Habsburg legacy in Austria and Kipling in India

The abandoned Imperial Crypt beneath the city of Vienna
The Imperial Crypt, 10 metres (33ft) beneath the city of Vienna, is the burial site of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I (1640-1705) and of 146 of his Habsburg relatives. However, the site has been largely abandoned by the Austrian government, which still appears to be struggling to deal with the legacy of its Habsburg past. In April 1919, the Austrian government enacted the Habsburg Law. In the words of Walter Mayr in Der Spiegel, ‘the Habsburgs were dispossessed of private property held in family funds, denied the right to run for election, and forbidden to remain in Austria, unless they renounced in writing their claims to the throne and their affiliation with the deposed dynasty’. Today, the Austrian government is still ignoring pleas to preserve the site.
Read the full report.
In In the Blood - The Secret History of the Habsburgs Andrew Wheatcroft examines how an 18th-century succession crisis unlocked a tale of dynastic obsession and myth-history in Austria's first family.

Kipling’s legacy in India
Rudyard Kipling was born in the Dean’s Bungalow in the grounds of the Sir JJ School of Arts in Mumbai in 1865. Plans to turn the house into a museum have sparked considerable protest and have recently been suspended. Andrew Walker discusses the author’s controversial legacy in both Britain and India on the BBC’s Today programme.
In Kipling, Kim and Imperialism Fred Reist and David Washbrook explain how Kipling's view of imperialism was more complex than is usually supposed.
The author also pointed to cracks in the imperial facade at Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. Denis Judd explains in Diamonds are Forever? Kipling's Imperialism .

1938 comic book sells for £1million
Yesterday, a 1938 edition of Action Comics No 1, the first comic to feature Superman, was sold for $1 million (£646,000) on the US auction website Comic Connect. The sale was over three times higher than the previous record price for a comic book, which was sold for $317,200 (£205,000) in 2009.

Sir Trevor Lloyd-Hughes: press secretary to Harold Wilson
Trevor Lloyd-Hughes died last week, aged 87. He was press secretary to Wilson in Downing Street from 1964 to 1969. Prior to his position in the press office, he was the political correspondent of the Liverpool Daily Post. In 1961 he also became the paper’s first wine correspondent. Following Labour’s defeat in 1970, he was knighted and founded his own lobbying company specialised in government-industry relations.
His obituary is published on the website of The Times.

Israel’s plans to add West Bank shrines to heritage list may halt peace negotiations
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently told his cabinet that two major religious sites in the West Bank would be added to the country’s heritage list and included in a £103 million restoration plan. In the Bible, the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron is where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were buried; Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem is the traditional gravesite of the Matriarch Rachel and is one of the holiest sites in Judaism. The announcement has sparked protest from the Palestinian Authority. The BBC reports.

More Information on the Achaemenid Empire

by Kathryn Hadley

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a short piece about the South Korean diplomat in Iran, who had attempted to smuggle an inscribed stone from Perspeolis from the Achaemenid era out of the country. Officials in Shiraz airport caught the thief and sent the stolen piece back to the ruins of Persepolis, but he was eventually released due to diplomatic immunity!

Persepolis was just one of the capitals of the Achaemenid Empire, which flourished from approximately 550 to 330 BC and was, at its height, the largest empire of the ancient world. Susa was another of its capitals and was rebuilt by Darius the Great (in the picture on my previous post). Alexander the Great also married in Susa, which therefater became part of the Seleucid Empire.

I have just come across a very useful blog post, which describes in greater detail the history of Susa and also has fascinating pictures of some of the reliefs which decorated the palaces of Achaemenid kings, many of which are now in the Louvre in Paris. Another post on the same blog also describes a statue of Darius the Great, which was found during excavations of the Great Gate in Susa in 1972. It provides detailed pictures and also explains the various inscriptions on the statue...

Well worth a visit if you are interested in finding out more about the Achaemenid Empire!

South Korean diplomat thief

by Kathryn Hadley

The Iranian news agency Tabnak reported on Tuesday that the Third Secretary of the South Korean Embassy of Iran had been caught smuggling an Iranian relic from the Achaemenid era out of the country. The relic, an inscribed stone from Persepolis was found, during check-in, by officials in Shiraz airport in the diplomat’s suitcase. The diplomat was, however, released due to diplomatic immunity and the stolen piece was sent back to the ruins of Persepolis.

Jaber Banshi, the Shiraz public and revolutionary prosecutor, told IRNA, the Islamic Republic News Agency:

‘Customs officials in Shiraz Airport found a two-kilogram inscribed Persepolis
stone in the luggage of the 3rd Secretary of the South Korean Embassy in Iran.
The relic has been delivered to the provincial cultural heritage office, but no
cultural official has filed a complaint so far’.

An article on the website of the Iranian international news network, Press TV, claimed that the Korean Embassy had refused to comment on the issue.

Persepolis was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. The Achaemenid Empire was one of the first Persian empires and flourished from approximately 550 to 330 bc. Cyrus II the Great is considered the first ruler of the Achaemenid Empire. He ruled from approximately 559 bc to 529 bc, when the empire was at its height, spreading over approximately 7.5 million square kilometres and becoming the largest empire in the ancient world. The Achaemenid Empire spanned three continents and had over 20 nations under its control. It included territories of Afghanistan, Pakistan, parts of Central Asia, Asia Minor, Thrace, coastal areas on the Black Sea, Iraq, northern Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, as well as significant population areas of ancient Egypt, as far west as Libya.

The Achaemenid Empire fell during the Wars of Alexander the Great during the rule of the last Persian King Darius III; Persepolis surrendered in 330 bc. It was succeeded by the Seleucid Empire, ruled by the generals of Alexander the Great and their descendants.

For further information on Alexander the Great, his character and his conquests, read our article Alexander the Great: Hunting for a New Past?

(The above picture is an engraving of Darius I, one of the rulers of the Achaemenid Empire)

Controversial Reopening of Iraq’s National Museum

by Kathryn Hadley

The Iraq Museum in Baghdad reopened today, almost six years after it was pillaged in May 2003, in the aftermath of the fall of Saddam Hussein. At the time, approximately 15,000 artefacts were looted; only 6,000 of which have currently been recovered. Coalition forces did not receive orders to intervene and allegedly stood by as Iraq’s heritage was pillaged. The recovered treasures went on display, today, in a special wing of the museum. The museum was symbolically reopened in July 2003 in an effort to show that some of its riches remained, but has been closed ever since.

The museum’s collections, which include treasures dating back to ancient Mesopotamia, are a source of national pride. At the opening ceremony, after thanking the countries involved in the campaign to recover the museum’s artefacts, such as Syria and Iran, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki explained:

‘We want to make our museum a place which will be at the forefront of
international museums. There's a long road ahead of us.’

Artefacts from the museum have notably been found in South America and Washington has provided $13 million to help restore the museum. Only eight of the museum’s twenty wings are, however, currently open and Al-Maliki explained that a large-scale international campaign would still be necessary in order to recover many of the museum’s lost treasures.

The museum’s director Amira Eidan explained:

‘We are going to inaugurate the Iraqi museum now, but don't expect it to be what
it was before when 26 wings told the story of Iraq through the ages […]. We have
focused in particular on exhibiting the antiquities looted in 2003 but which
have been recovered.’

Over the past six years, the museum has gradually recovered some of its treasures, which include sculptures, gold jewellery, decorative silverware and ceramic bowls. In November 2003, more than 800 looted artefacts were returned to the museum, including a 2300 B.C. copper Bassetki statue and about 820 other smaller objects from different periods. At the time, the ministry of culture issued an amnesty for all citizens who returned looted artefacts. In 2005, the FBI listed the recovery of missing artefacts from Iraq’s National Museum as one of the ‘Top Ten Art Crimes’ that it sought to solve. Last December, Iraqi soldiers seized 228 allegedly stolen antiquities and arrested seven members of a gang suspected of trafficking such items. In two other raids in southern Iraq’s Basra province, soldiers discovered a further 168 artefacts and arrested five people and also seized sixty other artefacts, detaining two people.

There is still considerable work to be done and the current situation rests on two main fault lines. If renewed violence erupts, the collection could, first of all, be endangered once again. Moreover, today’s opening was subject to fierce dispute between Iraqi government departments. On the one hand, the department of tourism and antiquities desired a ceremonious opening as a symbol of Iraq’s recovery from years of sectarian violence and to show that it could secure its people as well as its cultural artefacts and tourists. The ministry of culture, however, argued that it was too early, that the political situation remained too precarious and that the collections were not properly catalogued or displayed and were not up to modern standards. The date for the reopening of the museum was still being debated at the beginning of last week and today’s ceremony almost did not happen. Iraq’s minister of state for tourism and antiquities, Qahtan al-Jibouri, explained:

‘Some factions tried to politicise the inauguration of the museum, while others
underestimated Iraqi abilities in archaeology. Still others tried to delay the
opening on the pretext of security and potential hazards.’

Reuters notably published an article on Wednesday about the dispute between the ministry of culture and the department of tourism and antiquities.
The Iraq Museum was founded in 1923 when it occupied a small space in Al-Qushla building. As the museum's collections expanded, it was transferred to a building in the Al-Salhiya district of Bagdad, which it still occupies today. It was inaugurated in November 1966. For more information on the museum, visit its website http://www.theiraqmuseum.org/.

For background information of the US invasion of Iraq, read our article Coming as Liberators

For information on the unexpected consequences of US participation in military conflict, notably in Iraq, read our article The US and the Unintended Consequences of War

Israel & Palestine: Charting a Disastrous Century

by Derry Nairn

As missiles rain down on Gaza and rockets land in southern Israel, perhaps it is timely to consider how exactly history has conspired to lead the holy land into such chaos.

1920s - Policing Palestine

James Barker reveals how parsimony and muddle in Whitehall in the first years of the British Mandate in Palestine almost led to disaster in August 1929.

1930s - Weizmann and Ben-Gurion

With their differing approaches, the founding fathers of the state of Israel laboured to give Zionism unity, force, world respect and, ultimately, a homeland.

1940s - The Bombing of the King David Hotel

James Barker considers the role of terrorism in the establishment of Israel, on the 60th anniversary of the attack on the British military headquarters in Jerusalem.

1950s - Britain's Zionist Misadventure

Robert Carr argues that Britain's handling of, and withdrawal from, Palestine made bloody Arab-Israeli confrontation inevitable at a later date.

1960s - America, Israel and the Six Day War

The Six Day War spawned the special relationship between Israel and the United States of America. Elizabeth Stephens explores the cultural backdrop to this momentous development which resonates in the Middle East to this day.


1970s - The Yom Kippur War

Elizabeth Stephens examines how in 1973 the surprise invasion of Israel by Egypt and its allies started the process that led to Camp David.

1980s - Waltz with Bashir and the 1982 Lebanon War

Kathryn Hadley reviews a recent film which reopens debate over the role played by both sides in Israel's conflict with Hezbollah in the early 1980s.

Rare coloured pictures of the Holy Land unearthed in Yorkshire

by Kathryn Hadley

Nineteenth century books containing the first detailed coloured images of the Holy Land ever to be published in the West, in 1842, have recently been found in the Yorkshire Museum Library. The books were found by volunteers whilst they were cataloguing the museum’s library. They consist of a complete version of The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia by David Roberts. The volume contains hand-coloured lithographs of Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem, which he took during his visit to the Holy Land in 1938-39.

Roberts (1796-1864) was born in Edinburgh and was the first person to travel to the Holy Land with the specific intention to paint Christian sites, such as the Church of nativity in Bethlehem and the ancient city of Jerusalem, with a view to thereafter selling them in Britain.

The book was first published in 1842 and Roberts’s works were reproduced on a large scale and in colour. They were considerably expensive to produce and only 400 copies of the first edition were made. His project was, nevertheless, very successful and there was considerable demand for his books. Both Queen Victoria and the Tsar of Russia notably purchased copies. It was edited a second time in New York in 1855.

In Andrew Morrison’s words, Curator of Archaeology at the Museum:
‘David Roberts was one of the first “photo journalists” and his incredibly detailed paintings of the Middle East gave British society a fabulous insight into the everyday life of people in a world completely different from theirs […] Complete copies of the first edition of this books are extremely rare because so few were published and also because many were often taken apart, so that the prints could be sold separately.’

The museum is now working to trace the provenance of the books.

Waltz with Bashir and the 1982 Lebanon War

by Kathryn Hadley

Ari Folman’s latest film has brought to the big screen a relatively ignored chapter of middle-eastern history. Waltz with Bashir is the story of the director’s personal journey in an attempt to recover his lost memories of his participation in the 1982 Lebanon War, or Operation Peace of the Galilee as it was called by Israel, when he was barely twenty. His memory is jogged when a friend and ex-fighting companion complains of his recurring nightmare about the war. Unable to recall anything of the war, Folman sets out to interview various participants who he met at the time, in an attempt to retrace his own involvement. His powerful film highlights important questions about the war itself, in particular the Sabra and Shatila massacres which he has particular trouble remembering, and how different participants dealt with their consequent trauma as a result of the war. It also addresses the issue of responsibility in war crimes. One of the interviewees claims that he believed that the massacre was being dealt with by the Israeli Defense Forces; Ron Ben-Yeshai recalls how the Minister of Defense, Arik Sharon, refused to intervene when he informed him of the massacre at the refugee camps.

Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, at the beginning of June 1982, took place in the midst of ongoing and rising tension between the two countries. There had been outbreaks of violence during the summer of 1981 and the considerable number of Palestinian refugees in Southern Lebanon was a cause for concern. Following repeated bombings on towns in the North of Israel by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) from Southern Lebanon, the initial Israeli plan was to occupy a 40km security zone in Lebanon. The unofficial plan, however, notably drawn up by Arik Sharon, was to occupy Lebanon as far as Beirut (including Beirut) and to appoint his Christian ally, Bashir Gemayel, as President. The threat from the North would thus be eradicated and a sympathetic Lebanon under Gemayel would provide a front against Syria.

On April 21st, 1982, an Israeli officer on a visit to a South Lebanon Army gun emplacement was killed by a land mine and the Israeli Defense Forces attacked the Palestinian controlled town of Damour. On June 6th, the Israeli Defense Forces invaded Southern Lebanon in response to an assassination attempt against Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov by the Abu Nidal Organisation. A week later, the Israeli forces had reached the outskirts of Beirut. In August, however, they were still waiting for orders to enter the city.

Bashir Gemayel was elected president on August 23rd, 1982. He was, however, assassinated on September 14th, whilst giving a speech at the Phalangist headquarters, the Lebanese Christian Militia which allied with Israel. The following day, Israeli Defense Forces moved in to occupy Western Beirut. Shortly after, the first unit of Phalangists entered the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in the southern outskirts of West Beirut. The Israeli command had allegedly allowed the Phalangists to enter the camps and supervised the entrances and exits by the means of checkpoints, whilst the Christian militia massacred their inhabitants.

In September 1982, the PLO withdrew most of its forces from Lebanon; Israeli troops were not withdrawn, however, until January 1985 when a buffer zone was created to protect the North of the country. The Israeli government subsequently investigated the massacre in the refugee camps and Arik Sharon was found guilty of being personally responsible. He was dismissed and removed of his functions as Minister of Defense. On December 16th 1982, the massacre was condemned by the United Nations General Assembly and declared it to be an act of genocide. Sharon was elected Prime Minister in February 2001.

For more information on the history of Lebanon and Hezbollah, which was formed in response to the war, read our article Lebanon’s Shi’as: A Long March out of the Shadows.