Middle Eastern Studies

4 downloads 88 Views 418KB Size Report
Apr 1, 2003 - ... would also like to thank Dr Margalit Shilo, Dr Haim Goren and Dr Joseph .... Handbook for Palestine and Syria; C.G. Trumbull, A Pilgrimage to ...
This article was downloaded by:[University of Pennsylvania] On: 16 November 2007 Access Details: [subscription number 768500064] Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Middle Eastern Studies Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713673558

A New Kind of Pilgrimage: The Modern Tourist Pilgrim of Nineteenth Century and Early Twentieth Century Palestine Doron Bar; Kobi Cohen-Hattab Online Publication Date: 01 April 2003 To cite this Article: Bar, Doron and Cohen-Hattab, Kobi (2003) 'A New Kind of Pilgrimage: The Modern Tourist Pilgrim of Nineteenth Century and Early Twentieth Century Palestine', Middle Eastern Studies, 39:2, 131 - 148 To link to this article: DOI: 10.1080/714004511 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/714004511

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article maybe used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

Downloaded By: [University of Pennsylvania] At: 18:18 16 November 2007

392mes06.qxd

27/03/2003

11:36

Page 131

A New Kind of Pilgrimage: The Modern Tourist Pilgrim of Nineteenth-Century and Early Twentieth-Century Palestine D O R O N B A R and K O B I C O H E N - H AT TA B

Today, in the transition period between the millenniums, it is obvious that pilgrimage has been a key factor in determining and shaping Palestine’s history and territory alike. As a land sacred to the three monotheistic religions, Palestine has over the years received a steady stream of pilgrims eager to visit the sites holy to their faith. Indeed, small as it is, Palestine contains a remarkable number of religious sites, the scene of so many events depicted in the Old and New Testaments. For centuries, these sites have attracted innumerable pilgrims from the four corners of the earth annually. The Late Ottoman period (1799–1917) saw the revival and regeneration of the tradition of Christian pilgrimage.1 Pilgrimage flourished, most particularly from the time of the Egyptian conquest (1831–40) onwards, with Christians flocking to the Holy Land in their thousands. The question arises, however, whether all these Christians were indeed pilgrims. Were the new visitors and the Christian pilgrims of yore the same, or were there significant differences in the nature of the two groups’ visits? In other words, had Palestine become the target for a new kind of traveller, the tourist, already during this period?2

This article will seek to examine the onset of modern day tourism in Palestine. It will analyse this new phenomenon’s unique characteristics compared to the more traditional pilgrimage. By examining several sources in which the pilgrims described their visit to the Holy Land and utilizing recent methodological research, we hope to describe the new nineteenthcentury phenomenon of the modern tourist pilgrimage. Despite the fact that we cannot find many perfect or precise examples for this modern pilgrim, a new type of visitor to the Holy Land definitely emerges from the cumulative analysis of those various sources. Attempts have been made at least Middle Eastern Studies, Vol.39, No.2, April 2003, pp.131–148 PUBLISHED BY FRANK CASS, LONDON

Downloaded By: [University of Pennsylvania] At: 18:18 16 November 2007

392mes06.qxd

27/03/2003

132

11:36

Page 132

MI D D L E E A S T E R N S T U D I E S

theoretically to differentiate between pilgrimage and modern tourism.3 According to Smith, tourism and pilgrimage stand at opposite ends of a continuum that defines spatial movement, pilgrimage marking the sacred extremity and tourism the secular end of it.4 In between lies a wide range of journeys that combine the two categories in varying degrees, among them the new nineteenth-century phenomenon of modern tourist pilgrimage. A large number of the travellers who visited Palestine in the nineteenth century fit the mould of the modern tourist pilgrim. They were plainly not traditional pilgrims, yet neither were they tourists who visited Palestine on a whim, oblivious to its historic past or spiritual significance. Accordingly, as will be demonstrated, modern tourist pilgrims combined in their journey characteristics typical of the centuries-old pilgrimage as well as elements of present-day tourism. Our definition of this new kind of tourist will be based on the examination of five factors that together define the traveller’s journey to and in Palestine, whether as pilgrim or as tourist: 1. The motives for the journey; 2. The period in the year of the journey as well as its duration and the mode of travel; 3. The travellers’ religious affiliation and social background; 4. The travellers’ reaction to Palestine, in particular their response to the country’s holy sites; and 5. The services used by the travellers during their stay in Palestine. In the nineteenth century, Christian pilgrims of all denominations would travel to Palestine. While the precise motive for such a journey may have varied from one denomination to the other, like their predecessors, these pilgrims were inspired exclusively by religious impulses and emotions. The pilgrims looked forward to undergoing an essentially spiritual regeneration.5 During their pilgrimage, on reaching Palestine they would feel as if they had been transported from the mundane material world of daily life to another sacred, heavenly realm. Various rituals, such as kissing the ground or washing the feet upon setting foot in the Holy Land often marked the passage from the secular to the holy.6 During their stay, the pilgrims focused solely on Palestine’s sacred, religious treasures. They visited only holy sites and attended ceremonies associated with these sites. Everything else – the scenery, the local inhabitants and folklore – was, without exception, viewed through the prism of Christianity and the country’s holy, biblical past.7 By visiting the holy sites and engaging in religious ritual and prayer, nineteenth-century pilgrims, like their forerunners, sought mainly to atone for their worldly sins. For the Greek, Russian and other Eastern Christian

Downloaded By: [University of Pennsylvania] At: 18:18 16 November 2007

392mes06.qxd

27/03/2003

11:36

Page 133

THE M ODERN TOURI ST PI LGRI M OF PA L E S T I N E

133

communities, the pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and especially to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, constituted an essential part of their preparation for death and salvation.8 Those pilgrims also hoped that the pilgrimage would cure them of illness, help them find spouses and bear children, and even enrich them materially.9 The modern tourist pilgrim’s reasons for travelling to Palestine were, by comparison, much more varied and complex. They included, among other things, cultural curiosity, education, and the desire to enrich themselves with new experiences. Modern tourism began in the sixteenth century, with the onset of the Grand Tour. It was then that the social and financial elite of Western Europe began visiting the cultural centres of Europe for pleasure, intellectual interest or sheer curiosity.10 With time, the Grand Tour expanded to encompass also the more remote regions of the Mediterranean basin. Ancient cultural and historical centres like Greece, Egypt and Palestine became an indispensable part of the itinerary.11 This phenomenon reached a peak during the nineteenth century, fuelling the burgeoning tourist industry.12 Organized tours, arranged by the newly established tourist agencies, further developed and accelerated these trends. Thomas Cook and American Express, for example, both founded in the 1860s, brought thousands of travellers to the Middle East, including the modern tourist pilgrim. Modern tourist pilgrims wished to see and experience all that Palestine could offer. They were interested in everything: the country’s geography, history, architecture and people.13 The modern tourist pilgrims travelled the length and the breadth of the country, climbing mountains, hunting and fishing, roaming through the desert and bathing in the sea. They were interested in the local inhabitants’ customs and generally sought to immerse themselves in the country’s indigenous biblical habitat.14 Naturally, modern tourist pilgrims were well aware of the fact that Palestine had more to offer than just beautiful scenery and an unusually varied topography. They recognized and valued its immense religious significance but, unlike earlier pilgrims, modern tourist pilgrims regarded Palestine’s religious significance as merely one of the several dimensions – historical, cultural, and scenic – that defined the country. Only for some of them were the holy sites the goal and highlight of the journey; for most of the modern tourist pilgrims these were but one feature of their overall experience of the area.15 There was a great difference between the earlier pilgrim’s mental perception of the journey to Palestine and that of the modern tourist pilgrim. The former revered Palestine as the most holy, the most religiously significant place on earth. Palestine stood at the very umbilicus mundi, it was the axis around which all else revolved.16 Accordingly, pilgrims regarded the pilgrimage as a journey from the periphery to centre.17 Visiting Jerusalem and especially the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was, for most

Downloaded By: [University of Pennsylvania] At: 18:18 16 November 2007

392mes06.qxd

134

27/03/2003

11:36

Page 134

MI D D L E E A S T E R N S T U D I E S

pilgrims, the climax of the pilgrimage and the high point of their lives. Moreover, the pilgrimage was more than a corporeal expedition to another country, it was a journey into the inner depths of the soul from which the pilgrim emerged a different, better, more spiritual human being.18 Modern tourist pilgrims, by contrast, were mindful of the fact that by travelling to Palestine they were journeying from the centre of things to the periphery.19 Setting forth from the modern cultural centres of Western Europe and North America, they arrived in a land that was, by their standards or by any standard, a social, economic and political backwater.20 Not that Palestine was without its attractions, on the contrary: The highly influential nineteenth-century Romantic Movement in Europe celebrated the mysterious and exotic Orient, and Palestine was certainly exotic. The Romantic Movement kindled the desire of many to experience the East’s alien and archaic charms.21 Thus, Palestine, like Egypt, North Africa and the Greek islands, became one of the places modern tourist pilgrims visited in their quest for the singular and the romantic.22 With one significant difference: Palestine, as the modern tourist pilgrim was only too aware, was not Egypt, or Greece, or Morocco – it was the Holy Land, a fact that endowed it with added distinction and value.

The late Ottoman period stands out as a unique almost unparalleled era in the history of Palestine. Following centuries of cultural, social and technological stagnation, Palestine began, in the course of the nineteenth century to inch slowly forward. This was largely due to the activities of the Great Powers, which exhibited a growing interest in the area. Their representatives, religious and diplomatic, introduced various Western innovations and amenities into the region. The result was that a whole new range of modern, up-to-date agencies and services, including transportation, post and telegraph, education and health, sprang up in Palestine and rapidly developed.23 Competition among the Great Powers led to massive improvement in the efficacy and quality of travel to Palestine. Newly established shipping lines brought Palestine much ‘closer’ to the West and opened it to both Western influence and travellers.24 Steamships set sail from ports all over the Mediterranean for Palestine, usually docking at the port of Jaffa. It was becoming increasingly practical, safe and cheap to travel to Palestine. The well-to-do and the less wealthy alike could now afford to visit. As access to Palestine improved, more people sought to exploit this new modernized service and the growing demand yielded more extensive services, with an ever increasing number of ships now setting sail for Palestine.25 The pilgrims’ journey took them by and large directly to the Holy Land. Having left home, they usually did not stop along the way to visit tourist or

Downloaded By: [University of Pennsylvania] At: 18:18 16 November 2007

392mes06.qxd

27/03/2003

11:36

Page 135

THE M ODERN TOURI ST PI LGRI M OF PA L E S T I N E

135

even other religious attractions. As a rule, from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, pilgrims boarded ship at one of their home ports and disembarked in Palestine.26 One Russian shipping line, for example, servicing mainly Russian pilgrims, sailed directly from Odessa to Jaffa.27 On board, the pilgrims did not waste a single minute: they spent the entire voyage preparing for the pilgrimage, praying and kindling religious zeal. They sought in this manner to deepen their religious consciousness and to intensify and heighten the experience of visiting the Holy Land.28 These fervent religious activities before the pilgrims even set foot in Palestine, underline the religious nature of the journey. Modern tourist pilgrims, on the other hand, arrived in Palestine as part of a general tour of the Mediterranean.29 Palestine was merely one more stop along the way and not necessarily the highlight of the tour. Modern tourist pilgrims often spent more time in Egypt visiting the pyramids, or touring the ancient cities of Greece than they did travelling in the Holy Land.30 Once the pilgrims arrived in Palestine, however, their route was determined solely by religious considerations. They visited only sites that had a religious significance. Most pilgrims disembarked at Jaffa port and made their way straight to Jerusalem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.31 Having visited Jerusalem, clearly the high point of the pilgrimage, they travelled around the country and visited its many religious sites. The modern tourist pilgrims’ itinerary covered more than just the country’s religious sites. While not neglecting the holy sites, modern tourist pilgrims also visited natural attractions and sites associated with Palestine’s biblical and historical past.32 When Mark Twain journeyed to Palestine in 1867, for example, his tour (Figure 1) included a visit to the tombs of the sons of the prophet Muhammad in Damascus, the crusader fortress in Kal’at Nimrod, located above the Jordan river, and the Horns of Hattin, where the Christian Crusaders were decisively beaten by the Ayyubid Saladin.33 The pilgrims planned their visit to coincide with the various Christian religious festivals and holy days.34 A pilgrimage on one of the holy days had a much greater religious import than one undertaken on an ordinary day. Not surprisingly, the number of pilgrims who arrived in Palestine during festivals and holy days increased tenfold or more than at other times of the year.35 Easter and Christmas were naturally the epitome of the pilgrimage season. Eastern Christian Orthodox pilgrims often arrived in Palestine several weeks before Easter, stayed all through Lent, and left long after the Easter celebrations were over.36 Catholic pilgrims usually arrived during Christmas in order to celebrate the Midnight Mass in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.37 The modern pilgrim tourists were inclined to time their visit less in accordance with the dates of religious festivals and more with an eye to the

Downloaded By: [University of Pennsylvania] At: 18:18 16 November 2007

392mes06.qxd

27/03/2003

136

11:36

Page 136

MI D D L E E A S T E R N S T U D I E S

M A P C O MPARI NG T HE ROUT E F OL L OWE D BY M. TWA IN WITH TH E R O U TE RE COMME NDE D BY T. C O O K

Downloaded By: [University of Pennsylvania] At: 18:18 16 November 2007

392mes06.qxd

27/03/2003

11:36

Page 137

THE M ODERN TOURI ST PI LGRI M OF PA L E S T I N E

137

prevailing weather conditions. The reasons for this were twofold. First, modern tourist pilgrims had no particular desire to participate personally in any religious ceremonies or rites. Second, tourist agencies, aware of the region’s difficult climate in both winter and summer, advised their clients to visit Palestine at a more seasonable time of the year. The Baedeker and Thomas Cook tourist guides recommended spring (March to mid June) and autumn (end of September to October) as the ideal times to travel to Palestine.38 Pilgrims tended to stay in Palestine for a much longer period than modern tourist pilgrims. A pilgrimage could last several weeks or even months. Russian pilgrims arrived weeks before Easter and left several weeks after. As Palestine was merely one stop on a long and very full itinerary, the modern tourist pilgrim’s sojourn in Palestine was therefore considerably briefer.39 Moreover, the number of tourist attractions in Palestine was limited, especially in comparison with places like Egypt, Greece or Italy. The fact that modern tourist pilgrims did not ordinarily take part in religious ceremonies also made them tend to cut short their stay.

There is a clear difference between the religious affiliation of the nineteenth-century pilgrim and that of the modern tourist pilgrim. The pilgrims were mostly Catholic and Orthodox Christians with a few Protestants. They came from Russia, Greece, Armenia, Egypt and the Catholic regions of Europe and America. Modern tourist pilgrims, however, were as a rule members of the Protestant denomination, and hailed from Western and Northern Europe and America.40 Catholics together with Orthodox Christians upheld the tradition of Christian pilgrimage and maintained the custom of visiting sites associated with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Modern Protestant tourist pilgrims also visited Palestine’s holy sites, though they were often quite sceptical about the sites’ authenticity. Some of the more doubting modern tourist pilgrims hoped that by visiting Palestine they would settle some of their own wavering thoughts about the Christian faith.41 These uncertainties were largely a product of Western scientific research and the critical studies that by the mid-nineteenth century had seriously questioned and undermined many of the heretofore undisputed truths of the Old and New Testaments. Many Protestants hoped that visiting Palestine would serve to authenticate the stories of the Old and New Testaments, and thus reconfirm their religious beliefs.42 Other than that, they simply toured the country out of a healthy sense of curiosity and adventure. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which for centuries has attracted thousands of pilgrims, was for most modern tourist pilgrims an extremely problematic site. Unable to accept the tradition that claimed that the church

Downloaded By: [University of Pennsylvania] At: 18:18 16 November 2007

392mes06.qxd

138

27/03/2003

11:36

Page 138

MI D D L E E A S T E R N S T U D I E S

was the epicentre of the world, modern tourist pilgrims visiting the site found it almost impossible to conceal their embarrassment and discomfort at what they saw as a primitive, old-fashioned belief.43 This was one reason why they sought alternative prayer sites. Another was that the modern tourist pilgrims preferred to pray quietly in simpler, less artificial surroundings. By the end of the nineteenth century they had adopted several such sites, far from the hustle and bustle of Jerusalem’s inner walls, including the River Jordan, Gethsemane and Capernaum. Feeling much more at ease there, tourist pilgrims would congregate in these rather pastoral sites and conduct collective prayer services or pray individually.44 During these sessions, modern tourist pilgrims gave the stories of the Old Testament place of pride.45

Each traveller’s individual response to the Holy Land was determined chiefly by his or her religious affiliation. The modern tourist pilgrim’s visit to Palestine was an essentially external and cultural experience, while the pilgrim, for whom the journey to Palestine was a religious imperative, underwent there a soul-searching spiritual regeneration. This helps to explain the often opposite response of the pilgrims and modern tourist pilgrims to the religious ceremonies celebrated at Palestine’s holy sites. Pilgrims did not merely visit the holy sites, but sought to perform various religious rituals, from lighting candles and having objects blessed, to swaddling cloth or other articles of clothing, to making vows and participating in mass. Catholics could obtain indulgences by visiting Palestine’s holy sites and making a donation.46 Modern tourist pilgrims, though faithfully visiting the country’s holy sites, did not, as a rule, participate in religious ceremonies. Not surprisingly, the modern tourist pilgrim’s response to the ceremony of the Holy Fire that took place in Jerusalem during Easter bore no resemblance to that of the pilgrim. The latter took an active part in the ritual, anxiously and eagerly waiting for the Holy Fire to descend from heaven. The former, not unlike the audience in a theatre performance, mostly observed the entire ceremony from the top of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre’s rontuda. It seems as though modern tourist pilgrims almost sought to distance themselves from what was, to their mind, a rather primitive and dubious ceremony.47 The different experiences of Palestine for pilgrims and modern tourist pilgrims were in part a result of the fact that both types tended to travel in groups. The nature of the two groups was worlds apart. The members of every pilgrim group shared a common religious affiliation – Catholics travelled with Catholics, Greek Orthodox with Greek Orthodox, and so on.48 The reasons for this were twofold: First, embarking on a pilgrimage with a

Downloaded By: [University of Pennsylvania] At: 18:18 16 November 2007

392mes06.qxd

27/03/2003

11:36

Page 139

THE M ODERN TOURI ST PI LGRI M OF PA L E S T I N E

139

group of like-minded people helped strengthen the pilgrim’s individual religious passion and faith.49 Second, the concept of communitas is central to the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox creeds. By travelling in a group this all-important sense of communitas was emphasized and reinforced. Catholics as well as the Eastern Orthodox believed that religious ceremonies are communal affairs to be performed in public and in groups rather than in isolation. Hence the mass public ceremonies performed during the pilgrimage, such as the ceremony of the Holy Fire.50 A priest or religious leader often accompanied the pilgrims. This too, served to reaffirm the sense of community, as did the uniform clothes the pilgrims wore and the items of identification they carried.51 Modern tourist pilgrims also tended to visit Palestine as part of organized tours. However, the members of the tour were not necessarily chosen on the basis of their religious affiliation. In the case of the modern tourist pilgrims, social background, regional associations and professional bonds were of much greater relevance. For example, prospective candidates for Mark Twain’s tour that was advertised in the press and on billboards had first to go before a committee which accepted or rejected them on the basis of their social suitability. Not surprisingly, to take part in such a tour was considered at the time a mark of social distinction.52 The group might even be assembled at random.53 The modern tourist pilgrims wore distinctly Western clothes, with accessories such as sunglasses, hats, umbrellas and parasols, serving to identify them as a group, and certainly distinguishing them from the pilgrims whose attire was as a rule much simpler.54 The pilgrim group included members of all classes: rich, poor, aristocrat and peasant. The pilgrimage, rendering void all social distinctions, meant that status, wealth or rank were of no consequence.55 This stood in sharp contrast to the modern tourist pilgrims, who, belonging mainly to the upper-middle and upper classes, presented a much more socially homogeneous group.56 The pilgrims visiting Palestine followed Jesus’ footsteps. Moreover, in wishing to emulate and share in Christ’s passion, some of them performed acts of self-flagellation and penance. Many of them believed that the longer and more arduous the pilgrimage, the greater its religious benefit and significance, so that ultimately self-mortification became one of the pilgrimage’s desired outcomes. The Russian women who travelled from Jaffa to Jerusalem on foot while rolling a church bell uphill were perhaps an extreme example of this phenomenon.57 More typical were the rudimentary living conditions, meagre food and fasting, gladly endured by the pilgrims. All this stood in stark contrast to the modern tourist pilgrims, who travelled in the best and most comfortable of styles possible. Hence the development of various tourist services designed to cater to all the modern tourist pilgrims’ needs.

Downloaded By: [University of Pennsylvania] At: 18:18 16 November 2007

392mes06.qxd

140

27/03/2003

11:36

Page 140

MI D D L E E A S T E R N S T U D I E S

In terms of travel services, sleeping accommodations were both the pilgrims’ and the modern tourist pilgrims’ primary need. Pilgrim groups usually lodged in church compounds, monasteries, nunneries and, on occasion, in inns. Some of these hostelries had been in business for centuries and were positively archaic.58 Others, built in the nineteenth century by the churches or the Great Powers, were slightly more modern. Although intended initially to serve pilgrims, these newly constructed hostels and compounds were a part of the churches’ and Great Powers’ efforts further to extend their influence in Palestine. The Russian Compound, located outside the Old City’ walls of Jerusalem, is perhaps the most striking and impressive example of this new development.59 Housing mainly Russian pilgrims, the compound was not open to regular tourists. Other Powers and organizations like Austria, Germany, and France also built compounds to accommodate their nationals.60 Situated alongside Palestine’s principal holy sites, these hostels enabled pilgrims to visit them, secure in the knowledge that they would never lack a place to stay. Unlike the pilgrims, the modern tourist pilgrims could not rely on their church or state to provide them with accommodation. To find a hotel, they had to rely on their own initiative and, more importantly, financial resources. They consequently usually either booked accommodation in advance through a tourist agency or rented a room themselves in one of the local hotels.61 The same was true for all other services the modern tourist pilgrims used in the course of their visit. Admittedly, they could have stayed in Franciscan or Greek Orthodox hostelries, but given the rather ascetic, austere character of these places, most modern tourist pilgrims preferred to stay in hotels that provided all the modern amenities.62 Not surprisingly, therefore, by the end of the nineteenth-century Palestine experienced a boom in hotel construction.63 Privately owned, these hotels offered better quality service, although at a price to match. In other words, staying in a hotel was a relatively expensive affair, certainly when compared to the pilgrims’ hostels owned by the church which charged next to nothing. Pilgrim hostels, given their religious nature and proximity to the holy sites, naturally maintained separate sleeping quarters for men and women.64 Not so the hotels or camp sites that served the modern tourist pilgrims. Furthermore, when determining a hotel’s location, the question of its potential financial profit was the main consideration, besides its proximity to this or that holy site. Other than hotels, modern tourist pilgrims stayed in tents, especially when touring the countryside. This allowed them to visit areas that even devoid of hotels were of considerable, though if not necessarily religious, interest.65 The tents were reasonably comfortable, and, together with the food that the modern tourist pilgrims sometimes brought from home and the European style cooking served by the tourist agencies, made for a relatively agreeable stay.

Downloaded By: [University of Pennsylvania] At: 18:18 16 November 2007

392mes06.qxd

27/03/2003

11:36

Page 141

THE M ODERN TOURI ST PI LGRI M OF PA L E S T I N E

141

The tents, like the hotels and the food, were part of the general effort to improve the modern tourist pilgrims’ travel and living conditions.66 In like manner, the flourishing tourist industry and growing number of organized tours were a product of the modern tourist pilgrims’ desire to enjoy a smooth, trouble and headache free journey.67 All this cost money, and it follows that the social and financial background of the modern tourist pilgrim was quite unlike that of the average pilgrim. Subsidies by the Great Powers and the church allowed even those who had humble or no financial resources to embark on a pilgrimage, sometimes without paying a penny.68 Modern tourist pilgrims, who had to finance their journey out of their own pocket and expected the best possible service, were by necessity people of means.69 Tour guides were another service utilized by the pilgrims and the modern tourist pilgrims alike. Most pilgrim groups were either chaperoned by a priest from home or enjoyed the services of a local clergyman. The priests often functioned as both the group’s guide and religious authority.70 Guidebooks written by local priests were frequently distributed among the pilgrims, who consulted them throughout the pilgrimage.71 Clearly, the pilgrims’ entire knowledge and perception of Palestine stemmed exclusively from the church and its priests. Tour guides who had no special religious affiliation customarily accompanied the modern tourist pilgrims. Most of them were not even Christian.72 Modern tourist pilgrims usually preferred to hire local guides. The guides, speaking both the modern tourist pilgrims’ languages and the local vernacular, also functioned as interpreters. These were the Dragomen, who featured in both the literature and guidebooks of the period.73 Occasionally a guide accompanied modern tourist pilgrim groups from home, and sometimes, even if he was the group’s religious leader, he acted as a guide in both the holy and secular sites. When touring Palestine, modern tourist pilgrims relied on both the Bible and tourist guidebooks. In the course of the second half of the nineteenth century, Thomas Cook, Baedeker and others published innumerable guidebooks on Palestine. Often published in several editions, these guidebooks are proof of the growing number of modern tourist pilgrims who visited Palestine. The guidebooks offered a wealth of information and tips on living expenses, the local currency, accommodation, the location of post offices and telegraph services, and even advice on local customs. They contained descriptions of Palestine’s many sites, both holy and secular, and they suggested slow excursions through the various regions of Palestine.74 This was in sharp contrast to the churches or other religious guidebooks, which provided almost only religious facts and data.75 The pilgrims and modern tourist pilgrims had manifestly different attitudes towards the souvenirs and mementos that they acquired throughout

Downloaded By: [University of Pennsylvania] At: 18:18 16 November 2007

392mes06.qxd

142

27/03/2003

11:36

Page 142

MI D D L E E A S T E R N S T U D I E S

their journey. The former sought to amass as many mementos of the pilgrimage as possible. The tradition of accumulating objects associated with the holy sites had characterized the pilgrimage from its very beginning, and was still as strong as ever in the nineteenth century.76 The pilgrims believed these mementos to be sacred, a piece of the Holy Land. By taking them home they hoped to sanctify their own domiciles, if only a little.77 The modern tourist pilgrims too, acquired mementos of the holy sites, but they regarded these less as sacred objects and more as simple souvenirs. Mark Twain and his companions drew water from the River Jordan for precisely the same reason that modern tourist pilgrims took fragments of inscriptions and columns from Baalbek or chunks of the Sphinx; they served as both reminder and evidence of their journey.78 The mementos the modern tourist pilgrims acquired when visiting the holy sites were no different from the souvenirs they collected elsewhere during their visit, such as scenic views of Palestine, portraits of themselves, dried flora, olive wood ornaments, and so on.79

The second half of the nineteenth century was one of the most dynamic periods in the history of Palestine. It was also a time when the long and well-established tradition of Christian pilgrimage underwent a sudden revival. In part, this was due to improved travelling methods that made the journey to Palestine and the holy sites much easier and safer. As travel for the sake of travel grew more popular, the waves of tourists who had previously swept Europe and parts of the Mediterranean during the eighteenth century began to reach the shores of Palestine. Accordingly, nineteenth-century Palestine now welcomed a new type of traveller: the modern tourist pilgrim. There were, as we have seen, substantial and very basic differences between the modern tourist pilgrim and the traditional pilgrim. To date, studies of nineteenth-century Palestine have failed to reveal the complex and composite nature of this new type of traveller, content merely to label them as tourists. Yet these so-called tourists, though in many respects quite unlike the traditional pilgrims, were equally unlike modern-day tourist. The modern tourist pilgrims visited Palestine and the Holy sites as part of a general tour of the Mediterranean. Unlike the pilgrims, whose journey was purely religious in nature, the modern tourist pilgrims’ motives were much more varied. Nonetheless, the pilgrims’ and modern tourist pilgrims’ underlying purpose in journeying to Palestine was essentially the same: to visit the country’s holy sites and the sites of the events described in the Old and New Testaments. Moreover, there is little doubt that alongside other, more traditionally touristic considerations, Palestine’s unique status as the

Downloaded By: [University of Pennsylvania] At: 18:18 16 November 2007

392mes06.qxd

27/03/2003

11:36

Page 143

THE M ODERN TOURI ST PI LGRI M OF PA L E S T I N E

143

birthplace of the three monotheistic religions played a key part in the modern tourist pilgrim’s decision to visit it. In conclusion, the modern tourist pilgrim presented a unique blend of the sacred and the secular. If the pilgrims pursued a wholly religious route, the modern tourist pilgrims visited both the land’s holy and secular places to a similar extent. Accordingly, in Palestine the modern tourist pilgrims were exposed to a wide variety of experiences. Not content simply to confine themselves to its religious holy dimension, they experienced all that Palestine had to offer. Under the British Mandate modern tourist pilgrims continued to flock in Palestine, whereas the number of pilgrims, by contrast, gradually diminished. This largely explains why during the British Mandate the sum total of Protestant visitors to Palestine multiplied, while the number of Orthodox Christians fell drastically. During this period, more and more modern hotels were built, and the British authorities began to regulate and institutionalize the tourist guide business. These and other elements of modern tourism, which first made their appearance in the nineteenth century under Ottoman rule, continued to develop and expand, forming the basis for the Middle East tourism industry. NOTES This article reflects the authors’ two interests: the historical aspects of Christian pilgrimage to Palestine and modern-day tourism. We would like to thank Professor Yehoshua Ben-Arieh, who pioneered the study of modern Palestine’s historical geography and introduced us to this fascinating field of study. His observations and suggestions were of unfathomable value in writing this article. We would also like to thank Dr Margalit Shilo, Dr Haim Goren and Dr Joseph B. Glass who read through the drafts of this article and made innumerable helpful comments. 1. A pilgrim according to the Oxford English Dictionary is ‘one who journeys to a sacred place as an act of religious devotion’. See H.W. Fowler and F.G. Fowler, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1951), p.901. The term ‘pilgrimage’ has numerous definitions. Its precise meaning is dependent upon the particular period and culture under discussion. For the purpose of this article a general definition that also encompasses the tradition of Christian pilgrimage was selected. For further details, see E. Turner, ‘An Overview’, in M. Eliade (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol.11 (New York: Macmillan, 1986–87), p.328; M. Prior, ‘Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Yesterday and Today’, in M. Prior and W. Taylor (eds.), Christians in the Holy Land (London: World of Islam Festival Trust, 1994), p.184. 2. Given that tourism is associated with the manifold and diverse aspects of human culture, it is very difficult to define precisely. According to the United Nations and World Tourism Organization, Recommendations on Tourism Statistics, Vol.83 (New York: United Nations, 1994), p.5, tourists are ‘persons travelling, for reasons of recreation, business, etc. etc, from their homes to places that are not along their customary route. They remain in these places for a period lasting no less than 24 hours and no longer than a year.’ It should be noted that this broad, rather loose definition applies mainly to the modern day tourist, who travels for purely recreational purposes. Indeed, tourism is generally undertaken for the sheer pleasure of things and has no religious or spiritual dimension. Nevertheless, from the generalized term

Downloaded By: [University of Pennsylvania] At: 18:18 16 November 2007

392mes06.qxd

27/03/2003

144

3. 4.

5. 6.

7.

8.

9. 10.

11.

12.

13. 14.

11:36

Page 144

MI D D L E E A S T E R N S T U D I E S

‘etc. etc.’ it can be deduced that a pilgrimage may be one of the reasons tourists embark upon their journey. On that, see L. Turner and J. Ash, The Golden Hordes: International Tourism and the Pleasure Periphery (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1976), pp.136–9; E. Cohen, ‘Pilgrimage and Tourism: Convergence and Divergence’, in A. Morinis (ed.), Sacred Journeys: The Anthropology of Pilgrimage (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992), pp.48–9. Cohen, ‘Pilgrimage and Tourism’, and see the relevant bibliography there. In 1992 the Annals of Tourism Research devoted an entire issue to the subject of tourism and pilgrimage. In the introduction to this issue, Smith presented an analytic model of the relationship between the two types of journey. That model was adopted as the article’s analytic framework. See V.L. Smith, ‘Introduction: The Quest in Guest’, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol.19, No.1 (1992), pp.3–4. C.C. Park, Sacred Worlds: An Introduction to Geography and Religion (London: Routledge, 1994), p.259. G. Bowman, ‘Christian Ideology and the Image of a Holy Land: The Place of Jerusalem Pilgrimage in the Various Christianities’, in J. Eade and M.J. Sallnow (eds.), Contesting the Sacred: The Anthropology of Christian Pilgrimage (London: Routledge, 1991), p.109. For example, travellers believed that the local Arabs had lived in Palestine since biblical times. Believing the Arabs to be the authentic descendants of the people of the Old and New Testaments, the modern tourist pilgrims wrote about them, sketched them and, towards the end of the nineteenth century, even took photographs of them. Y. Ben-Arieh, ‘Perceptions and Images of the Holy Land’, in R. Kark (ed.), The Land that Became Israel: Studies in Historical Geography (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, The Hebrew University, 1989), pp.37–53; idem, ‘Holy Land Views in Nineteenth-Century Western Travel Literature’, in M. Davis and Y. Ben-Arieh (eds.), With Eyes Toward Zion 3: Western Societies and the Holy Land (New York: Praeger, 1991), pp.10–29; Y. Nir, The Bible and the Image: The History of Photography in the Holy Land, 1839–1899 (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985), pp.3–25. S.F. Aivazian, ‘Pilgrimage: Eastern Christian Pilgrimage’, in Eliade, Encyclopedia, Vol.11, p.337; Prior, ‘Pilgrimage to the Holy Land’, p.189; B. Vokonic, Tourism and Religion (New York: Pergamon, 1996), p.119. The Orthodox pilgrims use the name ‘Anastasis’, while the Catholics use the name Holy Sepulchre. D. Davies, ‘Christianity’, in J. Holm with J. Bowker (eds.), Sacred Places (London: Pinter, 1994), pp.45–6. As M. Mason Fairbanks is quoted to admit in L.I. Vogel, To See a Promised Land: Americans and the Holy Land in the Nineteenth Century (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993), pp.41–60; Thomas Cook, Cook’s Tourist’s Handbook for Palestine and Syria (London, 1891), pp.7–9; The Cruise of the Eight Hundred: To and Through Palestine (New York, 1905), p.25. The Grand Tour has been the subject of a great many novels and academic studies. See, for example, J. Towner, ‘The Grand Tour: A Key Phase in the History of Tourism’, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol.12, No.3 (1985), pp.297–333; C. Hibbert, The Grand Tour (London: Thames Methuen, 1987); J. Black, The British Abroad: The Grand Tour in the Eighteenth Century (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1992); Y. Ben-Arieh, Painting the Holy Land in the Nineteenth Century (Jerusalem: Yad Itzhak Ben-Zvi, 1997), pp.36–8. By the end of the nineteenth century, numerous tourist agencies had been established throughout the West. Of these, Thomas Cook was the largest and most famous. E. Swinglehurst, Cook’s Tours: The Story of Popular Travel (Poole: Blandford, 1982); P. Brendon, Thomas Cook: 150 Years of Popular Tourism (London: Secker and Warburg, 1991); B. Cormack, A History of Holidays 1812–1990 (London: Routledge, 1998); R. Kark, ‘From Pilgrimage to Budding Tourism: The Rule of Thomas Cook in the Rediscovery of the Holy Land in the Nineteenth Century’, in S. Searight and M. Wagstaff (eds.), Travellers in the Levant: Voyagers and Visionaries (London: Astene, 2001), pp.155–74. Vogel, To See a Promised Land, p.74. D. Klatzker, ‘Sacred Journeys: Jerusalem in the Eyes of American Travelers Before 1948’,

Downloaded By: [University of Pennsylvania] At: 18:18 16 November 2007

392mes06.qxd

27/03/2003

11:36

Page 145

THE M ODERN TOURI ST PI LGRI M OF PA L E S T I N E

15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

21.

22. 23.

24.

25. 26.

27.

28. 29.

30.

31.

145

in Y. Ben-Arieh and M. Davis (eds.), With Eyes toward Zion 5: Jerusalem in the Mind of the Western World, 1800–1948 (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997), pp.47–58. G. Rinschede, ‘Forms of Religious Tourism’, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol.19, No.1 (1992), p.52. M. Eliade, The Sacred, pp.36–42. V. Turner, ‘The Center Out There – Pilgrim’s Goal’, History of Religion, Vol.12 (1971), pp.191–230. A. Osterrieth, ‘Medieval Pilgrimage: Society and Individual Quest’, Social Compass, Vol.36, No.2 (June 1989), pp.153–4. Cohen, ‘Pilgrimage and Tourism’, pp.47–61. E. Naveh, ‘A Spellbound Civilization: The Mediterranean Basin and the Holy Land According to Mark Twain’s Travel Book, The Innocents Abroad’, Mediterranean Historical Review, Vol.5, No.1 (June 1990), pp.45–6. D.G. Charlton, ‘The French Romantic Movement’, in D.G. Charlton (ed.), The French Romantics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984); H. Bordeaux, Voyageurs d’Orient (Paris: Librairie Plon, 1926). Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad or the New Pilgrims’ Progress (San Francisco, 1870), pp.19–23; The Cruise of the Eight Hundred, pp.23–5. Much has been written about Palestine’s technological and sociological development during the final years of the Ottoman Empire. See, for example, Y. Ben-Arieh, The Rediscovery of the Holy Land in the Nineteenth Century (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, The Hebrew University, 1979); M. Maoz, Ottoman Reform in Syria and Palestine, 1840–1861 (London: Clarendon Press, 1968); C.P. Issawi, The Economic History of the Middle East, 1800–1914 (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1966); R. Owen, The Middle East in the World Economy (London: I.B. Tauris, 1993); idem (ed.), Studies in the Economic and Social History of Palestine in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (London: Macmillan, 1982); D. Kushner (ed.), Palestine in the Late Ottoman Period: Political, Social and Economic Transformation (Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi Press, 1986); G.G. Gilbar (ed.), Ottoman Palestine, 1900–1914: Studies in Economic and Social History (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1990). See the maps detailing the shipping routes to Palestine. Most guidebooks supplied both the dates on which the ships set sail for Palestine and the length of the voyage. See, for example, Meyers Reisebücher, Der Orient (Leipzig, 1882), Map of the ‘Routennetz zum Orient’ (endpapers); K. Baedeker, Palestine and Syria (London, 1898), pp.xvii–xx. See the study of the Austrian Lloyd company: R. Agstner, ‘The Austrian Lloyd Steam Navigation Company’, in M. Wrba (ed.), Austrian Presence in the Holy Land in the 19th and Early 20th Century (Tel Aviv: Austrian Embassy, 1995), pp.136–57. Baedeker, Palestine and Syria, pp.xvii–xx; Vogel, To See a Promised Land, p.61. During the first half of the nineteenth-century, pilgrims disembarked in Alexandria or Beirut and immediately set sail for Jaffa, usually on board smaller ships. Alternatively, they entered Palestine on foot, riding a donkey or in a carriage. On the development of Jaffa Port see, R. Kark, Jaffa: A City in Evolution 1799–1917 (Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi Press, 1990), pp.230–35. Stephan Graham, a British author and journalist, had accompanied a group of Russian pilgrims on their pilgrimage and later published his impressions of the journey. See S. Graham, With the Russian Pilgrims to Jerusalem (London: Macmillan, 1913), pp.29–76. J. Kramer, ‘Austrian Pilgrimage to the Holy Land’, in M. Wrba (ed.), Austrian Presence in the Holy Land in the 19th and Early 20th Century (Tel Aviv: Austrian Embassy, 1995), p.76. Cook’s Map of tours to Egypt, the Nile, Palestine, Turkey, Greece and Italy, in Cook, Handbook for Palestine and Syria; C.G. Trumbull, A Pilgrimage to Jerusalem (Philadelphia, PA: The Sunday School Times Company, 1905); Hibbert, Grand Tour, pp.215–33. The participants in The Cruise of the Eight Hundred left New York on 8 March and returned on 20 May. Of the more than 70 days of the trip, only two weeks were spent in Palestine, of which three days were a convention held in Jerusalem. Y. Ben-Arieh, Jerusalem in the 19th Century: Emergence of the New City (Jerusalem; Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi Press, 1986), pp.216–18; Krammer, ‘Austrian Pilgrimage’, pp.75–6.

Downloaded By: [University of Pennsylvania] At: 18:18 16 November 2007

392mes06.qxd

146

27/03/2003

11:36

Page 146

MI D D L E E A S T E R N S T U D I E S

32. Frederick J. Bliss, ‘The Recent Pilgrimage to Jerusalem’, Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statements (1894), pp.101–8, informs us about the ten lectures given during the nine-day trip of a pilgrim tourist Protestant group visiting Palestine during 1894. Parts of the lectures were on such themes as the Druze, the Haram in Jerusalem, the Mounds of Palestine, and other non-religious subjects. 33. For Mark Twain’s route through Palestine, see the accompanying map. See also Twain, The Innocents Abroad, p.463; for his Damascus description, pp.469–70, 519–20. 34. It was so during the ancient and medieval periods: Osterrieth, ‘Medieval Pilgrimage’, p.153; and it is so today: Rinschede, ‘Forms of Religious Tourism’, pp.61–2. 35. Bowman, ‘Christian Ideology’, p.111. 36. Edward Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petrraea, Vol.1 (London: J. Murray, 1841), p.329; Prior, ‘Pilgrimage to the Holy Land’, p.188. 37. Harry C. Luke, Ceremonies at the Holy Places (London: Faith Press, 1932), p.36. 38. Baedeker, Palestine and Syria, p.xi; Cook, Handbook for Palestine and Syria, p.1. 39. Mark Twain spent three weeks in the Holy Land, John Ross Browne travelled in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine for 40 days and Herman Melville re-embarked at Jaffa after 19 days. See V.D. Lipman, Americans and the Holy Land: Through British Eyes, 1820–1917 (London: Self Publishing Association, 1989), pp.215–16. The guidebooks recommended several excursions through Palestine’s various regions, in each case offering a detailed daily itinerary. See Baedeker, Palestine and Syria, pp.xiii–xvii. 40. Ben-Arieh, Emergence of the New City, pp.198–201; H. Wohnout, ‘The Austrian Pilgrims’ House from its Foundation to World War One’, in M. Wrba (ed.), Austrian Presence in the Holy Land in the 19th and Early 20th Century (Tel Aviv: Austrian Embassy, 1995), pp.33, 36. Pilgrimage in the Orthodox world: S. Coleman and J. Elsner, Pilgrimage: Past and Present, Sacred Travel and Sacred Space in the World Religions (London: British Museum Press, 1995), pp.120–26; D. Klatzker, ‘American Catholic Travelers to the Holy Land, 1861–1929’, Catholic Historical Review, Vol.74 (1988), pp.55–74. 41. F. Dickerson Walker, Irreverent Pilgrims (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1974), p.31. 42. Prior, ‘Pilgrimage to the Holy Land’, p.188; Vogel, To See a Promised Land, p.59; The Cruise of the Eight Hundred, p.25; E.L. Queen, II, ‘Ambiguous Pilgrims: American Protestant Travelers to Ottoman Palestine, 1867–1914’, in B.F. LeBeau and M. Mor (eds.), Pilgrims and Travelers to the Holy Land (Omaha, NE: Creighton University Press, 1996), pp.212–13. 43. E. Blyth, ‘The Greek Easter at Jerusalem’, Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statements (1920), p.69; Vogel, To See a Promised Land, p.86; T. Hummel, ‘English Protestant Pilgrims of the 19th Century’, in A. O’Mahony (ed.) with G. Gunner and K. Hintlian, The Christian Heritage in the Holy Land (London: Scorpion Cavendish, 1995), p.165; Queen, ‘Ambiguous Pilgrims’, pp.217–18. 44. Klatzker, ‘Sacred Journeys’, pp.48–51. Symbolically, the members of The Cruise of the Eight Hundred held their convention in a tent near this optional Calvary, see pp.237–8. S. Kochav, ‘The Search for a Protestant Holy Sepulchre: The Garden Tomb in NineteenthCentury Jerusalem’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol.46, No.2 (1995), pp.278–301. 45. Davies, ‘Christianity’, pp.48–9; Bowman, ‘Christian Ideology’, p.116. 46. Klatzker, ‘American Catholic Travelers’, pp.59, 61. 47. A.M. Mantell, ‘Easter Ceremonies of the Washing of the Feet’, Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statements (1882), pp.158–60; M.E. Rogers, Domestic Life in Palestine (London: Bell and Daldy, 1862), pp.321–9; Blyth, ‘The Greek Easter’, pp.70, 72–6; A.A. Boddy, Days in Galilee and Scenes in Judaea (London: Gay and Bird, 1900), pp.187–94. 48. Rinschede, ‘Forms of Religious Tourism’, p.53; Bowman, ‘Christian Ideology’, pp.108–10. 49. Edith Turner, ‘Pilgrimage: An Overview’, in Eliade, Encyclopedia, Vol.11, p.328; Victor W. Turner and Edith Turner, Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture (New York: Columbia University Press, 1978), pp.250–55; Yoram Bilu, ‘The Inner Limits of Communitas: A Covert Dimension of the Pilgrimage Experience’, Ethos, Vol.16, No.3 (Sept. 1988), pp.303–25; Davies, ‘Christianity’, p.45.

Downloaded By: [University of Pennsylvania] At: 18:18 16 November 2007

392mes06.qxd

27/03/2003

11:36

Page 147

THE M ODERN TOURI ST PI LGRI M OF PA L E S T I N E

147

50. Neophytos S. Spyridon, ‘Annals of Palestine 1821–1841’, Journal of Palestine Oriental Society, Vol.18, Nos.1–2 (1938), pp.87–9; Bowman, ‘Christian Ideology’, pp.111–12. 51. Klatzker, ‘American Catholic Travelers’, pp.63–4, describes the 1889 organized pilgrimage made by American Catholics who carried medals throughout the trip to Palestine the first of its kind; Alexander Schölch, Palestine in Transformation 1856–1882: Studies in Social, Economic and Political Development (Washington DC: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1993), p.68. On Austrian pilgrimages see, for example, Krammer, ‘Austrian Pilgrimage’, p.75. 52. Twain, The Innocents Abroad, pp.19–25. 53. The 1891 Baedeker guidebook to Palestine recommended that travellers visit it as part of a group, both for financial and security considerations as well as for reasons of convenience. Travelling alone, the guidebook emphasized, was extremely complicated. Baedeker, Palestine and Syria, pp.xi–xii. 54. Twain, The Innocents Abroad, pp.30–31; N. Shepherd, The Zealous Intruders: The Western Rediscovery of Palestine (San Francisco, CA: Harper and Row, 1987), p.173. 55. Turner, Image and Pilgrimage, pp.1–39. 56. M. Feifer, Tourism in History: From Imperial Rome to the Present (New York: Stein and Day, 1986), p.189; Cormack, History of Holidays, pp.38–43. 57. B. Vester Spafford, Our Jerusalem (London: Evans Brothers Limited, 1951), p.88. 58. Y. Ben-Arieh, ‘Patterns of Christian Activity and Dispersion in Nineteenth-Century Jerusalem’, Journal of Historical Geography, Vol.2, No.1 (1976), pp.49–69. 59. D. Hopwood, The Russian Presence in Syria and Palestine 1843–1914: Church and Politics in the Near East (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), pp.71–2; Ben-Arieh, Emergence of the New City, pp.70–74. 60. Ben-Arieh, Emergence of the New City, pp.283–4; Ben-Arieh, ‘Patterns of Christian Activity’, p.63; Wohnout, ‘The Austrian Pilgrims’ House’, pp.25–40. 61. A.M. Goodrich-Freer, Inner Jerusalem (London: Constable, 1904), p.205. 62. Baedeker, Palestine and Syria, pp.xxxiv–xxxv. 63. On the development of Palestine’s first modern hotels, especially in Jaffa and Jerusalem, see S. Gibson and R.L. Chapman, ‘The Mediterranean Hotel in Nineteenth-Century Jerusalem’, Palestine Exploration Quarterly, Vol.127 (1995), pp.93–105; J.B. Glass and R. Kark, Sephardi Entrepreneurs in Eretz Israel – The Amzalak Family (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, The Hebrew University, 1993), pp.92–3; Kark, Jaffa, pp.285–8. On family-owned hostels see, for example, J. Wardle, A Tour to Palestine and Egypt and Back (Nottingham: H.B. Saxton, 1907), pp.36–7. 64. E. Blyth, When We Lived in Jerusalem (London: J. Murray, 1927), p.95. 65. Baedeker, Palestine and Syria, pp.xxii–xxiv; Cook, Handbook for Palestine and Syria, pp.7–9; Walker, Irreverent Pilgrims, pp.19–20; Vogel, To See a Promised Land, pp.61–5. 66. Cook, Handbook for Palestine and Syria, pp.7–9; Feifer, Tourism in History, p.191. 67. Shepherd, The Zealous Intruders, pp.177–8; Feifer, Tourism in History, pp.167–91; Klatzker, ‘American Catholic Travelers’, p.64, informs us that the American Catholics making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land were advised to avoid Protestant tour agents such as Thomas Cook. 68. Graham, With the Russian Pilgrims, p.31. 69. Vogel, To See a Promised Land, p.58; Feifer, Tourism in History, p.189. 70. Y. Ben-Arieh, ‘Jerusalem Travel Literature as Historical Source and Cultural Phenomenon’, in Y. Ben-Arieh and M. Davis (eds.), With Eyes toward Zion, 5: Jerusalem in the Mind of the Western World, 1800–1948 (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997), pp.25–6. For example, in 1898 some 500 Austrian pilgrims visited Palestine. Priests, who also acted as the group’s guides and provided a thoroughly religious tour of Palestine’s holy sites, accompanied them. Krammer, ‘Austrian Pilgrimage’, p.75. 71. For example, Lievin de Hamme, a Belgian Franciscan Friar, with ten years of experience in Palestine, who published a French guidebook in 1869. The English translation was published under the name of Guide to the Holy Places and Historical Sites in the Holy Land (Ghent: C. Poelman, 1875); Goodrich-Freer, Inner Jerusalem. 72. On secular tourist guides, see E. Cohen, ‘The Tourist Guide: The Origins, Structure and Dynamics of a Role’, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol.12, No.1 (1985), pp.5–30.

Downloaded By: [University of Pennsylvania] At: 18:18 16 November 2007

392mes06.qxd

148

27/03/2003

11:36

Page 148

MI D D L E E A S T E R N S T U D I E S

73. The guidebooks published by both Thomas Cook and Baedeker advised their readers to employ a dragoman. Not only did most modern tourist pilgrims apply this recommendation but the dragomen themselves, it seems, made a very strong impression and were frequently mentioned in the modern tourist pilgrims’ letters, diaries, and memoirs. John R. Brown, in Yussuf, or the Journey of Franji: A Crusade in the East (New York: Arno Press, 1853), includes a detailed description of the dragoman’s duties and character. The most famous dragoman of the period was Rolla Floyd, an American who lived in Palestine and, in the final decades of the nineteenth century, became its most sought-after dragoman. On Floyd and his activities, see his posthumously published letters: H. Palmer-Parsons (ed.), Rolla Floyd, Letters from Palestine: 1868–1912 (Dexter, ME, [SN], 1981). 74. Cook, Handbook for Palestine and Syria, pp.1–15; Meyers Reisebücher, Palästina und Syrien (Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut, 1913), pp.1–24; K. Baedeker, Palästina und Syrien (Leipzig: Karl Baedeker, 1904), pp.xi–xciv. 75. Ben-Arieh, ‘Jerusalem Travel Literature’, pp.38–9; Shaul Katz, ‘The Israeli Teacher-Guide: The Emergence and Perpetuation of a Role’, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol.12, No.1 (1985), pp.54–5. 76. C. Hahn, ‘Loca Sancta Souvenirs: Sealing the Pilgrim’s Experience’, in R. Ousterhout (ed.), The Blessings of Pilgrimage (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1990), pp.85–96; Blyth, ‘Greek Easter’, p.75; Graham, With the Russian Pilgrims, pp.142–9; Aivazian, ‘Eastern Christian Pilgrimage’, p.337. 77. Jean Remy, ‘Editorial: Pilgrimage and Modernity’, Social Compass, Vol.36, No.2 (1989), pp.141–2. 78. Twain, The Innocents Abroad, pp.451, 630. 79. N.N. Perez, Focus East: Early Photography in the Near East (1839–1885) (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988), pp.42–64; Graham, With the Russian Pilgrims, pp.116–18; Klatzker, ‘Sacred Journeys’, pp.53–4.