Alexander and the Svoboda Family

Alexander Richard Joseph (1878-1946) is the grandson of Antone Svoboda (1796-1878), a Viennese crystal merchant of Slovak origin, who had left his home country early in the nineteenth century heading for the Ottoman Empire, ultimately going via Istanbul to Baghdad. Upon his arrival, he rented a house within the city walls near to Christian churches and the European consulates. In time, he permanently established a business in Baghdad importing crystal from Bohemia and Istanbul. As a sign of his business, he wore a signet ring inscribed AS and Co. His business activities and closeness to the European diplomatic community combined with his proficiency in a number of languages including Italian, French, German, English and Arabic resulted in close relations between Antone Svoboda, envoys and missionaries from Europe, and local dignitaries. These relations lasted during his lifetime and were continued by his sons and daughters. In February of 1825, he married native Chaldean Catholic girl from an Armenian trading family, named Euphemie Joseph Muradjian (d.1868). With this marriage, Antone Svoboda founded the Svoboda family in Iraq and particularly in Baghdad. Subsequent generations of the family lived there, intermixing with and marrying members of the local Christian, resident European and Muslim communities.

With his business flourishing, Antone Svoboda bought the first house he rented upon settling in Baghdad. Subsequently, seeking a healthier environment for raising his large family, he built a new house in a most favorable location outside the city's south gate overlooking Tigris River amid a vast green expanse of extensive farmlands and groves of date and fruit trees. Referring to an old irrigation system, known as kard, which was widely used on river banks in this particular part of Baghdad, the district where the Svoboda house was located bore the name Kard al-Pasha for many decades. With the passing years, the house underwent several changes but it remained occupied by Svoboda family members for more than a century down to its last occupant, the highly regarded Baghdad architect Professor Henry Louis Alexander Svoboda (1928-2005).

Antone Svoboda had four sons and seven daughters born of his marriage to Euphemie Muradjian. Those who survived infancy were educated by French Carmelite priests and nuns in Baghdad. His eldest son Alexander Sandor (1826-1896) was taken by his father to Venice and London to study art and eventually returned as a prolific painter with a special style of his own. Among a number of significant art works that he produced are a large painting done in 1858 of the Virgin Mary which hung above the altar in the Armenian Church in Baghdad and two other paintings displayed in the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul, the largest in the Hall of the Ambassadors and the other in the harem. The location of these paintings hints that a certain amicable connection may have existed at the time between the Svoboda family and the Ottoman Sultan.

Antone's youngest son, Henry Charles Pierre (1847-1901) became a chief officer working for the British India Steam Navigation Company (known as the Lynch Brothers Company). He made a fortunate marriage in 1873 with Menusha (Marie) Chanteduc ( d. 1922) the daughter of a wealthy Frenchman from Aleppo living in Baghdad in the vicinity of the Svoboda house. Henry's father objected at first to the marriage because of a strange incident in the past. According to the story, as recounted by Evelyne Boukoff, a Svoboda descendent, a man hired to clean the Svoboda's septic tank discovered three jars in the tank. Antone told him to throw them back because they contained genies but later he and his secretary returned to the tank and brought out nine jars containing gold and silver coins. Antone kept two and gave the rest to his secretary for safe-keeping. When the tank-cleaner recounted the story of his encounter with genies in a local café, he was overheard by the servant of a neighbor of the Svobodas, the above-mentioned, M. Chanteduc. The servant relayed the story to Chanteduc, who reported the find to the Ottoman authorities. They dug up three more jars and confiscated the two held by Antone. This caused bad blood between the families until Henry's marriage established better relations. The marriage added enormous wealth to the Svoboda family, represented by acres of cultivated land with fruit and date trees in addition to a country house overlooking the Diala River in the village of Hwedir near Baquba town.

The middle son, Joseph Mathias (1840-1908) lived for a number of years with his brother Alexander in India and particularly in Bombay returning to Baghdad in 1857. In 1863, he started work with the Lynch Brothers Company as an officer on board the company's steamers making regular trips up and down the Tigris carrying cargo and passengers to different ports below Baghdad. At this time, Joseph Svoboda also started writing the diaries that he kept until his death in 1908. In these diaries he documents all the trips he made on the Lynch steamers, writing down names of official passengers and others with details of cargo and noteworthy events for every trip. In addition, he recorded many details of his life and that of his family and friends in Baghdad. The more than 40 years of diaries, constitute not only an invaluable source for the history of the Svoboda family (including this brief account) but are a precious resource for life and trade in Ottoman Baghdad and Iraq during the last half of the 19th century.

LLiving in the Christian quarter of Baghdad, the Svoboda family maintained social relations and ties with a number of neighboring Christian families. Among these was the Marine family. The two families exchanged visits and invitations and celebrated various special occasions together. Joseph Svoboda had a particularly close relationship with Eliza Jebra Marine and her family. Preferring to live in Baghdad, Eliza Marine (Sayegh) (1830-1910) had settled in the Christian quarter with her children and servants while her husband Fathallah Sayegh, assisted by their elder son Jebury, remained at Amara where he had established a business dealing in trade and construction. Eliza's brother Antone and her son Michael worked at the British Residency in Basrah and her brother Yousif worked at various jobs in Basrah and Amara. They lived in Amara but sometimes stayed with their sister when visiting or residing in Baghdad. Sometimes her aunts Sedy and Farida also came and spent time at her house.

Joseph Svoboda maintained good relations with Eliza Marine's brothers and husband. He regularly called on them when he made trips down river to Amara and Basrah, where the steamers would halt for a number of days taking on and discharging cargo and passengers, or when the steamers were held up by quarantines established because of the plague or cholera which was wide-spread in the region. They also assisted one another in business matters involving trade and real estate. At one time, the husband and brothers assisted Joseph in looking for a garden that he intended to purchase on the riverbank at Basrah and, another time, he even took the side of Eliza Marine's husband in a dispute with Fatuhi Kasperkhan, his sister Eliza's husband, about some of Fathallah Sayegh's property, a garden on the outskirts of Baghdad that was managed by Kasperkhan.

Joseph Svoboda's diaries dating back to the early 1860's and beyond give accounts of several calls made on Eliza Marine upon his returns from river trips. He usually indicated his hostess by her initials (EM) or simply used ellipsis (…) when referring to her in recording the many visits that he made to her house, often several at different times in a single day. The frequency of his visits, in addition to other indications, reflects that their houses lay close together and within sight of each other. Sometimes Joseph's visits would last for hours, during which they would sit, talk, and take meals together or play backgammon. When calling during the day in summer, they would usually sit in the serdab, tthe coolest place in every Baghdad house on hot summer days. In the long summer evenings, they would sometimes sit in the terrace or on the roof and enjoy the fine cool nights with a refreshing breeze until the late rising of the moon. They would take tiffin together or enjoy some refreshing lemonade with grapes, a watermelon that had cooled for some time in the well, or, perhaps, a cup of violet flower tea when Joseph felt unwell and feverish with an irritated chest and throat. However, at times he would call and find her out, gone to the bath as customary among residents of Baghdad or even calling upon her aunts and acquaintances. Sometimes, they would go out together to gardens in Baghdad, bringing with them her young son Rufa'il. One day he even took her to see the new steamer launched by the Lynch Brothers Company. He also seems to have looked after some of Eliza Marine's necessities, making purchases for her such as traveling bedsteads and cotton velvet from Baghdad and, when he traveled, he brought back for her a number of items such as tobacco, ghee, and rose water from Basrah.

While away on extended business trips up and down the river or aboard the Lynch steamers, Joseph included Eliza Marine in the regular correspondence he kept up with his family and others. He would send his letters by any available means: with the steamers that passed each other coming and going along the river, with Arabs living on the outskirts of Baghdad, and at times, when nearing his hometown, just before entering the city he would disembark and hand over the letters to an Arab water carrier who would hurriedly gallop on the back of his donkey along the riverbank to deliver them. Together with her replies, Eliza would sometimes send him a box of pancakes or ka'ak for his long journeys. At times, when sending each other telegrams, Eliza would sign hers with the alias "Shawl".

On May 12th 1877, news came of Fathallah Sayegh's death at Amara. He had been complaining of coughing and pain in his chest for some time. Several months earlier, particularly on November 29th 1876, his eldest son Jebury had written to his mother informing her that his father was seriously ill and intended to come up from Amara to Baghdad. On a trip downriver at the time, Joseph Svoboda did not believe at first the news of his death to be true. He had gone to see Fathallah only few days before embarking on his return to Baghdad and heard directly from him that he was feeling better. Arriving in Baghdad and calling on Eliza, he found them putting seats and chairs all around in the courtyard for the customary condolences reception and he knew at once that her husband had truly passed away. The reception lasted for three days. Men were received down in the courtyard while the women's reception held on the floor above, in the iwan and verandah. Eliza had black mourning clothes made for her and the children too wore black izars. A ceremony was held at the Armenian Church in Baghdad. Many Christians attended, among them the Svoboda family, and prayers were recited for Fathallah Sayegh's soul.

During the days of the condolence receptions, it was difficult for Joseph to call on Eliza and find a moment with her alone, even though both of them shared a mutual desire to talk during these emotional days shadowed by grief and sorrow. At times he summoned her young son Rufa'il to meet him outside and handed him a message to her asking for a meeting after all the visitors had left. At another time, when they found a brief moment to exchange few words, Eliza took Joseph's handkerchief. The next day when a party of visitors was on its way to the terrace Joseph Svoboda stole a moment to receive Eliza's handkerchief and one of her stockings as a token. This poignant event sorely grieved Eliza, who felt ill and took to her bed in a near faint. Joseph could hardly bear to see her in this state.

Following the funeral and property settlement, Joseph Svoboda continued his regular calls on Eliza Marine. On July 7th 1877 they had a long talk and spoke of their relationship and the possibility of marriage. Eliza related to Joseph that she had complained to the Assyrian Priest Qass Makarios and that he recommended to her that they marry quickly and lose no time, saying that it would be the most beneficial thing for them and the best plan. She had also talked the matter over with her daughters who had known about their relationship and were glad of it as were her aunts and a number of acquaintances.

On the following day Joseph Svoboda approached his sister Medula on the subject. However, before he even mentioned the name of his intended, he was exceedingly vexed to hear his sister say that everyone who knew of the relationship had been asking her when the marriage would take place, adding that she disapproved because of the age difference and the number of her grown children. He called on her again the next day and found her attitude toward him drastically altered and the way she talked about her opposition to this marriage greatly grieved and upset him. He departed, resolved never to broach the subject with Medula again.

This was only the beginning of difficult times for the couple. The saga, worthy of a novel, is detailed in Joseph's diaries. Friends reported to Eliza that Joseph's sisters, Eliza (Elizabeth Svoboda) and Medula had spoken publically about their opposition to the relationship and had harsh words to say about her. Eliza's brothers objected to the match arguing that she was too old and wondering why he did not marry a young virgin. They also felt it unbecoming of her to wish to marry at her advanced age. Joseph's pleas that he could love no one else went generally unheeded. His sisters continued to abuse Eliza. He fought with his father who was adamantly opposed to the marriage and even knocked Joseph down with his cane during an argument about it that saw an enraged Joseph get his gun and threaten to shoot the lot of them. A letter from his sister Caroline's husband Thomas Blockey, remonstrating with Joseph concerning the impending marriage was somehow made public. As a consequence, the dispute finally spread into the tight-knit Christian community and became a matter of general gossip, upon which Joseph resolved to go forward with the marriage without great ceremony and to move out of the family home.

The Roman Catholic Church would not marry the couple outside of the church and without the prior publication of the banns. However, the priest, Father Joseph, the French priest of the Latin Church, suggested that the bishop would recognize the marriage if performed by an Assyrian priest. The Assyrian Bishop agreed and, on October 11, 1877, sent a priest, Qass Yousif, to the house where the marriage was performed before a small company including Eliza's brother Antone and Razouk Tessy, the son of her friend and relative Toni, and some neighbors who showed up unexpectedly. The bride exchanged her mourning black for white linen and Joseph gave her a diamond ring which his mother had left to him for his future bride some 12 years earlier. In the days following, many visitors called to congratulate them, including French Catholic, Chaldean, Assyrian, and Armenian priests as well as notable members of the local community both Muslims and Christians.

Some of the rancor surrounding the marriage persisted in the family after the wedding but the couple appears to have been quite happy and the bitterness eventually passed away. Some ten months after the wedding, on July 7, 1878, the author of our journal, Alexander Richard Svoboda was born to Joseph and Eliza Marine Svoboda.

The whole story of Alexander's life must wait on the study of Joseph Svoboda's 60 diaries, a project that is now only in its infancy. In a fragment from 1888-1889 that we have explored, there is some information about Alexander at the age of 10-11 years, which will give an idea of the life of a boy in late 19th century Baghdad.

In November of 1888, it is recorded that Alexander was often ill, especially with the Basrah fever and was attended to by one Dr. Bowman, who treated him with his own special concoction. There continue to be mentions of his illnesses throughout the next year. His youthful bouts of illness seem to have affected Alexander's self-perception, for in the travel journal we will also observe that even at 19 he shows an extraordinary concern for his own health. In January of 1889, Joseph, still traveling with the Lynch Brothers Company steamers, received Alexander's first letter written in Arabic and subsequently took him to the school run by French fathers at the Latin (Roman Catholic) Church where the head teacher was Father Policarp. February saw Alexander still in school from 9 am to 2 each day, attending church regularly and still beset by fevers treated with Dr. Bowman's elixir. At one point, Joseph even took him on a steamer-ride downriver to Basrah for his health. His mother's daughter Medula (his half-sister) was very pregnant and about to give birth. Meanwhile, he wrote to his uncle Alexander (Sandor), the painter who was, at the time, in London.

In March he was still in Basrah and on his return entered Baghdad riding on a donkey. By April it was spring and the time for outdoor activities. He went out with a servant to ride a donkey in the Manimgar Garden and with his father to ride on the river in one of the round boats called goffa. On another occasion, the whole family–Joseph, Eliza, her daughter Tukyeh, and Alexander–took a goffa to the Farhat Garden where his aunt Medula and Grezeski, her husband, were camping. Alexander then returned from the gardens on a donkey.

In May, Alexander wrote a letter to his cousin Cecile (Uncle Alexander's little daughter). A family group consisting of Alexander, his cousin Artin, Tukyeh, Rufa'il, Eliza, and Joseph made an excursion by goffa to an island across from al-Khirr to spend the day. The men shot doves; they roasted a fish, and sat beneath the poplar trees. They walked home along the Kerrada because the donkeys they had arranged for did not show up. Alexander felt unwell and became feverish because of the heat. Sometime later, Eliza made plans to go with Alexander, Tukyeh, and Rufa'il to the Shifteh Garden in Baquba, which was owned by the Marine family. Accompanied by Rufa'il and Tukeyh's uncle, Fatuhi Kasperkhan and the garden agent they all traveled to the garden. Joseph received a telegram signed Sayegh aboard ship telling him that they were enjoying themselves in Baquba, but they suffered from mosquitoes and sun flies and on their return Alexander grew feverish from the heat.

During this period, Joseph took many photographs of his family, preparing the film and developing the pictures himself. Later in his life, Alexander would expand his father's hobby into a business of his own taking photographs all over the Middle East and selling them as picture postcards.

In June Alexander suffered from an inflamed liver (possibly childhood hepatitis) and was kept out of school. He was attended by Dr. Woods, a Bavarian, but his mother rejected the medicine prescribed by the doctor and used instead a compound mixed with wine that was recommended by Mr. Grezeski. Alexander was out of school for more than twenty days following his return from Shifteh.

In July, Joseph, one day, when preparing to sail downriver, sent to Alexander's school to have his son come to the ship to breakfast with him. The head teacher, Father Policarp refused permission for him to go. Joseph sent for him again and they made his servant wait at the school. Then he sent a third messenger but they again delayed the servants and finally sent them and Alexander to the boat at 11:30. When they finally showed up, Joseph was enraged and sent for his son's books and communicated to the school that he would not be sending him there again. In the end he sent a servant to explain to Father Policarp that it was his wish that his son come and take breakfast with him every morning an hour before noon on the days he was scheduled to make a trip downriver. Father Policarp finally consented to this and Alexander was returned to the school.

In late July and August, the hot weather seems to have bred sickness throughout Iraq. Many Christians died because of the heat and fever. Cholera was spreading north, with Jews and Christians fleeing Basrah in large numbers. A quarantine station was established on the Tigris across from Kut but the disease reached Baghdad regardless. Alexander spent the Holiday of the Virgin Mary on the steamer with his father. On the 20th of August, his aunt Caroline, Joseph's sister and the wife of Thomas Blockey, died of cholera. Finally Alexander and his mother fled Baghdad as people in the Christian neighborhood shouted and wept in fear and sorrow. They made their way to the Nawab garden below Gherara where they planned to stay until the danger passed. Meanwhile, the Blockey's daughter Jessy, a five year-old, died of cholera just a few days after her mother on August 22.

Such was the life of a boy in the Christian community of Baghdad in the last years of the 1880s. In the travel journal, we will pick up his life some 8 years later and see what kind of a young man this boy became. His grandfather Antone died about a month short of a year after the dramatic wedding of his mother and father. His father lived until 1908 and continued to keep his diaries. His mother died in 1910.

The Language of the Journal

The language of Alexander’s journal has numerous features that make deciphering it a daunting task. Among these features are the number of dialects of Arabic that come into play. For brevity's sake, in writing about Alexander's Arabic we will represent the various dialects as follows:

IA Iraqi Colloquial Arabic CA Christian Arabic Dialect BCA Baghdad Christian Arabic Dialect MBA Muslim Baghdad Arabic Dialect LA Literary Arabic BIA Baghdad Iraqi Arabic Dialect

Iraqi colloquial Arabic [IA] in the late 19th century was fragmented into a number of local, ethnic, and confessional dialects that varied more or less widely depending on the relative cohesiveness of the communities that spoke them. We know this to be the case in a general sense but specific information about most of these dialects is lacking because there are few studies— none in the cases of most dialects—and, while many varieties of these dialects survive today, they are not necessarily similar in all respects to their 19th century counterparts. For this reason, although it is not the best practice to read back from today’s dialects to earlier versions, in this case, it is all that one can do. We assume that Alexander’s Arabic was some form of the Christian Arabic dialect [CA] spoken in Baghdad [BCA]. One of the features of CA is that it incorporates many features of the Muslim Arabic dialect of Baghdad (MBA) but differs from it in significant ways.

Alexander’s linguistic background is quite diverse, a characteristic of the language competency typical of the educated residents of Eastern Europe and the Austro-Hungarian Empire from whom he is descended. He clearly knew and spoke Arabic fluently. There are records in Joseph’s diaries (April 1887-Nov 1887) where he speaks of his son taking Arabic lessons at the age of nine from Shamas Hanna at the Chaldean Church and of his writing to his father in Arabic at the age of 10, (Dec 1888-Sept 1889) just before he entered the Latin Church School in Baghdad run by French monks, where he may also have studied classical Literary Arabic [LA]. We have found evidence that Father Anastas (b.1866), a noted expert in classical LA, began teaching at the age of 16 but in 1886, he left Baghdad and went to Beirut returning in 1893. Alexander was then 15 years of age but we do not have any evidence that Father Anastas taught him after his return. His father kept his diaries in English and, in addition to Arabic and English, knew Italian, French, Hindustani, and some Persian. One of the JMS diaries (Nov 1887-May 1888), records that Joseph Svoboda interpreted for the Afghan Emir Eyub Khan when traveling onboard the Lynch Steamer which transported the Afghan refugee Prince and his followers. He worked for a British firm (the Lynch Brothers Company), and he was obviously friendly with high-ranking members of the British diplomatic corps, yet they were also French proteges because the French consulate provided diplomatic services for Austrian citizens in Baghdad on behalf of the Austro-Hungarian State. The fragmentary journal of Alexander’s return (accompanied by his French wife) is written in English. In short, it is difficult to say what Alexander’s native language was, what language was commonly spoken at his home (there may have been several), or what language he was most comfortable speaking, or even why he chose to write his travel journal in Arabic. It is also possible that he was to some extent familiar with languages that he does not mention. For example, we do not know whether or not conversations with Ottoman officials, military personnel, and travelers were at times carried out in Turkish.

Because we lack adequate information about 19th century BCA, it is impossible to draw definite conclusions about Alexander’s language. His writing does not show evidence of a close relation to the Baghdad Christian Arabic discussed by Farida Abu-Haidar in her study entitled Christian Arabic of Baghdad (Harrassowitz: Wiesbaden, 1991). Moreover, the Arabic script does not accurately represent the phonology of any particular dialect and so any conclusions about dialectical peculiarities that we have reached are highly tentative. It is also likely that Alexander’s Arabic in the journal is somewhat idiosyncratically contaminated by the other languages he spoke.

Moreover, the journal is most probably intended as a personal document. It is not necessarily meant to be read by anyone else or, at least, by anyone outside the family. If this is indeed the case, it would not be written—and seems not to have been written—with much care to reflect LA or even the more generally understood Muslim Iraqi Arabic dialect of Baghdad [MBA]. Nonetheless, it is a written text, which distances it to some uncertain degree from actual speech, even considering that its context is personal and informal. The result is a heterogeneous text difficult to translate by appeals to the usual sources: grammars, dictionaries, linguistic analyses, published collections of modern recorded speech, etc. A complete linguistic analysis of the text will be the business of scholars with different training and expertise than ours. For these reasons, our approach depends heavily on the personal expertise of the translators: Nowf Allawi’s familiarity with the languages and cultures of Baghdad, including IA, MBA, BIA, BCA, LA, French, and English a linguistic and cultural background that in many ways mirrors that of the Svobodas, combined with Walter G. Andrews’ long experience with Ottoman Turkish, Persian, and LA, as well as his familiarity with the requirements and practices of scholarly translation.

Alexander’s journal is the only example of his Arabic that we have. As a result, we do not have enough samples of the oddities in his writing to draw definite conclusions about their origin. Nonetheless, we will give a few examples (among many) of some of the features of his language that struck us and mention our suggestions as to what these features may represent.

The Influences of Ottoman Turkish:

Because Iraq and Baghdad were, for long stretches since the first half of the 16th century, under the administration of the Ottoman Empire, all of the Iraqi colloquial dialects show many and varied Turkish influences. In the area of vocabulary many of the borrowings that show up in Alexander's Journal are quite ordinary [e.g. [006:25] قوناغ IA, CA qonaġ, Turkish: konak (station, stopping place), [007:17] جول IA, CA jūl, Turkish: çöl (desert), [013:13] طوز IA ṭūz, Turkish: toz (dust)]. In several other cases, the vocabulary is tied to the language of Ottoman administration [e.g. [002:09] باليوز IA bālyōz , Turkish: balyos (foreign consul), [005:03] بيورلدي IA beyūraldi, Turkish: buyuruldu, buyrultu (decree)]. In addition, there are a number of administrative terms that are adaptations from Persian which most likely entered the Iraqi dialects through Ottoman [e.g. [003:06] شهادتنامه IA şahādatnāme, Turkish: şehādetnāme (declaration, testimony) from the compound, Arab. شهادة (şahādat :witness) and Pers. نامه (nāme: letter, document)].

In other cases, Alexander appears to have adopted some of the phonetic features of the Ottoman pronunciation of Arabic vocabulary. For example, he writes [001:02] رحلت rihlat (journey) with a final ta (ta tawil), when the final letter should be ta marbuta and be pronounced as the vocalic ha (rihlah) in the pause form in Arabic. This is a common way of expressing the ta marbuta in Ottoman, however, and Alexander does not do this regularly. His language also seems to reflect Ottoman phonology in some cases. For example, زريف for ظريف [ẓarīf pronounced dharīf in IA but zarīf in Ottoman] A more complex case is when he writes [005:02] زابطيه zābitiyah for gendarme. The standard word and spelling is ضا بط , which would be pronounced dhābit in IA. However in Ottoman the first letter ض is pronounced z, which produces zabit (and we have no other indication that this pronunciation difference was a regular feature of Alexander's dialect). In addition, we have not been able to locate a use of the form ضاابطيه ḍābitiyah/ẓābṭīyain either Arabic or Ottoman. Clearly, Alexander was thinking of the Ottoman borrowing from Arabic, ضبطيه(IA. dhabtiyah, Turkish: żaptiye), which vulgarly comes to mean gendarme in Turkish. In this he combines Ottoman influence on the popular language with a form of creative misspelling, of which we will give a few other examples below.

Borrowings from Persian

The origin of Persian vocabulary in Alexander's Arabic is difficult to account for with any certainty. Ottoman Turkish borrows copiously from Persian, which makes it difficult to say if Persian borrowings are a result of the many Persian influences in Iraq or of Ottoman occupations. Some examples of Persian vocabulary follow: [004:16] كفشكان kefeşkān (storage room, cloakroom) from the Persian كفشكن kefşken [ Pers. kefsh: shoe and kan/kaniden: to pull off (place where one removes one's shoes)]; [006:10] جادر jādir [Pers. chādar, Turkish: çādır (tent); [016:21] جاربا يا ت jārbāyāt [Pers. çārpāy çār: four and pāy: foot (iron bedstead) with the Arabic plural āt.

Peculiarities of the Baghdad Christian Dialect

While Alexander's Arabic shows similarities to what we know of the Christian Dialect of Baghdad, for example, the use of عمل ʿamala (to do) as an auxiliary verb, we are not in a position to make an accurate assessment of the grammar and morphology of his language.

Spelling Peculiarities

Alexander's spelling shows several types of deviation from standard writing conventions. The most prominent are the following: Spellings that reflect his speech: for example, when giving the time he writes [003:19] ساعه with a final vocalic ha sāʿah(o'clock/hour) instead of the usual ساعة sāʿat with ta marbuta (although in some cases he does write ساعة). [It is interesting to note that the Ottoman influence we suspected in the writing of rihlat with a final ta tawil instead of ta marbuta does not apply here, where Ottoman influence would result in ساعت sāʿat.] We also see unexpected substitutions of ta marbuta ( ة) for ta in some verb phrases: for example, the standard مطرت matarat, 3rd person feminine, (it rained) becomes [009:03] مطرة.

Spellings that seem to reflect the phonology of his dialect: for example, substitutions of ta ( ت ) for tha (ث) as in [024:03] تخين tikhīn for ثخين thikhīn (thick) or the substitution of dal ( د) for dhal (ذ) as in [002:05] هدا hadā for هذا hadhā (this), although for instance, in [014:14] Alexander writes هذا.

Misspellings by substitution of letters: for example, he spells the word for francolin دراج in two non-standard ways by substituting ط(ta) and ض(dhad) for د (dal) ( طراج - [008:19], ضراج - [022:09]) and خ (kha) for غ (ghayn), for example, in the word for mule بغال baghāl [007:16] resulting in بخال bakhāl and in many other cases.

Unknown or Indecipherable Vocabulary

There are some words in Alexander's text that are not obvious minor misspellings and yet are not familiar to speakers of contemporary Iraqi dialects. These fall into several categories:

Some of these appear to be vocabulary from LA that Alexander remembers imperfectly: for example, he writes the word [010:10] سحاب sahāb/sihāb which in LA, Persian and Turkish usually means cloud in a context in which cloud makes no sense. (He also uses the common term [013:07] غيم — غيوم ghīm/ghaym pl. ghuyūm whenever he mentions cloud/clouds.) What does make sense in context is that he intends to use the LA word سهب سهوب sahb pl. suhūb which means plains, level land and simply mistakes the form. The same sort of uncertainty occurs with the word [009:19] تركه (?terke/tireke) which, in context, must mean a remedy, cure. There is no attestation we have been able to discover for this word in this sense. Our best guess is that Alexander intends ترياق or ترياقي tiryāq/tiryāqī (at times spelled ترياك in Persian and Turkish) in the sense of antidote or remedy or theriaca. In other cases, indecipherable words seem to be simple spelling problems of the type mentioned above, in which Alexander records what he says and hears rather than the actual spelling of the word (for example, substituting ghayn for qaf on occasion). Also there are some cases in which he is just making errors in writing: dropping a letter or transposing letters—perhaps a natural consequence of writing hurriedly or under difficult circumstances.

The Transcription of Foreign Words into Arabic

Alexander's Journal contains a significant number of vocabulary items transcribed into Arabic from foreign languages, for the most part from French and English. This is not uncommon for the time. Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish were borrowing extensively from European languages, primarily from French, during the latter half of the 19th century in order to fill gaps in the lexicon left by the introduction of European customs and technologies. Alexander is also from a European community and some of his borrowings (and their spellings) may simply have reflected his personal vocabulary. Some of the Europeanisms were wide-spread such as [015:18] بوسطة būstah/būstat (post, mail, posta Turkish پوسته) or [012:16] تلكراف telegraf (telegraph), [014:04] فوتغراف fūtughrāf (photograph). Others seem more bound to the language of his British travel companions: [002:21] ميجر mayjir (major), [003:02] كرنل karnal (colonel), [010:20] تفن tifin (tiffin). Yet others record the Arabic pronunciation of European names: for example, [003:19] هندري hendry (Henry) or [014:03] زبويده zbūyda (Svoboda).

Expressions of Time

Alexander uses a bewildering variety of scales and notations representing time. Once, he records Turkish time [002:17] تركيه ساعه sāʿah turkiyah, which by the late 19th century meant 24 standard hours of equal length beginning at sunset (as determined by the official time of the evening prayer). Turkish time required that all clocks be reset every evening. European time [002:20] فرنكيه ساعه sāʿah firankiyah was based on a universal meridian and, by this time, corrected against official clocks in post offices and railway stations.

More of a problem is the variety of notations that Alexander uses to record times in his journal. These include:

The simple form of registering the hour: (sāʿah ٨= 8 o'clock). A form with a symbol resembling a small dash before the number (reading l-r), indicating the quarter hour (here 4:15) A form with a symbol resembling a dash with an upward stroke before the number (reading l-r), for example indicating the half hour (here 9:30). A form with a symbol resembling parallel dashes with an upward stroke on the top dash brefore the number (l-r) indicating the three quarters hour (7:45). A form that indicates the hour fraction by separating the hour and the fraction with an x as in which expresses 11:05. A form indicating the hour and hour fraction separated by a comma, which is used to record train schedules after the party reaches Europe. which expresses 7:55.

In the end, we leave it to historical linguists specializing in the dialects of Iraq to provide a more detailed and satisfactory analysis of Alexander's language.

Abbreviations Used

The following are abbreviations used in notes to this edition of The Travel Journal:

JMS: References to diaries written by Alexander Svoboda's father Joseph Mathia Svoboda. The format is JMS[diary no.]:[page no.]. For example, JMS56:10 for page 10 of Joseph Mathia Svoboda's diary number 59. Other references to JMS diaries will follow the same format. JMS-MM: References to Margaret Makiya's transcriptions of Joseph Mathia Svoboda's diaries. For example, JMS-MM04:12, for Margaret Makiya's transcription of diary number 4 (May 1865 - Aug 1866), page 12. JMS-NA: References to Nowf Allawi's digests of information from the JMS diaries. ME: References to Alois Musil,The Middle Euphrates : A Topographical Itinerary: Oriental Explorations and Studies, no. 3, New York: American Geographical Society, 1927. PALM: References to Alois Musil, Palmyrena, A Topographical Itinerary:, "http://uwashington.worldcat.org.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/search?qt=hotseries&q=se%3A%22Oriental+explorations+and+studies%22" Oriental Explorations and Studies, New York: American Geographical Society of New York, 1928.

Note: The Style of This Edition

In producing our Newbook Print-on-demand edition of Alexander Svoboda’s travel journal we were obliged to make a number of stylistic choices for which a brief explanation might be helpful. In the matter of names —of people and places—originally in Arabic, the number of competing Latin letter transcription systems is dauntingly large. For personal names we simply chose one of several possibilities and applied that as a standard to every occurrence. For the names of cities, towns, and other places we did much the same, although we tried to pick the version that was most productively searchable. In all cases of Arabic words transcribed directly into Latin letters from the diary, we used a simple phonetic alphabet with no diacriticals except in the notes and the definite article is always represented as ‘al-‘. Those interested in the Arabic can always refer to the Arabic text. The only words italicized in the English text are French and English words and phrases that Alexander himself wrote in Latin characters. This means, for example, that the train schedules he wrote in Arabic will appear in the standard font and European schedules written in Latin characters will appear in italics. Readers might also notice that in the English translation only the page numbers of the original appear, while in the Arabic there is also an indication of line numbers. This is because the Arabic transcription directly allows reference to the formatting of the original text, which the English translation cannot do. For those interested in comparing the Arabic, English, and original text, the side-by-side web version of the text is the best resource.

Transcription Chart for Iraqi Arabic

READERS SHOULD BE AWARE that there is no simple way to represent the combination of Standard (Classical) Arabic, Iraqi Arabic dialects, Ottoman Turkish and Persian loan words, and Arabic script spellings of European names and vocabulary all of which are features of the Baghdad Arabic of Alexander Svoboda's day. Each language pronounces some Arabic consonants quite differently and there is no single transcription system that can represent all the possibilities. For our readers who do not know Arabic, we have chosen to try to transcribe in a system that is our best simple approximation of what Alexander's Arabic pronunciation might have been.

THE FIRST COLUMN represents a single character one to one transliteration of the Arabic script. The second reflects the pronunciation of Iraqi Baghdad Arabic as heard by Nowf Allawi in a form that will be easier for English speakers to pronounce. It does not distinguish letters that would sound the same to English speakers. In some cases we will use both systems. For Journal entries, those who know Arabic can refer to the Arabic text for spelling. In cases of the double letter transcriptions of single Arabic letters, it is possible, for example, that a "d" or "s" and one of the "h"s would come together in a word and be indistinguishable from a double letter transcription. For example,اصحاب (aṣḥāb) which in our transcription would render as "ashāb", even though the "s" and the "h" are separate letters and the word is pronounced "as-hab" and not "ash-ab".