He appears as a bit character in generally British-focused narratives of the Revolt, and intelligence during the First World War. T. E. Lawrence briefly refers to Ruhi as \u201cmore like a mandrake than a man\u201d (perhaps in reference to his multiple wives and numerous children). Storrs, who spent many more months with Ruhi, gave him the codename \u201cthe Persian Mystic\u201d and described Ruhi as \u201ca fair though not profound Arabist, and a better agent than scholar.\u201d Ruhi himself, a petite spy, translator, poet, and textbook author spent decades working for British officials, diplomats, spies, and educationalists, including a fifteen-year stint in the Department of Education of the Mandate for Palestine.<\/p>\n
His interactions with colleagues in the Mandate bureaucracy, as well as the British individuals who had hired him, point to the chameleon-like character of the man himself.<\/p>\n
Ruhi grew up in Persia after the death of his father, and received some schooling in Chicago as part of a Baha\u2019i mission to that city, earning a license in the English language. Upon his return, Ruhi taught English in Cairo at a variety of schools, and published a bi-weekly magazine that promoted the Baha\u2019i religion.<\/p>\n
By 1912, Ruhi had married two of the three wives he would marry (possibly simultaneously), and had fathered two of the twelve children he would raise. Ruhi founded two schools in Egypt, one for boys and one for girls, which closed at the end of the First World War.<\/p>\n
While Storrs [Sir Ronald Storrs (Britain\u2019s Oriental Secretary, spy, and later governor of Jerusalem)] viewed him as Persian, Ruhi\u2019s colleague Abdul Latif Tibawi, a fellow inspector of education in the Mandate for Palestine, defined him in passing as Arab, although in later works described Ruhi in more detail as an Egyptian \u201cof Persian origin\u201d and an \u201cArabic-speaking Persian.\u201d<\/p>\n
…a lack of attachment both to the Ottoman Empire and to the Arab community among whom Ruhi lived (and married) facilitated his career with different British administrations. Ronald Storrs preferred employing Baha\u2019i individuals, believing them to be naturally suited to intelligence (one would presume due to their frequent need to keep their religion secret).* Ruhi\u2019s fitness for his post as an intelligence officer, from the point of view of his employers, is clear.<\/p>\n
*[Storrs noted that the \u201cleading Persian of Jedda, a Bahai,\u201d not only protected British agents, but also supplied the British with information himself. Ronald Storrs, \u201cHejaz Events, Excerpt from Diary,\u201d \u06f2\u06f7 September 1916, Middle East Politics and Diplomacy, 1904\u2013\u06f1\u06f9\u06f5\u06f0: The Papers of Sir Ronald Storrs (1881\u2013\u06f1\u06f9\u06f5\u06f6) from Pembroke College, Cambridge (Marlborough, Wiltshire [England]: Adam Matthew Publications, 1999), Reel 5, Section II, Box 4. Storrs also employed a Baha\u2019i doctor, asserting that this doctor, \u201cbeing of Ruhi\u2019s spiritual persuasion \u2013 can be trusted to keep you well and intimately informed on professional and non-professional matters.\u201d Letter from Ronald Storrs to Colonel Wilson, 1 August 1916. Middle East Politics and Diplomacy, Reel 5, Section II, Box 4.]<\/p>\n
From 1914 to 1920, Husayn Ruhi, and briefly his father-in-law, worked as agents for the British government across the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Husayn Ruhi translated documents; wrote clandestine reports on the local situation in Cairo, Mecca, and Jeddah; carried messages and funds from the British to the Hijaz and back again; and generally contributed to the fomenting of the Arab Revolt. Ruhi\u2019s official title was \u201cconfidential secretary,\u201d working from 1914 to 1916 for Ronald Storrs, then British Oriental Secretary living in Cairo. From 1916 to 1918, Ruhi became the \u201cconfidential secretary to the British Agency Jeddah,\u201d under Colonel Cyril Wilson. In transferring Ruhi\u2019s services, Storrs commended Ruhi to Wilson: \u201che is delivered over to you body and soul. He is to consider himself not only your eyes and ears, but also if necessary your hands and feet. He may even, should an especially unsavoury occasion present itself, be called upon to represent your nose.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Ruhi is best known for his translation of the Husayn-McMahon correspondence.<\/p>\n
Elie Kedourie in particular criticized Ruhi\u2019s Arabic as \u201cshaky\u201d with \u201cgrammatical mistakes\u201d that indicated a lack of the necessarily facility to deal with the correspondence. Kedourie argues that certain mistranslations of difficult words led to confusion over the territory promised to Sharif Husayn. Kedourie also attributes to Ruhi the \u201cflorid style\u201d of McMahon\u2019s letters to Husayn, citing a British representative at Jeddah\u2019s statement that \u201cRuhi used to address the King (Hussein) with the most extravagant titles when he wanted anything out of him.\u201d It seems that the Sharif returned the favor, as Ruhi\u2019s translation of one letter of the Sharif reads, \u201cTo our most ingenious, respectable and honourable [M]ister [S]torrs. Verily, I present to you my propensity and I ask for your health and rejoice.\u201d Leaving aside the question of Ruhi\u2019s Arabic, his English indicates a lack of fluency. Ruhi\u2019s reports and his translations of Sharif Husayn\u2019s correspondence, written in pen, are replete with crossed out words and phrases, words inserted after having completed a line, misspelled words, and prepositions used incorrectly.<\/p>\n
One British captain noted Ruhi\u2019s invaluable services, lauding his ability to find information due to \u201chis energy, unique knowledge of the workings of men of the stamp concerned in this conspiracy and his selection of agents.\u201d The captain further praised Ruhi\u2019s dedication to his job, stating that \u201cat great personal risk, underlying extreme discomfort and abuse, being imprisoned on several occasions he (Ruhi) traversed the whole [Suez] canal zone gaining information of the greatest value.\u201d Ruhi not only collected intelligence, he also offered \u201cdisconcerting suggestions\u201d of tactics that could be employed against those who were not friendly to the Revolt or the British. Ruhi told Storrs to \u201ctake strict measures\u201d to prevent Rashid Rida from travelling to the Hijaz and convincing the people to \u201cignore the English.\u201d Ruhi floated the idea of deporting Rida to Malta.<\/p>\n
In his own evaluation of his espionage abilities, Ruhi boasted to Storrs, \u201cI am known here as an Alem or Mohammedan Theologian as I went into mosques and delivered lectures and interpreted some verses. \u2026All of the great people here are my friends. I picked some of them whom I found really pro-English and they may be a great help to our work.\u201d It is of course impossible to verify Ruhi\u2019s account of his own exploits. It is interesting that Ruhi sold himself as being able to pass as a Muslim scholar, despite the fact that he was Baha\u2019i, and a somewhat lackluster academic overall. Ruhi\u2019s infiltration of Mecca and ability to preach in a mosque would also likely have appealed to British officials\u2019 overarching focus on religious affiliation as the primary motivating factor behind Middle Easterners\u2019 actions.<\/p>\n
Ruhi\u2019s motivations for working for the British, beyond his paycheck, remain obscure. However, in that same report to Ronald Storrs in which Ruhi boasted of his ability to charm the Sharif, and indeed pull the wool over the eyes of the citizens of Mecca, he begged Storrs to support his school, by convincing others to support it. Ruhi\u2019s passion for the school he had founded clearly increased his need for funds. He claimed the school could be propped up by Egyptian awqaf. Ruhi asserted that he would \u201clive loyal to the British government\u201d for his entire life, so long as they supported his school, claiming, \u201cIf my school will fall I will be the saddest fellow upon earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sadly, for Ruhi, both the boys and girls sections of the school he founded would close during the war, due to \u201cforce of circumstance.\u201d But Ruhi was able to find new work in education: He maintained a certain loyalty to the British, and continued his tendency to inform, in his new post as an inspector of education in Mandate Palestine.<\/p>\n
In 1917, Hussein Ruhi was awarded 100 pounds in lieu of a title, which was feared would preclude him from ever working again secretly on behalf of the British government.<\/p>\n
Ruhi also became the focus of some international ire: the French mission in the Hijaz complained that Ruhi was spying on them.<\/p>\n
Ruhi apparently ceased his work in espionage in 1919. He received the titles of Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) and Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). In March of 1920, he became an inspector with the Department of Education in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
Ruhi\u2019s unique career demonstrates the variety of experiences government educators\u2019 possessed, but also points to the complications of post-Ottoman nationality. Although Ruhi, like many others, was now a citizen of Palestine, the category of Palestinian nationality \u2013 and, to some degree, nationality itself as a way of defining identity \u2013 ill fitted him, due to his languages, birthplace, family, and religion.<\/p>\n
In returning to the profession of education, Ruhi also authored Arabic language textbooks specifically focused on Palestine for use in its government schools. Ruhi\u2019s texts illustrate his unique perspective and perhaps a desire to pander to British preferences, as the books concentrate on the specific territory of Palestine, as opposed to either Greater Syria or the Arab world, and include Jewish as well as Arab narratives. His history of Palestine, al-Mukhtasar fi al-ta\u2019rikh, printed in 1922, listed its most important sources as the Qur\u2019an and other holy books, contemporary American and Middle Eastern works of history and literature, as well as Titus Flavius Josephus\u2019s writings. Ruhi\u2019s history begins with the story of Abraham and ends with Ibrahim Pasha. It also contains a surprisingly positive portrayal of certain aspects of Jewish history in the region, describing the Maccabees, for example, as a family of patriotic heroes. Ruhi\u2019s geography of Palestine (al-Mukhtasarfi Jughrafiyat Filastin) was written up briefly in al-Muqtat\u0323af, which noted that the book included the political, natural, and administrative geography of Palestine as well as more than twenty maps. This work begins with a Muslim blessing (bismillah al-rahman al-rahim) and includes a discussion of Palestine\u2019s Jewish colonies and an overview of its educational system, as well as a somewhat pointed drill that required students to calculate the meager proportion of Palestine\u2019s inhabitants attending school at all. Husayn Ruhi even drew some of the book\u2019s maps himself. Moreover, in another unique turn, this Arabic language geography was published by the London Jews Society, a British missionary society geared toward converting Jews to Christianity and encouraging Jews\u2019 resettling in Palestine.<\/p>\n
In the Mandate, Ruhi\u2019s presence was in some ways an affront to his peers. One Palestinian academic derided Ruhi as simply Ronald Storrs\u2019s \u201cprot\u00e9g\u00e9,\u201d whose appointment in the education department was incongruous at best. Khalil al-Sakakini, who also worked as an inspector in the Mandate Department of Education and authored grammar textbooks, held up Ruhi as an example of problems with the department as a whole. In a somewhat lengthy series of complaints to his son, Sakakini listed individuals employed by the British administration in Palestine whom he thought were undeserving of their salaries and status, specifically including Husayn Ruhi.<\/p>\n
Husayn Ruhi retired from service in the Mandate for Palestine in 1935. He returned to Cairo where he founded a school, as he had before his service with the British. Ruhi died in 1960. Ruhi remains best remembered for his translations and reports. Yet, his preference for British-backed governments continued in the careers of two of his sons. \u2018Ali Husayn Ruhi and Hasan Husayn Ruhi followed their father\u2019s example working as educators and government officials in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. \u2018Ali taught in Transjordan from 1928 to 1945. He composed several mathematics and science textbooks used by Arabic-speaking students throughout the region, specifically in the government schools of Transjordan and Palestine. \u2018Ali seems to have also renounced his father\u2019s faith, or at least hidden it, as he defined himself as Muslim on his application to teach in Transjordan.<\/p>\n
Husayn Ruhi\u2019s journey from education to espionage and back is hardly characteristic of educators or ethnic or religious minorities in the Middle East. However, his story raises (although does not answer) a number of questions and issues connecting to schooling, governance, and intelligence in the twentieth-century Middle East. By choosing Ruhi, a Baha\u2019i of unclear nationality, the British presumed, to some degree correctly, that they could command a greater sway over Ruhi\u2019s loyalties than those of other Egyptians, Persians, or Palestinians.<\/p>\n
(Hilary Falb Kalisman – The Little Persian Agent in Palestine: Husayn Ruhi, British Intelligence, and World War I, Jerusalem Quarterly 66)<\/p>\n
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Read complete article here :<\/strong><\/p>\n https:\/\/www.academia.edu\/28212491\/The_Little_Persian_Agent_in_Palestine_Husayn_Ruhi_British_Intelligence_and_World_War_I<\/a><\/p>\n https:\/\/www.nli.org.il\/en\/articles\/RAMBI990005858830705171\/NLI<\/a><\/p>\n \n Additional points from Baha’i sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n \nThe journey began after Mirza Asadu’llah had returned to Persia from the Holy Land and had recovered the casket (of the Bab’s remains) from its hiding place in Tehran. He then set off with the assistance of other believers, including\u00a0a \u2018capable and devoted\u2019 Baha’i named Husayn Ruhi,<\/strong>\u00a0who was the son of Haji \u2018Ali-\u2018Askar, a distinguished Bahai who had attained the presence of the Bab. Like his father, Husayn Ruhi had been in prison in Acre with Baha’u’llah<\/a>.<\/p>\n (Michael Day, Journey to a Mountain – The Story of the Shrine of the Bab)<\/p>\n Ruhi’s father ‘Ali-‘Askar-i-Tabrizi?<\/strong><\/p>\n Haji Haji ‘Ali-‘Askar was one of the notable merchants of Tabriz, and a believer from the time of the Bab<\/a>. At last the persecutions forced him to leave his home town and he emigrated with his brother and family to Adrianople, where he settled down and made a living by peddling small wares. He was arrested and sent with Baha’u’llah to ‘Akka, where he passed away in AH 1291 (AD 1874)….<\/p>\n …Muhammad-Javad-i-Qazvini next records in his tract the murder of two other men, previous to the murder of Siyyid Muhammad-i-Isfahani and his two accomplices. He names them as Husayn-‘Ali of Kashan, known as Khayyat-Bashi, and Haji Ibrahim, also of Kashan; but he does not name those who murdered them. Apparently, these two men of Kashan, who had always been fickle, had been in communication with the Azalis, although they lived with the companions in Khan al-‘Umdan. Muhammad-Javad writes that one day, in the bazar, Haji Ibrahim denounced Aqay-i-Kalim, in his presence, before the Mufti. This reprehensible behaviour roused the ire of the companions, and some of them (unnamed) murdered those two, and buried them in a room in the inn. This happened at a time when Baha’u’llah, because of the mounting animosity of the Azalis, had ceased admitting anyone into His presence. However, Siyyid Muhammad had noted their disappearance and had reported it to the authorities. But, at the time, there was no reason to suspect any crime. After the murder of the three Azalis, during the interrogation of the companions, the murder of the two Kashanis came to light. Again, Muhammad-Javad does not mention any names, but merely records that the authorities were told that the two had died of cholera, and lest all should be taken away and put into quarantine, they had been immediately and quietly interred in a room of the inn. The authorities exhumed their corpses and had them buried beside the Azalis.<\/p>\n Another point worth noting in the tract by Muhammad-Javad-i-Qazvini is that whereas the wife of Mirza Yahya<\/a>, sister of Mirza Rida-Quliy-i-Tafrishi, has been named elsewhere as Badri-Jan, Muhammad-Javad calls her Badr-i-Jahan. And the sixteen men detained in the Khan-i-Shavirdi for six months are named as follows:\u00a0Haji ‘Ali-‘Askar-i-Tabrizi, his son, Husayn-Aqa,<\/strong>\u00a0and his brother, Mashhadi Fattah; Haji Ja’far and his brother, Haji Taqi; Muhammad-Javad-i-Qazvini, himself; Aqa Faraj-i-Sultanabadi; Aqa Riday-i-Shirazi; Mirza Mahmud-i-Kashani; Haji Faraju’llah-i-Tafrishi; Aqa ‘Azim-i-Tafrishi; Aqa Muhammad-‘Aliy-i-Isfahani; Aqa Muhammad-‘Aliy-i-Yazdi; Darvish Sidq-‘Aliy-i-Qazvini; Aqa Muhammad-Ibrahim-Nayrizi, known as Amir-i-Nayrizi; and Haji Aqay-i-Tabrizi.<\/p>\n (Baha’u’llah – The King of Glory by Hasan Balyuzi)<\/p>\n