'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎92] (101/568)

92
INHABITANTS
however, that in the neighbourhood of the Zab valley the defensi-
bility of the country had made it the home of a Christian popula
tion, which was larger than might have been expected from the
barren and rugged nature of much of this region. This Christian
population was for the most part either massacred or expelled in
1915. In southern Kurdistan the population is very small in pro
portion to the area .of the country. Its settled element is mainly
to be found scattered in the lower valleys north of Erbil, or, south
of Erbil, grouped here and there among the last foot-hills on the
edge of the Tigris plains, or, farther east, occupying valleys and
basins between the lower hills and the higher ranges.
In the plains the sparse population is distributed chiefly in the
foliowing areas : (a) in parts of the middle Euphrates valley (as from
Hit to Anah, from Abul Kemal to Deir ez-Zor, and from Abu
Hureireh northwards); for the past forty or fifty years the valley
has been gradually recovering a settled population, after it had been
nearly emptied by anarchy; (&) between the rivers on the north
western and northern sides of the plain, e. g. in the feajur district,
the country south of Urfeh, the Nisibin district and the edge of the
plain from Nisibin to JezIret-ibn-'Omar; moreover a population
which is at least partly agricultural has been growing up, in spite
of insecurity, along the Belikh and the Khabur ; (c) between the
rivers, in the Jebel Sinjar and the country at the foot of that range
to south and east; {d)east of the Tigris, in the Mosul—Erbil plains ;
also at various points under the Kurdish foot-hills from Altun Kopru
down to Kufri.
Both in the plains and the hill-country of upper Mesopotamia
nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes pass to and fro on their yearly
rounds.
Towns. —The towns of upper Mesopotamia are markets and admini
strative centres, and support some small trades and industries.
There is a group of towns lying on that caravan-route from Aleppo
to Mosul which has avoided the open plains and the southern end of the
Q a raj eh Dagh country as too insecure and too waterless, and has made
a detour north by Diarbekr. These towns are Birijik (7,000), Urfeh
(80,000), Diarbekr (40,000), Mardln (15,000), Nisibin (5,000), Jezlret-
ibn-'Omar (5,000), and Zakho (3,000). Of these is by far the
most important, for here the route passing west and east is met by
the main routes from the Black Sea, eastern Anatolia South-east Turkey today. , and Armenia.
Diarbekr also has the advantage of its fertile neighbourhood, which,
among other things, provides raw material for its silk-weaving
industry.
It is to be observed that the Baghdad Railway now strikes across