Iistoriographical including hagiographic contributions to the Zionist movement and its leading figures are plentiful. This is especially true of the founding father, Theodor Herzl, who continues to enjoy pride of place in the literature: there is hardly a facet of his life, personality, and endeavour that has not received at least some attention.1 One topic, however, has been relatively neglected: Herzl's initiatives regarding the Armenian Question, more specifically his parallel attempts at the instigation of the Sublime Porte, first, to persuade Armenian revolutionary committees in Europe to submit to Sultan Abdul Hamid, and second, to influence the European press to give less prominence to Armenian affairs and to reduce its generally pro-Armenian position. Significantly, these represent some of Herzl's earliest political acts on behalf of the nascent Zionist movement, occurring as they did a year before the convening of the First Zionist Congress at Basle in 1897. Equally important is the fact that his intervention took place at a particularly critical juncture in the development of the Armenian Question, which was a national and revolutionary question to most Armenians.