Jordan River Waters Shipped to the United States in 1906

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta)

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Jordan River Waters Shipped to the United States in 1906
Mystery Photo from the Ottoman Imperial Archives -- Why Were These Greek Jewish Girls Welcoming the Turkish Sultan?
The Jewish Merchants of Turkey, Illustrations in the Ottoman Empire Archives


Jordan River Waters Shipped to the United States in 1906

Posted: 08 Mar 2015

The Ottoman Imperial Archives includes this clipping from a 1906 New York newspaper.



Beneath the Turkish and American flags: Jordan water barrels on the way to the United States for baptism and "Negro revival services." (Ottoman Imperial Archives)

The International River Jordan Water Company was launched by Col. Clifford E. Naudaud of Covington, Kentucky, in 1906. He secured "the sole right of shipping the water of the Jordan River from the banks of the stream in Palestine to all parts of the world for baptismal and other purposes," according to a Kentucky newspaper, The Bee, published in Earlington, KY.


From the Earlington Bee


Covington "had a great many obstacles to overcome," reads the caption above, including getting "the concession from the Sultan and then to convey the water seventy miles to the seaport across the mountains to Jaffa."


The water "will be shipped in casks bearing the seals of the Turkish Government and the American Consul," according to The Bee. "The water will be bottled in the United States in bonded warehouses."


Did the water ever arrive? Was there ever a second shipment? We don't know. But today "Holy Water from the Jordan" can be purchased on E-Bay for $6.25 to $12.95 per bottle.


Mystery Photo from the Ottoman Imperial Archives -- Why Were These Greek Jewish Girls Welcoming the Turkish Sultan?

Posted: 09 Mar 2015 06:15 AM PDT

The picture was taken in the port city of Thessaloniki, also known as Salonika. The Ottoman Archives provides this caption: Ottoman Saloniki, Visiting (sic) of Sultan Mehmed V, Jewish Students, 1911.

The brutal murder of almost 60,000 Saloniki Jews in Auschwitz by the Nazis in World War II after the invasion of Greece leaves many with the impression that the Saloniki Jews were of Greek origins. In fact, the vast majority of Saloniki's Jews were descendants of Spanish Jews who fled the Iberian Peninsula in 1492. By 1519, the Jews were a majority of the town's population, and Saloniki Jews were a major economic force in the region, particularly Turkish-controlled areas. The Jews lived under Ottoman rule for centuries.



The surrender of Saloniki in 1912

The Ottomans surrendered their sovereignty over Saloniki in 1913 after losing to Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro in the First Balkan War.

So, indeed, the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed V, did visit the city in 1911 as his empire began to deteriorate around him. The Jews of the city turned out to welcome him.

In recent weeks, the Ottoman Imperial Archives has posted thousands of illustrations and photos Online. We will continue to focus on these pictures.


The Sultan's carriage in the parade


The Sultan's carriage


A postcard commemorating the visit

The Jewish Merchants of Turkey, Illustrations in the Ottoman Empire Archives

The Ottoman Archives include illustrations of a Jewish woman and man, labeled in French captions as merchants.


A Jewish woman reseller and a Jewish agent or broker. This picture appears in several European archives and is dated circa 1820. The word "Sensal" appears to be a combination of Persian/Arabic that entered into European languages.

The woman stands in front of buildings with Islamic crescents and one building with a cross. Behind the man are ships, and in his hand is a document with what appears to be a Hebrew script. At his feet appear to be cargo items.

World War I in the Middle East - I'd Walk 100 Miles with My Camel

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World War I in the Middle East - I'd Walk 100 Miles with My Camel Posted: 29 Sep 2014 Volunteer Arab Camel Corps led by Turkish officers leaving Jerusalem (circa (1915) The scope of the World War I battles in Palestine are simply not understood by most students of the Middle East today.  The Turkish, German, Austrian, British, ANZAC and Indian forces numbered in the hundreds of thousands.  Mounted troops from the Australian, British, New Zealand and Indian battalions of the Imperial Camel Corps To provide some perspective, we present pictures of one of the most utilized tools of that war -- the camel.  Tens of thousands were used in the war in Palestine. Australian camel corps hat pin The difficult terrain of the Sinai, the Jordan Valley, and the Samarian/Judean hills required extensive use of the sturdy and powerful four-legged "supply truck." Consider this report by a New Zealand officer in his book With the Cameliers in Palestine: In the advance up the coastal plain in Palestine, in November, 1917, General Allenby used thirty thousand (30,000) camels for carrying food, water and ammunition to the troops of one portion of the eastern force of his army.  A Turkish account of the war, and specifically the 1914-1915 campaign against the British on the Suez Canal, describes the forces and the logistical nightmare of crossing the Sinai desert: Turkish Camel Corps in Be'er Sheva, 1915 The gathering point for the VIII Corps was Beersheba, which was inland, well away from the reach of British naval artillery. From there, 25,000 men would march 300 kilometres across the desert and reach Ismailia. However, this was nothing but a mission impossible. Moreover, every man was allowed one kilogram of food and drink water per day and this meant that they needed 15,000 camels. But what they had was just 2,000 animals. [Commander] Cemil Paşa mentioned this problem in his memoirs as follows: “I think there are many people who are wandering why we couldn't find the required 15,000 camels in a place like Syria and Hejaz.  We had to find 14,000 camels within one month.” Five kilograms of barley and 18 kilograms of water were allowed per horse and three kilograms of barley and five kilograms of water was allowed per camel. British Imperial Camel Corps outside of Be'er Sheva on November 1,  1917, during the critical battle to capture the Turkish outpost and wells  The Turkish account continues, describing the Turkish army's strength after difficult battles in Gaza and prior to the British General Allenby's move north into Palestine: As of May 1917, the Ottoman Fourth Army was consisting of 174,908 men, 36,225 animals, 5,351 camels, 145,840 rifles, 187 machine guns and 282 artillery pieces. Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on captions to view the original pictures. World War I combat ambulances. Camels carrying wounded Turkish soldiers -- two per camel  on a litter called a "kankalah" or "cacolet." (1917, Ottoman Imperial Archives) See also here Wounded Australian cavalrymen on their way to medical attention (Australian War Memorial) The following description is from  "With the Cameliers in Palestine:" The field ambulance, instead of using wheeled vehicles, transported the sick and wounded in "caco-lets," on the backs of camels. These consisted of two canvas stretchers balanced horizontally, one on each side of a specially constructed saddle. In these the wounded men could either sit or lie at full length, and were shaded from the sun by a small canvas hood. The jolting  Indian army's camel ambulances motion of the camel frequently was most trying to the badly wounded men, but it was sometimes a case of this kind of carriage, or death, and these camel cacolets, going as they did where wheeled transport was impossible, undoubtedly were the means of saving the lives of many wounded men who otherwise would have had a poor chance of being carried back to safety.  Only male camels were used in the  German soldiers loading wounded onto an "ambulance," 1918 Camel Brigade. It would have been an unworkable system to have mixed the sexes, as in the East no mutilation of male animals, either horses, donkeys or camels for sterilisation purposes, is ever practised by the Mohammedans.  British Imperial Camel Corps "ambulances" in action, 1916 Horses generally have a strong dislike for camels, but this dislike can be overcome by daily contact. Some of the officers of higher rank of each battalion used horses during part of the campaign, and these soon grew quite accustomed to the company of their more ungainly associates. Turkish army camel convoy, 1917. The caption in the Harvard University places the picture near the modern  northern Israeli town of Afula in the Jezreel Valley. The body of water, however, suggests it was taken near the  Hula Valley swamps which was sparsely populated by a Bedouin tribe living in reed huts, likely pictured here. Turkish officers at David's Citadel in Jerusalem Turkish camel corps in Jerusalem Original caption: The Camel Transport of the Australian Light Horse at the railhead dump, on the Philistine Plain (near Ashkelon). The camels are seen on their way to the forward area, loaded with Australian frozen mutton for the troops. In the background can be seen the tent camp.

Israel's History - a Picture a Day - The Ottoman Imperial Archives

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New Photo Resource Uncovered: The Ottoman Imperial Archives Posted: 15 Aug 2014 In recent weeks, the Ottoman Imperial Archives put digital photographs, illustrations and documents online, posting them as well to Flickr and Facebook.  As we explore the archives, we are finding many pictures of life in Palestine in the 19th century and of Turkish forces in Palestine in World War I. We present a preview below.  Caption reads: Reservists and recruits rounded up in Palestine by the Turks being marched unwillingly to barracks. Right: Troops of the Turkish Regular Army marching newly-raised levies through Jerusalem to  a camp in readiness for their projected attack on Egypt. These pictures and English caption appear in the Ottoman Imperial Archives. They show the forced conscription of residents of Palestine, including Jews, prior to the Turkish attack on the British controlled Suez Canal in 1914.  The picture on the right shows the confiscation of supplies and food stuffs from Jerusalem residents. According to the report "Palestine during the War, 1914-1917" by the London Zionist Organisation, life for the Jews of Palestine was difficult and perilous: Jews and Christians ...were for the most part not placed on active  [army] service but assigned to various labor battalions. The members of these battalions were the pariahs of the army; their clothing, feeding, and general equipment was abominable, and they were treated worse than slaves. The Jew would sell his last stick in order to scrape together enough money to ransom him from the slavery of this battalion. But there were still many who could not raise sufficient, and who had to serve in the labor battalions; and these had to leave their families behind entirely unprovided for.  A large part of the Jews in the workers' battalions never returned. They fell victims to epidemics and starvation. A large part of the families of these soldiers also perished from poverty and sickness. "Ottoman army, preparatory to the attack on the Suez Canal, 1914," is the caption in the Ottoman Imperial Archives. The handwritten caption above appears in an album in the Library of Congress Pictured below are the Varhaftig/Amitay family from Tiberias with their son in a Turkish uniform and Jerusalem resident Mendel Kremer in uniform.  Mendel Kremer, Turkish soldier, later a pharmacist, journalist and spy (1910)   Varhaftig/Amitay family in Tiberias (courtesy) Several of the photos of the Turkish  army in World War I also appear in the Library of Congress' American Colony/Matson Collection and have been featured here in the past. Ottoman Imperial Archives: "Ottoman soldiers pass through the Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem" (1915)   In the Jaffa Gate photograph, note the Jewish  residents of Jerusalem in their black caftans and hats to the right of the troops. The clock tower was built in 1908 in honor of the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II.  After the British captured the city in 1917 the ornate tower was torn down.