The Story of P.N. van der Chijs and Bayt Al Balad in Jeddah

The Story of P.N. van der Chijs and Bayt Al Balad in Jeddah

by Talal A. Bakr

Pieter Nicholas van der Chijs (May1855- October1889) was a member of the small Dutch colony in Jeddah. He served as vice consul of the Netherlands, occasionally of Sweden and Norway and Jeddah agent for the Nederlandsche Stoomvaart Maatschappij “Oceaan” (Netherlands Steamship Company “Oceaan”)[1] He spoke Arabic. Van der Chijs’ company was part of a shipping pool that set the prices for the transportation of pilgrims, a highly prof
itable line of work.

He seemed very well off that he contracted with a local contractor by the name of Hasan Musa Boghdadi,[2] to build a building to his specification that became later the British Legation residence.[3] While the British document mentions that this commission was made in March 1988 the photo of the building that was taken by Christiaan Snouke Hurgronje is dated 1884. Thus one may reasonably assume that this building was built in the early 1880s or earlier. At that time van der Chijs would be about 25 years of age.[4] Van der Chijs played a pivotal role in advising Snouke Hurgronje during his stay in Jeddah, providing logistical support to him during his stay in Makkah and facilitating the communications between him and the Makkan doctor Abdulghaffar al-Boghdadi after Snouke Hurgronje's return to Holland.[5]

The Office of P.N. van der Chijs. The photograph was probably taken in 1884 by Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje (West Arabian Encounters by Dirry Oostdam, Leiden University Library, Leiden 2004)

 When in the course of 1889, the Amir of Makkah[6] took measures to stop the shipping pool practice of controlling the prices for the transportation of pilgrims, van der Chigs committed suicide on the 2^nd of October 1889 and was buried in the European Cemetery located outside the wall south of Jeddah. He would appear to have been the fore-runner in business of the later Dutch firms associated with name of van de Poll (Fandipaul as he was known to the locals),[7] whose business has later passed to the Anglo-Dutch concern, International Agencies Ltd.

In the same paper it is mentioned that Mr. van der Chijs died and buried in Jeddah on October 2, 1889. A photo of the British Legation residence from the Collection of Sir Andrew Ryan[8] is shown below.

British Legation residence in Jeddah Circa 1940

Years later this building was taken over by the Jeddah Municipality and was known as Bayt Bajnaid and later it became Bayt Al Balad.

Bayt Al Balad

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[1] A Dutch shipping company that maintained regular shipping service between Amsterdam and prominent Indonesian ports (1891-1978)

[2] Most probably the son of a prominent Jeddan personality, Musa Boghdadi who built his famous house Bayt Al Boghdadi in Jeddah

[3] Supplement to Sir Andrew Ryan’s “AN ACCOUNT OF THE EUROPEAN CEMETRY IN JEDDAH” of December 31st, 1934, Sir Andrew Ryan’s Collection at the Middle East Library in St. Antony’s College at Oxford, UK.

[4] He was only 2 years older than Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje (1857-1936).

[5] Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje: The First Western Photographer in Mecca, 1884-1885 by Durkje van der Wal, RIJKS Museum, Amsterdam, Vol. 9 - 2011

[6] Most probably Sharif Awn Ar-Rafeeq.

[7] Arthur Neervort van de Poll (born 1891). He left the Netherlands and settled in Jeddah in 1911. He embraced Islam and took up the name Mohammad Hussein Mehdi.

[8] Sir Andrew Ryan Collection (1930-31), Middle East Centre Archive, St. Antony’s College, Oxford, UK.