People, Gods and Places

B

Bedry Bey

C

Cooke, Richard

Adviser to the Ministry of Awqaf (charitable endowments) in Iraq until 1929. Honorary director of the Antiquities Department in Iraq in 1926 until 1928. Antiquities dealer. Caught smuggling archaeological artefacts out of Iraq in August 1930, charged in court, and expelled out of the country as a result. The scandal led Minister of Education Sati' Al-Husri to petition the government to expand the study of archaeology to high schools.

D

Drouin, Raoul

Architect who travelled to Kish with Henri de Genouillac to document the built remains there. Very little about him is currently known.

F

Fetto, David

(1866-1921). Prominent member of the O.M.S. Church (One Mission Society) in Mosul and Baghdad, a church led by the Church Missionary Society of England, a British Anglican mission society. Sold Syriac and Arabic manuscripts to the British Museum's Manuscript Department between 1901 and 1919. These are now in the British Library. A photographic portrait of David survives in the archive of British Library (UK).

G

Gejou, Ibrahim Elias

(1868-1942). Antiquities dealer. Specialised in collecting archaeological artefacts inscribed in cuneiform, and ancient manuscripts. Born in Baghdad. Permanently settled in Paris from circa 1888. Operated his business in partnership with his younger brother Isaac, also an antiquities dealer who remained in Baghdad until he died in 1930. Sold circa 18,000 archaeological artefacts to the British Museum. Circa 12% of the cuneiform tablets collection in the British Museum was purchased from Ibrahim. The Louvre bought circa 6,000 artefacts from Ibrahim. Sold widely to museums in Europe and the USA (especially to the Yale Babylonian Collection), and to numerous private collectors including Calouste Gulbenkian (whose collections are in the Gulbenkian Museum, Portugal), and to Nikolay Likhachev (whose collections of cuneiform tablets are partly in the State Hermitage Museum).

Genouillac, Henri de

(1881-1940). French Assyriologist, from an esteemed Roman Catholic family from northern France. [more to come!]

K

Khayat, George

Antiquities dealer. Based in Baghdad. Active in the 20th century. Probably a relative of the antiquities dealer Azeez Khayat (1875-1943).

L

Langdon, Stephen Herbert

(1878-1937) American-British Assyriologist and protestant clergyman. Was gifted a position at the University of Oxford by the philanthropist Mary Shillito in 1907. He was briefly part-time Curator of the Babylonian Section at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in 1916-18 but resigned when called to serve in World War I and returned to a titular professorship in Oxford. Set up the Oxford-Field Museum Expedition (OFME) to Kish in 1922 despite having no experience of either archaeological fieldwork or the Middle East. Although a perennial academic outsider, he was adept at fundraising from similarly religiously-minded private philanthropists. An influential teacher and energetic researcher, very little of his thinking on Sumerian language, literature or religion has stood the test of time.

M

Messayeh, Alexander

(1870-1942) Antiquities dealer. Active in the late 19th to mid-20th century. Born in Iraq. Son of the antiquities dealer David Messayeh (from Messayeh & Ghanima). Like his father David, Alexander collected and primarily sold archaeological artefacts, especially objects inscribed in cuneiform. Alexander lived in Baghdad but he often stayed in Mosul where he had family. He moved to New York in 1923 to expand the family business, and operated from 661 West 149 Street. Alexander remained in New York until his death in 1942. He married Sara Gejou (1873-1943?), Ibrahim Elias Gejou's PGP  sister. When Gejou began to sell in the US from 1911, Alexander regularly helped him, storing his collections in New York.

Messayeh, Rizouk

(1878-1957). Antiquities dealer. Born in Iraq. Younger brother of Alexander Messayeh PGP . Worked as a clerk for the US consulate in Baghdad. Moved to New York in 1913, and helped to set up a branch of the family business. He was joined in New York by Alexander and by their younger brother Emile in 1923.

Meymarian, Thomas

Antiquities dealer. Active in the late 19th to mid-20th century. Operated from '8/1/40 New Street' in Baghdad in the 1920s. His letters to Henri de Genouillac PGP  between 1900 and 1929 show he sold a variety of archaeological objects in Baghdad. In 1906, his letterheading describes him as a dealer specialised in "Assyrian Archaeological Objects, Greek and Roman Medals, Oriental Carpets, etc, etc". By 1929, he then describes himself as "T. Meymarian, Carpet Merchant & All Kinds of Antiquities".

N

Naaman, Jacques Joseph

(1870-?). Antiquities dealer. Specialised in selling ancient manuscripts. Naaman was based in London from the late 19th century. He married Helen Annie Jaynes in 1918 in East Preston (UK). J.J. sold manuscripts and a few collections of cuneiform tablets to the British Museum (UK), the Victoria & Albert Museum (UK), the John Rylands Library (UK), the Bodleian Library (UK), and the Yale Babylonian Collection (US). J.J. was Ibrahim Elias Gejou's PGP  cousin.

Nohmé, David (Daoud)

Antiquities dealer. Active in the late 19th to mid-20th century. He was based in Marseille, France, at 13, rue Fongate, and then moved to 124, Cours Lieutaud. David sold cuneiform tablets and other archaeological artefacts to the British Museum in 1910-1911. David was a friend of Ibrahim Elias Gejou PGP , and seems to have helped him picking up collections delivered from Iraq to Marseille.

S

Samhiry, Antone

Antiquities dealer based in Baghdad. Active in the late 19th to mid-20th centuries. Samhiry reports he often visited Mosul, where he had family, including a brother or uncle named Abdallah Samhiry who worked as Station Chief at the Telegraph Office in Mosul. Abdallah was married to the daughter of Fatthallah Khayat, a relative of George Khayat PGP . Antone specialised in collecting and selling archaeological artefacts, primarily objects inscribed in cuneiform. He began to sell cuneiform tablets to the British Museum in 1896 in partnership with Ferida Shamas, his aunt-in-law. Antone was also the nephew of the antiquities dealers Daud and Abdulkerim Thoma. The Thoma brothers had inherited their business from their father Thoma Shishman, a seasoned archaeologist known to have worked with Henri Layard and George Smith. Antone's letters describe his business as "Import-Export, Commission". These documents place him in Baghdad until 1933, after which time he disappears from museum archives. Antone regularly appointed Ibrahim Elias Gejou PGP  as his agent to sell his collections more widely in Europe.