archaeological ambitions, the nobleman reported on the clergyman, 'He also revealed to me the secret of the "Ark of the Covenant" and said: all the hopes for recovering it would turn on you.'5 In this missive to his imperial nephew, the royal uncle included the 'scientific, thorough work' printed in Die Zeit -checked by 'German and British theologians' and championed by Hechler -which discussed 'theologically, historically' the quest for the holy grail that was the holy ark. He opined, 'The historical interest in the course of the peregrination of the Ark of the Covenant up to the place it now lies is, in fact, very meaningful -but of course the act of discovery would be full of meaning as a historical moment in the entire world' .6 The duke also forwarded a suggestion for the German emperor to obtain from the Ottoman sultan, Abdul Hamid ii (1842-1918), the area in question for 'antiquarian research'though, crucially, without divulging 'the goal of the research' since he 'would otherwise probably not be inclined to comply' .

3 William Henry Hechler, 'Christen über die Judenfrage' , Die Welt 1/ 2 (1897), 7-9, at 7, 8. He continued, 'But if the Zionist movement progresses so eagerly and actively as it now does in the entire world, then this wonderful nineteenth century of electricity and the railroad -where everything moves fast and which has seen the formation of the new German Empire and of other empires -can finally still witness the foundation of the new Jewish state' (ibid., 8). 4 For more on this story, see Isaiah Friedman,