There were, I estimate, 54 papers read to some 125 participants from about 14 countries. In spite of the sunshine and the manicured splendour of Worcester College's capacious grounds, plenty of people turned up for every session, which is the acid test of any conference. So ASTENE has scored another success with its fifth biennial conference.
Let's get the grievances out of the way first. The catering by the College was sometimes disappointing, and a hurried lunch-time caused by the need to fit the AGM into a crowded programme made the only real glitch in Deborah Manley's otherwise faultless planning, causing the first afternoon session to start later so speakers had to hurry through their papers - which left them less than amused. It was good to have a very tasty and genially-served dinner on the Sunday evening at Jamal's Indian Restaurant, after Cameron Luke, Worcester College organ scholar's short recital in the splendid College chapel. (A moving moment was the Brits mouthing and quietly quavering the words of Jerusalem during his final piece. D.M.)
But enough carping. There were - and always are - some people who thought there were too many papers and not enough leisure time; but it was pointed out to me that you'd never get agreement about which papers to exclude. As it was, papers ranged from the Indian borders to the Scilly Isles; from the early medieval to late modern history; from the bust of Maria Theresa to the African crested crane; and from newly-minted research to deftly edited old stories.
It must be invidious to single out individual highlights, but I shall do it just the same. The guest speaker on Friday evening was Martin Biddle, talking officially about 'Travellers to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem', but really about the evidence such travellers provide for the archaeological reconstruction of the site.
There is not one among us who could not learn from the lightly-worn erudition, clarity of presentation, wit and general charm radiated by Professor Biddle.
And since the average age of ASTENE conference-goers tends to be on the high side, it is not unreasonable to highlight remarkable performances by two of the younger speakers.
Kathryn Ferry came from Darwin College, Cambridge, to talk brilliantly, audibly and with fine illustrations about Owen Jones, the renowned author of Grammar of Ornament whose little-known debt to his travels in Egypt and Turkey she explored. Dr Hana Navratilova flying from Prague, was kept circling over Heathrow until dangerously near her time to speak, and turned in a supremely unruffled paper on two remarkable 19th century Czech travellers. If one or two presentations were less compelling, their content was always valuable. The range of information among ASTENE members hardly justifies the restriction imposed by its name.
This is not the place to list all the people whose hard work made the conference so worthwhile and such fun. But remembering the huge area covered by Worcester's buildings, we must be especially grateful for the weather. Let us hope that by 2005 global warming has reached Manchester!
Charles Plouviez
|
Participant
|
Title
of Paper
|
| Dr Sahar Abdel Hakim, University of Cairo | In Search of the Living Self: William Golding's Egypt |
| Edwin Aiken, Queen's University, Belfast | The Road to Damascus: Travelling apologetics in Victorian Palestine |
| Dr Susan Allen, Metropolitan Museum of Art | The Good Life: Cruising the Nile by Private Dahabiyeh and Steamer |
| Dr Anat Almog, Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem | 19th century European Architects building in Jerusalem |
| Dr Magda Amin, American University in Cairo | Egypt through a Poet's Eyes |
| Dorothy Anderson, Bath | Travels in the Slavonic Provinces of Turkey-in-Europe: Miss Mackenzie and Miss Irby |
| Joseph Attard, Malta | A Sketch by Maxim Gauci: A Case of Mistaken Identity |
| Paul Auchterlonie, University of Exeter | Joseph Pitts: an Exeter Slave on Pilgrimage, 1684-5 |
| Dr Ian Begg, Bagnani Research Fellow, Trent University | Student Travels in Greece in 1922 |
| Dr David Dixon, formerly University College, London | From the White Nile to the Isles of Scilly |
| Agnieszka Dobrowolska, Conservation Architect, Cairo | Wer soll Meister sein? Journeymen in Cairo |
| Izabella Donkov, Stockhom University | John Turtle Wood and the Early explorations of the Artemesion at Ephesus, 1863-74 |
| Mzia Ebanoidze, Institute of Manuscripts, Georgia | Georgian Monks on Mount Athos in 1899 |
| Dr Nadia El Kholy, American University in Cairo | The Hajj, or the Great Pilgrimage to Mecca |
| Cristina Erck, Middle East Correspondent | Max, Baron von Oppenheim |
| Elaine Evans, Frank H. McClung Museum, Knoxville, Tennessee | In the Sandals of Pharaoh: James Henry Breasted and the Stereoscope |
| Kathryn Ferry, Darwin College, Cambridge | Turning Travel into Architectural Theory: Owen Jones in Egypt and Turkey |
| Richard Fink, Haag Descendant, Texas | Carl Haag: The Dome of the Rock and the Bedouin throughout the Deserts |
| Dr Elizabeth French, ASTENE Treasurer | Archaeologists' Wives as Travel Writers |
| Dr Liesl Graz, Swiss writer | Whatever made John Lewis Burckhardt go to Arabia? |
| Dr Gottfried Hamernik, University of Klagenfurt | Prince Puckler-Muskau's visits to the Austrian Consul Anton Laurin at Alexandria and the mysterious slave-girl, Adjiame |
| Jim Harold, University of Northumbria | Cars, Deserts, Maps and Naming: An Analysis of Captain Claud H. Williams' Report on the Military Geography of the North-Western Desert of Egypt, (1917) |
| Norman Lewis | On Reading Travellers |
| Dr Margaret Malamud, New Mexico State University | Travel in Egypt in the late Roman Empire |
| Deborah Manley, ASTENE, Oxford | Travelling to Post: An Ambassadress to the Porte: Lady Liston |
| Brenda Moon, formerly Edinburgh University Librarian | A Young Laird in the Levant |
| Dr Robert Morkot, University of Exeter | Obelisks and Salads: John Evelyn, Captain Powell, Venice and Grand Cairo |
| Dr Robert Morkot, University of Exeter | An Encounter with Puckler Muskau: Holroyd and his Travels |
| Dr Geoffrey Nash, University of Sunderland | Confessions of a Turcophil: Marmaduke Pickthall's sojourn in Istanbul and Britain's Young Turk policy |
| Dr Hana Navratilova, Czech National Centre for Egyptology | Travellers from Bohemia |
| Yvonne Neville-Rolfe, Descendant of Joseph Bonomi | "With Lepsius in Egypt" - Bonomi, 1842-44 |
| Charles Newton, Victoria and Albert Museum | Shayk Abd al-Qadir: The Magician of Egypt |
| William H. Peck, Curator an Ancient Art, The Detroit Institute of Art | E.F. Benson in Egypt |
| Dr Sylvia Peuckert, Berlin | Publishing Les Antiquites de la Nubie - Fate of a Book |
| Leila Pinch-Brock, Cairo | Painters and Plunderers: Nina and Norman de Garis Davies and the thefts in the Theban necropolis |
| Charles Plouviez, Hellenic Society | Royal Exile: a Princess of Wales in the Levant |
| Peta Ree, ASTENE Bulletin Editor | The Voyage of the Needle |
| Dr John Revell, University of Toronto, Emeritus | The Sources and Printed Text of J. Piton de Tournefort's Relation d'un Voyage du Levant |
| Professor John Rodenbeck, AUC | Renegades |
| AFTER DINNER SPEAKER: ASTENE Chair, Harry James C |
Reflections by a Late Early Traveller in Egypt |
| Sarah Searight | A Little Egyptian Lady from Afghanistan |
| Clara Semple | A much travelled Lady |
| Dr Rita Severis, Cyprus | Lorenzo Warriner Pease, and American Missionary to Cyprus, 1834-39 |
| Dr Khalid Sindawe, Haifa University, Israel | The Grave of Husayn Ibn Ali at Karbala in Iraq in Travel Literature |
| Heidi Stalla, Exeter College, Oxford | Virginia Woolf and Egypt |
| Janet Starkey, Durham University | Karl Benjamin Klunzinger (1834-1914) |
| Dr Mohammed Suwaed, Bar-Ilan University, Israel | The Image of the Bedouin in the Literature of Western Travellers to Palestine in the 19th century |
| Dr Patricia Usick, British Museum | Nebamun in the Archives |
| Cassandra Vivian, GDI | Francis Barthou - American in Egypt |
| Cassandra Vivian, GDI | George Bethune English - Egyptian-American soldier |
| Dr Jeanne-Marie Warzeski, Columbus Museum, Georgia | US Women's Travelogues of Egypt, 1854-1914 |
| Dr Alix Wilkinson | Emmeline Lott |
| Caroline Williams, The William and Mary College, Williamsburg | John Frederick Lewis: The interpretive levels of An Intercepted Correspondence |
| Dr John A. Williams, The William and Mary College, Williamsburgs | The French in Egypt - 1798 |
| Anne Wolff, Liverpool University | Before Baedeker: Information for Travellers to Egypt 1300-1640 |
Roger de Keersmaecker of Graffiti Graffito, Antwerp was - as usual - able and willing to help people with the graffiti of the travellers and places of their interest.
Sadly Pascale and Linant de Bellefonds were not with us in Oxford in July as Xavier is recovering from an illness. We wish him and Pascale well. So France was represented only - though ably - by John Rodenbeck.
Pascale had been hoping to increase French interest in the Association and the Conference. Without French travel accounts and people to offer papers on them, ASTENE tends to be imbalanced towards the Anglo-phonie.
At future occasions we would very much welcome papers, for example, on Claude-Etienne Savary (1750-88); Francois-Rene Chateaubriand (1768-1848), Gabriel Charmes (1850-86) (of whom I give a taste below) and the many, many others.
Gabriel Charmes (1850-1886)
While starting a career in the journalism of politics and foreign affairs, Charmes had the first symptoms of tuberculosis and moved to live and travel in the Near East. Of his numerous books on the region and North Africa, only two appear to have been translated into English: Five Months at Cairo and in Lower Egypt (1880) and Naval Reform (1886). Other titles include: L'Egypte: Archaeologie, histoire, literature (1883); L'Avenir de la Turquie: La Panislamisme (1883); Voyage en Palestine: Impressions et souvenirs (1884); La Tunisie et Tripolitaine (1885); Les Stations d'hiver de la Mediterranee (1885); and, published posthumously, Une Ambassade au Maroc (1887); Voyage en Syrie: Impressions et Souvenirs (1891). All these titles are held by the British Library.
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