1 Introduction
In early 1896, the remarkable twin sisters Margaret Dunlop Gibson (1843â1920) and Agnes Smith Lewis (1843â1926) set out from their home in Cambridge on an expedition to visit Cairo and Jerusalem, searching for manuscripts which they had been informed were on sale in the local markets. The sisters were already well-known at the time, both for their scholarship and their language skills, especially in Arabic and Syriac, and for their manuscript discoveries and decipherment skills. They were also seasoned travellers, having already made several visits to Egypt, Sinai, and Jerusalem. In 1898, Agnes published In the Shadow of Sinai, an account of her travels and research discoveries. Chapter seven, A Leaf of Ecclesiasticus, is her description of the 1896 expedition, including some details of the manuscripts they had found (Lewis, 1898, 142â158). A more recent account of the expedition appeared as Keepers of Manuscripts, chapter 24 of Sisters of Sinai, a biographical account of the sistersâ lives by Janet Soskice (Soskice, 2010, 232â238).
Later perceptions of this expedition have been based on the narrative written by Agnes. However, housed in the archives of Westminster College in Cambridge are two vivid and surprisingly personal narratives of the 1896 expedition written by the other sister, Margaret Gibson. She was the less outspoken of the two women, and these accounts have remained unpublished, though mentioned and quoted by Stefan Reif in his 2004 account of the Cambridge scholars involved in the discovery of the Cambridge Genizah collection (Reif, 2004, 332â346). The aim of the present paper is to give a fresh account to the sistersâ 1896 journey from Margaretâs point of view.
Margaretâs first account, Cairo to Jerusalem by Land, describes her journey overland from the Suez Canal, eastwards via Gaza, to Jerusalem.1 The second account, Jerusalem in 1896, describes her subsequent month-long stay in the city.2 These two narratives describe Margaretâs daily experiences and observations both in greater detail and in a more thoughtful style than in the briefer account by Agnes. They also record in some detail her own personal reactions and experiences as the expedition progressed. I became aware of these travelogues in 2016, after a visit to Westminster College when first working in the Genizah Research Unit, and I subsequently made a complete transcription of the two narratives which provided such a lively and colourful account of Margaretâs experiences.
2 The Documents and the Archive
The sisters, originally from Ayrshire in Scotland, had decided to settle permanently in Cambridge by 1890. The home they builtâCastle-brae, in Chesterton Laneâprovided the centre of their activities and contacts with the Universityâs academic community. After the deaths of Margaret in 1920 and then Agnes in 1926, a number of their papers and manuscripts were transferred from their home to nearby Westminster College (Soskice, 2010, 302), where they form an archive with other personal belongings.3 Margaretâs original documents are unremarkable in appearance, written on plain paper without illustration, in a neat and consistent style looking rather like two school essays.4 She recounts her activities and surroundings in refreshing detail, giving the impression these accounts were written close to the events described, possibly during the expedition itself, on the journey home, or immediately on her return to Cambridge.
Few other examples of the sistersâ original writing have survived, as much of it was destroyed after their deaths, but there is an extensive photographic collection which provides a unique record of their work and travels. They are among the earliest photographic records made by European travellers in the Middle East and North Africa. The sisters used photography primarily to make copies of the manuscripts they discovered, but they also photographed landscapes, excavations, local inhabitants and travelling companions. They certainly carried a camera with them on their 1896 expedition; Margaret refers to this specifically in her second narrative (Jerusalem, 8). Although the photographs are mostly without original captions, it is likely that some were taken on the journey Margaret describes and those included in this chapter have been chosen specifically to illustrate the narrative.5
3 The Context of Margaretâs Travel Accounts
Margaret and Agnes (née Smith) were the daughters of a wealthy Presbyterian lawyer who ensured that they received a high standard of education, especially in languages. A notable local Scottish minister, William Bruce Robertson (1820â1886), became their mentor, supporting their academic pursuits and desire to travel. A significant inheritance received on their fatherâs death gave the sisters freedom to pursue their own interests and they visited Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. In 1869, they made their first trip to Palestine, including Jerusalem. Both sisters later married, Agnes to a Fellow of Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, but both their husbands died within a few years and neither of them had children.
In Cambridge, the sisters studied Arabic, Syriac, and Persian, and took private tuition with the Hebrew scholar Robert Kennett (1864â1932). They attended palaeography classes with the biblical scholar James Rendel Harris (1852â1941), who became a close friend. Their Scottish Presbyterian beliefs continued to be a powerful influence and fired their interest in the transmission of biblical texts traced through early manuscript sources. Despite being marginalised from the Cambridge academic community on grounds of their sex, the sisters achieved scholarly success. They continued to travel, and between the years 1892 and 1906, made five expeditions to the monastery of St Catherine in Sinai, as well as visits to Syria and the Coptic monasteries on the Nile (Soskice, 2010, 124â187 and 272â276).
Margaret and Agnes can be included in the long tradition of European women travellers to the Middle East, but they were far from being the first. Until the end of the eighteenth-century, European travel in the region had been largely a male experience. Opportunities for women to visit there, except as pilgrims, or later as wives of diplomats or missionaries, were rare. In 1798, Napoleonâs conquest of Egypt brought about greater accessibility for European travellers and explorers, including the possibility for women to travel more widely. A further, rapid expansion of organised tourism in the late nineteenth century made travel both easier and safer for women (Melman, 1992, 8â18).
But the twins did not travel as tourists. They organised the 1896 expedition themselves, just as they had their previous expeditions. They hired a dragoman (local guide and interpreter) and servants but brought no other companions. Their original plan had been to take the sea route from Alexandria to Jaffa, but the opening lines of Margaretâs first narrative explains how their plans changed quite suddenly and in a way beyond their control:
In February of this year, my sister Mrs Lewis and I were in Egypt, and intended to go to Jerusalem, but unsuspected difficulties came in our way. Five days of quarantine was put on at all the Syrian ports against Alexandria, where cholera had only just begun to appear ⦠we therefore resolved, rather rashly perhaps, to hire tents and camels and take the desert route by way of Gaza.
Cairo, 1. Final words also quoted in the article title
The arduous journey took eleven days, and a sketch map of the route is shown in Fig. 1.
Figure 15.1
Sketch map of Margaretâs journey to Jerusalem showing overnight stops; those between Bir Nuss and El Arish are approximate.
4 Cairo to Jerusalem by LandâMargaretâs First Travel Account
Margaretâs narrative begins on 9th March, after the sisters had taken the train from Cairo to Kawa Zara, a small station on the Suez Canal where they camped overnight. They were so close the waterâs edge they could see the huge, brightly-lit ships passing close by. A string of camels to carry their tents and provisions was assembled on the canal bank at Al Qantarah with their dragoman, a young man named Joseph, whom they knew well, as he had accompanied them to Sinai the previous year. With all the arrangements in place they were ready to set out, and Margaret joked âon the morning of Tuesday the 10th of March, I mounted the tallest camel I have ever rode upon, my feet when he was standing, being higher than a manâs head, and felt not a little elated at looking down on my sister for the first time.â (Cairo, 3).
As the sisters progressed along the desert route, Margaret describes the animal and plant life they saw; goats, mice, tortoises, beetles, and a variety of grasses and daisies. They followed a route north to El Arish, then parallel to the Mediterranean coast to Rafah and Gaza, the route of the ancient Via Maris. The first night was spent at the small settlement of Bir Nuss, and it then took a further ten days of arduous riding to complete their journey. A scene with the sisters mounted on camels is shown in Fig. 2.
Figure 15.2
The sisters mounted on camels with Margaret in the foreground. This slide is not labelled, but a print of this image in the sistersâ album (WGL1/26) is labelled âMrs Gibson 1892â and so slightly predates their 1896 expedition.
Margaretâs account dwells on the arduous nature of this first half of the trek across the desert to Rafah. It took five days of hard riding, mostly over deep sand, but sometimes on ground as hard as asphalt. By contrast, Agnes covers the first half of the journey very briefly in her account. As the sisters ride along, Margaretâs observations are not all about the everyday world. She reflects in her vivid imagination, on her deeply held Christian beliefs, and their journey in the context of the biblical narrative. She muses that this same route might have been taken by the Holy Family on the Flight into Egypt, in primitive conditions of much greater privation:
What did the Virgin mother ride while bearing the infant Saviour along this road? Doubtless a camel. An ass would have much difficulty getting over such deep sand and with a rider on its back. How did she fare? She had not, like us, biscuits and jam and St Galmier water but perhaps dates and goatâs milk, for we twice passed a flock of these.
Cairo, 3
The sisters rode by day, pausing for lunch which they ate in a small square luncheon tent that always accompanied them. This is shown with the sisters inside in Fig. 3. At night, larger tents were set up to prepare a larger meal and for sleeping. The main tent is shown in Fig. 4. The main tents and baggage sometimes travelled on ahead to allow the sisters more time to explore.
Margaret observed how sometimes their progress was influenced by local customs:
our Mohammedan escort were all fasting, as it was the last week of Ramadan. They must not let anything pass their lips, not even a drop of water or a pipe between daybreak and sunset. Consequently, they did not make our daily journey longer than they could help. They take a good meal at 7â¯PM, and go on smoking, eating and talking until 1 am.
Cairo, 4
On Sunday, March 15th, which was the last day of Ramadan, they reached El Arish after an arduous ride âover large and bare sand hills for six hoursâ (Cairo, 5). Perhaps they were expecting difficulties here with the authorities, but Margaret records that after all the âcustom-house officers did not trouble us. They contented themselves with taking a cup of coffee in our kitchen tent.â (Cairo, 5).
Figure 15.3
The kitchen tent with the sisters standing inside.
The next day, March 16th, they had an unexpectedly long ride and left Egypt, crossing into Palestine, known at the time as Southern Syria (the Syria Vilayet, founded in 1841). Margaret writes:
our Bedouins fast, having now terminated, having got their heartâs desire in having spent the last day of Ramadan with their friends at El Arish, were in good humour for travelling. Consequently, our baggage camels went too far and darkness overtook us long before we got to them.
Cairo, 5â6
Figure 15.4
Tents in an encampment. It is uncertain on what expedition this photograph was taken.
And
It was 8â¯PM when a man met us with a paper lantern and we soon found ourselves under the welcome shelter of our tents. Mrs Lewisâs little camel having repeatedly gone down on its knees to protest against a dayâs ride of eleven hours. In the morning we found that we were literally in a field of clover, and that our tents were between the boundary-stones of Egypt and Syria.
Cairo, 6.
The next day they passed the village of Khan Jenga and reached the outskirts of Gaza, where one startling event did give them cause for alarm. As Margaret reports, they were attacked by a group of men: âone of them ⦠threw a stone at my camel-herder which struck him on the head. The others were using bad language and calling us âinfidel Christiansâ.â (Cairo, 7â8)
When Agnes judged that one of the pursuers was about to pull out a pistol, she reacted by laughing and they managed to escape shaken but unscathed. Here Joseph averted a possible disaster, the first of several occasions on this expedition where he succeeded in saving the day. At his request, the local Governor sent two Turkish cavalry soldiers to guard the party. The presence of Turkish authorities prevented any further trouble for the travellers, a matter especially significant for unaccompanied women. One of the guards, named Mohammed, accompanied them the rest of the way to Jerusalem and became an indispensable member of the party. A photograph of a Turkish soldier is shown in Fig. 5.
Margaretâs accounts contain several descriptions of officers from the Ottoman administration, military personnel, or Turkish officials, which places her narrative into the wider political context. The sisters were travelling not far from where the Cambridge Professor of Arabic, Edward Henry Palmer (1840â1882) had been shot dead in the desert of El Tih in 1882. Yet the sisters seemed undeterred by danger, and although the contemporary Baedekerâs guide advised carrying weapons except on major routes, they carried none with them (Baedeker, 1894). Others in their party may well have been armed, but this is not mentioned.
After Gaza, their route left the Via Maris and twisted inland over firmer, more undulating terrain, but the sisters decided to press on with their camels rather than exchanging them for horses. This was a decision they later came to regret. On this second part of the journey, Margaret and Agnes were keen to visit nearby archaeological sites. With assistance from local guides, they located the site of Tell el-Hesy. Excavated in 1890 by Flinders Petrie, this was the first archaeological site in Palestine to be scientifically excavated and was identified by him as the site of Lachish. In 1891â1892, this work was continued under the sponsorship of the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) by Petrieâs American student, Frederick Bliss, whom the sisters were to meet in Jerusalem a few days later (Hallote, 2006, 99â118).
On 19th March, they rode to the village of Beit Givrin. A little higher than the village, they passed the site of Eleutheropolis, the ancient Roman city, which had been identified in 1838 by the American biblical scholar Edward Robinson (1794â1863). This was a hilly region where, according to the Book of Kings, Hezekiah had once faced the Assyrian army (2â¯Kings: 17.3). Joseph enquired the way to the caves of El Adullam, where, by tradition, David hid from King Saul (1â¯Samuel 23:13â29). But after climbing some steep hillsides to three natural caves they were unable to identify these caves precisely. How much Margaret already knew of archaeology is unclear, but her interest in exploring ruins and making connections with the biblical narrative is obvious. She continues to reference biblical characters and stories, indicating that her imaginative contacts with a previous era continued as an inner dialogue.
On the same day, after riding across the Vale of Elah to the village of Beit Nassif, they sent their tents on ahead and slowed their pace to provide more time to explore. They then failed to catch up with them before darkness fell. Mohammed, the soldier, called for help but a local shepherd had been unable to direct them, and they had to admit that they were lost. Agnesâs clothes had become wet while being ferried over boggy ground by Joseph, but their campfire failed to dry the thick fabric. Margaret makes no comment in her narrative about the clothing choices for their expedition, but the sisters continued to wear European dress with bodices and skirts made from fabrics unsuitable for such a climate and mode of transport. As their experiences in their overland journey demonstrated, this ensured neither their safety nor their comfort. It is Margaretâs account that provides more domestic details of the situation:
Our little luncheon tent was put up. A rug was spread on the grass below, wet with rain and heavy dew. With the help of two red cotton quilts, we made ourselves a bed, using our hold-alls for pillows. Our Bedouin made a bright fire of brushwood in front of this tent, round which they sat, with Joseph, Mohammad and my sister drying her skirts.
Cairo, 13
The following morning, they decided to abandon their trek and to catch the train at nearby Battir, the final stop on the recently opened Jaffa-Jerusalem railway. The camels had proved unsuitable for the rocky terrain and the wet stones were too slippery underfoot. Riding over the mountains to where the Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives could be seen in the distance, Margaret remarks âwe were now tired of so much hard climbing, so we gave it up, sent on our baggage with the camels, and ourselves rested for five hours under the olive trees, till the afternoon train took us in twenty minutes to Jerusalem.â (Cairo, 14). Here the first travelogue ends, and Margaret seems relieved that such a wearisome journey was over. But there was no delay in recording her subsequent adventures, and her second travelogue proves to be of a very different character.
5 Jerusalem in 1896âMargaretâs Second Travel Account
Figure 15.6
The Jaffa Gate around the time of the sistersâ visit. Also published in Shadow of Sinai, 161.
Margaretâs second narrative begins with a reference to her previous visit to Jerusalem in 1868, nearly 30 years earlier. Then a young woman, now she and her sister were revisiting places with a more mature experience. Reaching Jerusalem after their brief train journey, they were relieved to be reunited with the rest of their party whom they had missed the previous night near Beit Nassif. They camped for a further three nights close to the Pool of Gihon, then moved nearer to the Jaffa Gate, guarded again by Turkish soldiers. On their final night under canvas, on 22nd March, another disaster occurred when they were drenched by a violent storm, which soaked their beds and turned the floor of their tent into a pool. Early the following morning they moved, with great relief, to the Grand New Hotel just inside the Jaffa Gate. The recently opened hotel provided modern accommodation and the sisters remained there for the rest of their stay (Gibson et al., 2013). A contemporary photograph of the Jaffa Gate is shown in Fig. 6.
Once established in Jerusalem, Margaretâs focus shifts towards the archaeology and history of the city and its religious communities, about which she provides many vivid descriptions. Here she met Frederick Bliss, the colleague of her Cambridge friend James Rendel Harris, who himself had travelled to Sinai with Bliss in 1889 and accompanied the sisters on their 1893 Sinai expedition. Bliss became a key figure for the sisters in Jerusalem, acting as unofficial guide to archaeological sites and at meetings with church dignitaries. Their reputation as linguists and academics facilitated their contacts with religious dignitaries and European residents in the city, expanding their breadth of experience and possibilities far beyond those of the average tourist.
In Jerusalem, Margaretâs very first visit proved to be of a deeply personal nature. She walked to the so-called âgreen hillâ outside the Damascus Gate, thought by many Protestant Christians to be the true site of Calvary. The sisters visited the rock-cut tombs here, known as the Garden Tombs, believed to be the site of the burial of Jesus.6 Margaret ponders this deeply, and remarks:
I, at least, was convinced that I stood on the meeting place between heaven and earth and felt repaid for my ten daysâ toilsome tramping through the wilderness ⦠whether this is the real site or not, it is the one that appeals to the imagination and satisfies the heart.
Jerusalem, 4
Since the fourth century, the belief held by Orthodox Christian and Roman Catholic traditions was that the true site of the crucifixion and burial was within the Holy Sepulchre Church. These variant beliefs caused continual controversy throughout the ages with debates centred around the historical variations in the location of the cityâs walls. As the biblical narrative states that the crucifixion took place âwithout the city wallsâ, whether the Church stood inside or outside the city walls at the time was therefore crucial and was the focus of Frederick Blissâs excavations in Jerusalem, begun in 1894 after his work at Tel el-Hesy.7 This controversy on the location of Calvary formed the subject of a lecture that Bliss gave one evening and which the sisters attended. The different opinions on the history of the city walls were hotly debated:
One evening we had a lecture in our hotel from Dr Frederick Bliss, on the walls of Jerusalem. Partisans of both the disputed sides were present, and the lecturer felt as if he were stepping on a tightrope. Not that evening only, but during all the time of our stay, we had to discuss the subject with residents and visitors alike.
Jerusalem, 4â5
Margaret also mentions that this topic remained a focus of conversation throughout her stay in Jerusalem and she takes a very particular interest in the matter. Agnes, in her account, passes quite briskly over the walk to the green hill and the city walls, but Margaret describes both in detail. More than three pages of her narrative are devoted to this subject as she absorbs and comments on the sites of mounds, gateways, and towers and the implications of this information for the history of the city. It appears to have been a matter of significant spiritual importance to her, beyond just an everyday walk.
5.1 Visits to Religious Sites and Ceremonies
In 1896, the Easter festivities of the Greek and Roman churches, which frequently fell on different dates, coincided, and were celebrated on the 5th to 8th of April. Margaret and her sister were much involved in these, and on Maundy Thursday they visited the Armenian Church to observe the ceremony of the washing of the feet. Deeply impressed by the splendid vestments, Margaret commented âwhen the blue curtain was raised, the prelate and twelve other Archbishops in gorgeous robes stood revealed, the former glittering with gold cloth and diamonds.â (Jerusalem, 9â10).
Margaret frequently remarks on the sumptuousness of the vestments she saw. Possibly this offended her Scottish Presbyterian beliefs, but the sisters had their own personal appreciation of fine clothes and fabrics which was well known in Cambridge, so perhaps these reactions were genuine. As wealthy women, they were always able to indulge themselves with clothing of the best quality. Margaret ended Maundy Thursday with a visit to the communion service in the English Church on Mount Zion, followed by a walk around the city, crossing the Brook Kidron and the site of Gethsemane.8 Attending a service there touched her deeply and this is obviously where, as regards her own personal beliefs, she felt most at home. She remarks âto have taken part in this is a memory of a lifetime.â (Jerusalem, 11).
Figure 15.7
The doorway of the Holy Sepulchre Church.
On Easter Saturday, Margaret and Agnes paid a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. There they witnessed the ancient tradition of the Holy Fire, in which a flame is believed to erupt spontaneously from the site of the tomb of Christ, thought to be situated within the church (Montefiore, 2011, 270). A photograph of the Church is shown in Fig. 7.
The Easter celebrations drew large numbers of Christian pilgrims who visited Jerusalem to witness the ceremony, but the sisters had already seen it on their 1869 visit. As Margaret explains âwe did not intend to see the Holy Fire, having done so on our previous visit, but the Greek Patriarch kindly sent us tickets, and we wended our way on Saturday at 11 oâclock to the upper gallery of the church, just under the dome.â (Jerusalem, 12). Inside, they found that the large crowds, kept in check by Turkish soldiers, had descended into raucous behaviour, and after an altercation with an Arab girl and her mother who blocked their line of sight, the sisters made an early exit.
Many people, from both religious and secular backgrounds, some of whom Margaret spoke with in Jerusalem at the time, regarded the Holy Fire as fraudulent and controversies rumbled on regarding the ceremony throughout history. Margaret records her own belief that such ceremonies had no basis in common reality. With celebrants from so many Christian faiths, the Turkish authorities were very afraid of unrest. Margaret comments how members of the different religions and sects often held one another in mutual antipathy, and a small spark could easily lead to a major conflict. She observed such situations closely and was rarely critical, but on one occasion, she lost her usual restraint and remarked somewhat tartly:
to our colder Northern natures, pomp and display when carried so far, make devotional feelings well-nigh impossible. The more gorgeous a Bishopâs robes and the more homage he receives, the less he becomes like a follower of the meek and lowly Saviour whose minister he is.
Jerusalem, 16
On Easter Monday, the sisters visited the Greek Patriarch in his palace where he was presenting each of a line of Russian pilgrims with a painted egg. The sisters conversed with him in fluent Greek, marking them as no ordinary tourists, but as established scholars, opening doors for them to other influential people in the city.
Margaret also found that her friendship with Bliss provided opportunities to meet with other European residents in Jerusalem. The sisters visited the German archaeologist Conrad Schick (1822â1901), who had worked for the PEF and constructed a notable series of wooden models of the Second Temple and Temple Mount, which the sisters went to see (Rubin, 2006, 43â63). They also met Dr Percy Wheeler (1859â1944), a well-known medical missionary from the Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews (founded in 1836) whose dedication had improved medical provision for the Jewish population within the framework of furthering Christian missionary efforts (Yaron and Lev, 2006). Wheeler took the sisters on other visits, including one to visit synagogues, and another to meet the Bishop of the Syriac Church, who happened to be his patient. Agnes omits these visits from her account, finishing her description of their activities after the ceremony of the Holy Fire. In contrast, Margaret describes the different people they met and the circle of friends they established.
Margaret appears, superficially at least, to tolerate the diversity of Christian traditions surrounding her, and to observe them without criticism; but there is also a sense of her unease towards the Eastern Christian traditions where they contradict her own beliefs. She hardly refers to Jewish traditions at all, as the sisters only briefly visited some synagogues. They did have some familiarity with Muslim religious practices, as in the brief mention of Ramadan on the way to Gaza, but despite Muslims forming a significant minority of the local population of Jerusalem at the time, Margaret rarely mentions them in the narratives.
5.2 Visits to Archaeological Sites
Archaeological visits formed a significant focus for Margaret during her time in Jerusalem. Excavations had been carried out in the city as far back as the time of the American biblical scholar Edward Robinson (1794â1863), known not only for his identification of Eleutheropolis, but also the eponymous Robinsonâs arch on the south-western flank of the Temple Mount. Further excavations began in the later nineteenth century, such as those of Charles Wilson (1836â1905), who, with members of the Corps of the Royal Engineers, carried out projects to improve the cityâs water supply system. In 1864â1865, he also directed the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem project, producing the first professional maps of the region. These initiatives provided an impetus towards the founding of the PEF in 1865, crucial to the further archaeological developments. In 1867, Charles Warren (1840â1927) had been recruited by the PEF to conduct an initial survey of biblical Palestine. His first excavations, carried out in Jerusalem in 1867â1870, included the discovery of the water shaft running under the Temple Mount, known as Warrenâs shaft (Ben-Arieh, 1984, 153). Some of this work would have been contemporary at the time of the sistersâ 1869 visit, but Agnes makes no mention of it in Eastern Pilgrims, the travel account published a year later describing this visit, so perhaps they were not aware of its significance.
By the time of Margaretâs visit in 1896, Wilson and Warren were of a past generation, but could claim major achievements in excavations and cartography (Gibson, 2011, 22â57). Frederick Bliss, appointed by the PEF in 1891 to work both at Tell el-Hesy and Jerusalem, was a natural successor to this work and had excavated both the fortified walls dating from the age of the second Temple and the Siloam Pool (Reich 2019, 61â80). The excavations of the walls were ongoing at the time of the sistersâ visit (Hallote, 2006, 121â135). Margaret recounts how Bliss took them for a walk to view his work along the southern wall of the ancient city, as far as the Pool of Siloam towards the site of Warrenâs shaft. Margaret appears to have a genuine interest in these historical associations and the religious connotations they hold (Jerusalem, 17â18).
5.3 The Visit Comes to an End
The sisters did not venture far outside the city during their visit, except for one expedition to Jericho and Bethany, where they photographed a âMahommedanâ woman and her newly married daughter-in-law at the door of a cave-dwelling, one of very few mentions of local inhabitants which Margaret recorded. She makes no mention of any women they met in Jerusalem, apart from those viewing the Holy Fire ceremony, nor does she remark on the daily lives of the local female population.
Towards the end of their visit, the sisters paid a brief visit to Bethlehem, but were horrified at being pursued by vendors of rosaries and noted other signs of increased commercialisation of the town. They ended this excursion with a walk to the Mount of Olives and from the summit, Margaret surmises:
there are more extensive views to be found in the world, than that from the top of Olivet but none can excel it in interest. The blue mountains of Moab and Gilead in the distance, the windings of the Jordan, the Dead Sea, and nearer still, the Rock Rimmon, and other sites too numerous to mention bewilder the mind with their historic associations.
Jerusalem, 20
On the final day of their stay in Jerusalem, Margaret records that Frederick Bliss invited her and her sister to lunch at the Palestine Exploration Societyâs tents, but that the occasion was brought to an abrupt end by the news of the death of Ibrahim Effendi, the digâs Turkish inspector of works, causing Bliss to halt the dayâs work (Hallote, 2006, 131). Ibrahim had been Blissâs loyal foreman both at Tell el-Hesy and in Jerusalem, so his death must have been keenly felt. Margaret brings her narrative to an end here as if her train of thought was suddenly interrupted by these unexpected events. She says no more of the visit to Jerusalem but concludes with a brief account of the carriage ride to Jaffa on April 17th, which initiated their journey home to Cambridge.
5.4 Libraries and Manuscript Collecting
Margaret makes very few mentions of visits to libraries, but on one occasion, Dr Wheeler took the sisters to see the Syriac Bishop, and they managed to photograph some manuscripts in the Syriac Convent. During the visit on Maundy Thursday with Bliss to see the Greek Patriarch, they were also given permission to work in the Library of the Greek Monastery. These promises turned out not to be quite so generous as they seemed, as Margaret recounts:
here, on the other hand, after we had gone on for a week, working for two hours at a stretch when Father Justinian [the Librarian] was at leisure, he suddenly told us on Saturday, after the dinner bell had rung and his soup was getting cold, that the library was to be shut for a fortnight.
Jerusalem, 8
It appears that at least a modest amount of photography work had been successful, and presumably, this was the primary reason for taking their camera with them on the expedition.
Despite manuscript collecting being the declared aim of the expedition, Margaret makes no mention of this until the final page of her second narrative, declaring that the results of their expedition had been worth all their hardships. The manuscripts they had bought in Cairo, before the start of the first narrative, had been sent by sea to Beirut, then Jaffa, and were to be collected on their return home, so the sisters had carried no manuscripts with them on their overland trek. No details are given as to the source of the manuscripts acquired in Jerusalem, but it is likely that Solomon Wertheimer, a manuscript and book collector, may have been resident in the city at the time. He was a known dealer in Genizah manuscripts and had already supplied the Cambridge University Library with a number of fragments during the 1890s. Agnes also mentions that manuscripts had been purchased on their way back to Jaffa from âa dealer on the Plain of Sharon.â Rebecca Jefferson gives a more detailed description of possible sources of these manuscripts in her recent publication on the provenance of the Genizah collection (Jefferson, 2022, 117â119).
On arrival in Jaffa and ready to embark on their way home, Margaret recounts how the quick thinking of Joseph rescued their manuscripts from confiscation by the customs officials. The problems the sisters encountered here indicate that the export of antiquities and manuscripts, formerly carried out by European collectors without question, was now being challenged, and new restrictions introduced (Donkow, 2004). Both consignments of manuscripts, those from Cairo and those from Jerusalem, the sisters donated to Westminster College in Cambridge.9
5.5 Return to Cambridge
Margaret and Agnes reached home in Cambridge on 3rd May and immediately began sorting through their manuscript haul. In the final ten lines of her narrative, Margaret comments on one particularly significant acquisition:
One of them, since our return to Cambridge, has been identified by Mr Schechter as a portion of Ecclesiasticus, unknown to the learned world since the days of Jerome. Is this not emblematical of the impressions we carry away from the journey in the East? We are not always conscious of their value at the time, but they come up and prove helpful for years afterwards, nor is their worth to be measured by any scales at our command.
Jerusalem, 23
As well as a fitting end to her narrative, Margaretâs closing words also proved to be prophetic. It was this manuscript leaf which instigated the expedition that Solomon Schechter, the Cambridge Reader in Rabbinics, made by to Cairo later the same year, resulting in his acquisition of the Cairo Genizah Collection now held in Cambridge University Library.10
6 Conclusion: Margaretâs Pilgrimage Text
This reference to the identification by Schechter of the Ecclesiasticus manuscript makes clear that Margaretâs narratives were completed after her return home, yet her intentions behind them remain unclear. Where they a personal diary, possibly never intended for publication? Not all travel accounts by women writers were intended for publication at the time of writing, and perhaps this was so in Margaretâs case (Bassnett, 2002). Or possibly their publication was abandoned due to her involvement in other work, or she was pre-empted by Agnes producing her own version of the journey.
The 1896 expedition made by Margaret and her sister has much in common with others made by European explorers and collectors of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Margaret was writing at a time when the tradition of the individual explorer was already declining, but when organised travel by middle class Europeans to Jerusalem and Palestine was developing rapidly. For those who could afford to pay, the means of travel and standard of accommodation was much improved compared to those endured by pilgrims in hospices and monasteries in earlier centuries. In 1869, Thomas Cookâs Tours (Cook, 1876) first established guided visits to Palestineâproviding a dragoman, camels, and tentsâand such travel tours boomed in the 1890s (Kark, 2001).
The initial and unexpected upset to their plans which caused the sisters to take the land route from Al Qantarah had resulted in a longer and more dangerous journey, suffering some obvious privations. Possibly, they had intended to remain in their tents for the whole expedition, but one wet night too many outside the Jaffa Gate had changed their minds. It was almost as if, from the time they abandoned the tents and moved the Grand New Hotel, they made a shift from the explorer tradition to the tourist tradition, with all the comforts and security that brought with it. Yet interwoven within the everyday narrative there is the clear thread of Margaretâs own inner personal itinerary. Agnes had written of this expedition with a broad brush, but all the detail of their experiences is to be found in Margaretâs account. Her narratives follow her own spiritual journey while providing an on-the-spot social account of Palestine and Jerusalem at this specific time in history.
Throughout her narratives, Margaret echoes beliefs and reactions common in Christian pilgrimage accounts and mentions many well-known pilgrimage sites. She comments on the route of the Holy Family across the desert, while in Jerusalem she mentions the Green Hill, the Garden Tomb, and the Holy Sepulchre Church. Later, she visits Bethany, Bethlehem, and the Mount of Olives, all of which echo associations with the Bible text and the life and death of Jesus, which had, over time, become sacred spaces (Ridinger, 2021). Despite her own Presbyterian faith and belief that worship could take place anywhere, Margaret became involved in a pilgrimage narrative in places with deep Christian connection, recounting her own religious experience in parallel to her day-to-day activities.
This tradition of pilgrimage had continued through the centuries and the writing of pilgrimage accounts was already long-established before Margaret (Frankopan, 2001). Among the earliest surviving pilgrimage narratives is that of St Silvia of Aquitaine (515â592â¯CE), whose original text was rediscovered and published in 1887 by G.F. Gamurrini. St Silviaâs pilgrimage was known to the sisters and Margaret had already written an account of her life from notes by Agnes, as a chapter of How the Codex was Found (Lewis, 1893, 108â124).11 Margaret would have had a solid background in Bible stories and missionary tales dating as far back as her Scottish childhood, but perhaps it was St Silviaâs account which provided the steady foundation for her narrative and a focus for her thoughtsâan important aspect of her own spiritual and scholarly pilgrimage.
âCairo to Jerusalem by Landâ by Margaret Dunlop Gibson, WGL6/2/2, Archive Collections, Westminster College, Cambridge, UK (cited in the text as Cairo, folio number). Unpublished.
âJerusalem in 1896â by Margaret Dunlop Gibson, WGL6/2/1, Archive Collections,
Westminster College, Cambridge. UK (cited in the text as Jerusalem, folio number). Unpublished.
Westminster College in Cambridge was founded as a theological training college serving the Presbyterian Church. Formerly the English Presbyterian College, founded in London in 1844, it was moved to Cambridge in 1899 and renamed after the 1647 Westminster Confession of Faith. The sisters were among the chief benefactors to the Cambridge foundation, also securing the site of the building from St Johnâs College.
The first narrative is written on fourteen loose pages of lined paper, measuring 28.5â¯Ãâ¯22.5â¯cm. The second, consisting of twenty-four loose pages, has leaves of slightly different sizes.
The collection can be viewed in the Cambridge Digital Library at:
In 1894â1898, the London-based Garden Tomb Association was in the process of purchasing this site from the Ottomans with the aim of developing it as a focus of pilgrimage (Kark and Frantzman, 2010, 199â216).
Frederick Bliss (1859â1937) was born in Mount Lebanon where his father was a missionary and subsequently president of the Syrian Protestant College, later the American University in Beirut. At the time of Margaretâs travelogue, Bliss was employed by the PEF to excavate in Jerusalem. (Hallote, 2006, 85â96, and 121â132).
Margaret refers here to Christ Church, situated inside the Jaffa Gate, the oldest Protestant church in the Middle East. Founded in 1849, it remained the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem until the establishment of St. Georgeâs Cathedral in 1899.
The collection, now known as the Lewis-Gibson Collection, bought by the Bodleian Library and CUL in 2013, can be viewed in the Cambridge Digital Library at:
The collection, now known as the Taylor-Schechter Collection, can be viewed in the Cambridge Digital Library at:
Research in 1903, and therefore unknown to Margaret at the time, identified the author of this itinerary as Egeria, a fourth-century nun (Wilkinson 1971) who, in 381â384â¯CE, made the earliest recorded pilgrimage by a woman. She describes visits to sacred spaces in Sinai, Jerusalem, Edessa, and Constantinople and observes religious practices there (Bader 2020, 91â102).
References
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