jerusalem to Beirut, via Damascus and many other interesting places, in 1894.  

Pierre Loti (1850-1923) was born Louis-Marie-Julien Viaud into a Protestant family in Rochefort in Saintonge, South-West France (now Charente Maritime). He was an officer of the French Navy and a prolific author of considerable note in 19th-/early-20th-century France, publishing many novels and numerous accounts of his travels around the world. He was a member of the French Academy. Apart from his literary talents, Loti was a pioneer photographer and this translation of his journey from Jerusalem to Beirut in 1894 is greatly enhanced by the reproduction of some of the photographs he took at the time.  

Volume includes 12 historic photos taken by Pierre Loti and 1 map.

For details. click here:

Egypt in 1876

Books You Should Read, Egypt, India, Iran, Syria, Travel, Turkey

The British diplomat Sir Valentine Chirol (1852-1929) wrote a memoir entitled Fifty Years in a Changing World (New York: Harcourt and Brace, 1928). Among the areas in the Middle East that he visited or commented upon were Egypt, Syria, Ottoman Turkey, Persia and the Persian Gulf. He also has some interesting observations on India, Japan, the Balkans, Berlin and Russia. Of particular interest is his commentary on Egypt in 1876 before the British occupation. Below is an example of that.

Images from the 19th century “Bible World”

Agriculture, Architecture, Bible and Holy Land, Egypt, Lithographs, Orientalism, Orientalist Art, Orientalist Images, Palestine, Syria

There were many books written by Christian missionaries and clergy during the 19th century. While the text itself has long since been outdated, the engravings are still fascinating to look at. The illustrations here are from an 1875 book of Bible Manners and Customs by the Methodist-Episcopal preacher James M. Freeman. It is available for free on archive.org. But there is also a brand new edition currently in press for 2021 and already noted on Amazon. I attach several of the images below the book title.