Page 200 - Life of Gertrude Bell

i8z GERTRUDE BELL
in the English community, with the possible exception of Mrs
D. L. R. Lorimer, wife of the late Resident’s brother. Mrs
Lorimer became the first editor of the Basra Times when it was
instituted by the British. Van Ess had compiled an Arabic
grammar which Gertrude had read and she sent him one of
the ditties such as she composed for the Monthly Cousin and the
Christmas Surprise, compiled at Rounton each year for the amuse­
ment of family and friends:

V is for Van Ess, he once wrote a book
Perhaps you have seen it, or a copy you took,
He deserves a gold medal, without any doubt,
Not for what he put in but for what he left out.
Van Ess promptly composed a reply:

G is for Gertrude, of the Arabs she’s Queen,
And that’s why they call her Om el Mumineen,
If she gets to Heaven (I’m sure I’ll be there!)
She’ll ask even Allah ‘What’s your tribe, and where?’

Om el Mumineen. Mother of the Faithful. Gertrude acquired many
designations among the Arabs, but the one by which she became
best known was a peculiarly Iraqi form of address, Al Khatun. It
is a word little used in other Arab territories and was translated
by British officials as ‘The Lady’, but it really means ‘a lady of the
court’ and has religious undertones. She was also called Es-Sitt,
another Arab word for ‘Lady’. Mrs Van Ess records one of
Gertrude’s earliest confrontations with a tribal leader. She was
received none too cordially, Arabs at that time being unaccus­
tomed to women inhabiting any sphere save die harem, but she
put her case with the usual vigour. The Shaikh listened and when
she had finished said to his followers:
My brothers, you have heard what this woman has to say to us.
She is only a woman, but y’Allah, she is a mighty and a valiant
one. Now, we know that God has made all women inferior to
men. If the women of the Angleez are like her, the men must
be like lions in strength and valour. We had better make peace
with them.
After Lawrence’s visit to the front fine in die spring he and
Gertrude spent some time together in Basra and in May she took