Collections | Music, Literature, Dance and Fashion | Literature | The East in the works of women writers of the 19th century [4 Objects]

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Introduction to the Chapter

Kurds charging, with Kettle-drummers leading, from the book Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia

1856 (publication of the book)

The British Library

London, United Kingdom

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 Justification for this item

In 1856 Lady Mary Leonora Woulfe Sheil published the notes she had made during a journey with her husband, Justin Sheil, a British minister, from Britain to Iran in 1849. Despite the title, Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia, Lady Sheil included notes on Russia, “Koords” (Kurds), “Toorkomans” (the Turkmens), Nestorians and Khiva in Uzbekistan. Travel literature of this kind fixed the “East” in the European imagination.

Poet Nigar Hanım

Second half of the 19th century

Aşiyan Museum

Istanbul, Turkey

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 Justification for this item

Nigâr Hanım (1856‒1918) was an Ottoman poet, writer and translator who mastered eight languages. Beginning to write poetry age 16, her poems shifted from the traditional divan style to a more modernist style, a change that is demonstrated most pointedly in her choice of themes. Hanım is the author of Efsus, said to be the first book of poetry written in the Western style by an Arab or Ottoman female author.

Poet Nigar Hanım

Second half of the 19th century

Aşiyan Museum

Istanbul, Turkey

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Lady Layard

1870

The British Museum

London, United Kingdom

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 Justification for this item

Lady Enid Layard was the wife of polymath Henry Layard, one of the first excavators of the ancient Assyrian capitals of Nimrud and Nineveh between 1845 and 1851. She joined her husband when he was appointed as ambassador in Istanbul (1877‒80) and the journal she wrote, comprising more than 8,000 entries, contains detailed descriptions of 19th-century Ottoman high society.

Lady Layard

1870

The British Museum

London, United Kingdom

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The Italian woman poet and peace activist of Armenian descent Vittoria Aganoor Pompilj (1855–1910), and a signed copy of her poem 'Peace'

3 September 1906

State Archives of Perugia

Perugia, Italy

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 Justification for this item

Vittoria Aganoor Pompilj was an Italian poet and peace activist. Her poems were translated into several European languages including English, French and Spanish. This image shows an autographed version of her famous poem “Peace”.

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Introduction to the Chapter