'Turkish Arabia: Being an Account of an Official Tour in Babylonia, Assyria, and Mesopotamia, 1886-87' [8v] (16/72)
The record is made up of 1 volume (35 folios). It was created in 1888. It was written in English and Persian. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
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4
completely at starting, and too mucli dependence is not placed on fresh animals being met
with by the way. Transport officers might learn something from observing how Persians
and Arabs deal with loads. Out of materials lying ready to hand, such as blankets
stitched together, they will make cradles as big as boats which, when placed athwart an
animal's back, will take twice the quantity of chopped straw, earth, or even bricks, that it
would be possible to carry pannier fashion, half on one side, half the other. With all
this no carrier ever hopes to keep his animal's backs whole. The kinds of saddle in
common use may not produce such deep wounds as are to be seen in our own transport
lines, but the raws and rubs are bad enough, though it is surprising how indifferent to
them both quadruped and master are. An Arabian poet wishing to describe a perfectly
disciplined man could find no apter simile than "patient as a camel under whose saddle
many a sore has healed of its own accord."
These have the advantage of requiring neither barley nor chopped straw, and in
winter hardly any water, but then they are unsuitable in
^ amels ' mountainous regions, as towards the Turko-Persian fron
tier, or where no herbage for them grows. Many of them even refuse to eat barley.
When moving through any of their favourite herbs, if allowed to slacken their pace after
midday, and browse as they go, they will still make between 2 and 2^ miles an hour. If
unloaded a couple of hours before sunset, allowed to graze till the last minutes of twilight,
and then collected round the tent, they will sit chewing the cud or sleeping all night.
Moreover, the camel-owner is usually more easy to manage than the muleteer. The latter
is not a favourite, and the transport officers of the Abyssinian expedition probably still
remember their experiences when shipload after shipload of Baghdad mules, with their
attendants, were literally let loose in Annesley Bay. The Arab view is that, while camel-
keeping elevates a man, mule-driving turns even a good Sunni into little better than a
Persian! In the Baghdad Consulate it is held that Arab muleteers are better than Persian
ones. But one's recent experiences pointed all the other way ; indeed many of the sup
posed Arab muleteers are in reality Persians, who, to travel safer in Sunni countries,
pretend to be Arabs. A real riding-camel (in Arabic dhalul, literally "subjected" or
"patient, y\s difficult to procure, and still more difficult to keep in good health, except
among the Bedouin. Between a common camel and a good dhalul there is as much
difference as between a farmer's cob and a race-horse.
Probably these are here the best all-round carriage, far nimbler than camels or ponies,
and able to hold on day after day over all sorts of pround,
Mules r • o *
from sunrise to sunset, with but the one drawback that
they cannot well be taken into places where there is not plenty of water, barley, and
chopped straw. The great thing is to get those that have been hardened by labour and
exposure ever since foalhood, not reared in yards by people having no use for them. The
best way of securing this is to^go direct to the nomadic tribes, such as the Sinjaweeyah of
Persia, who approach Khanakin in winter, or the Koordish Jaf. At Baghdad, mule-hire
just now is about 14 annas a day. Each mule is supposed to take 4 cwt, or 448!^
avoirdupois, though this may refer only to those used inside the town, for carrying bales
between the customs house and the merchants' stores. One of the loads actually carried
throughout the recent journey, when weighed at the end of it, scaled 2 cwt. 2 qrs. and lib,
or 281K, exclusive of the saddle. Towards the end of the Abyssinian expedition, His
Excellency Sir R. Napier had to restrict each load to loolb only. In this country a mule is
seldom thought too heavily loaded to have no room for a man atop. No covering is given
but the pack-saddle, which is kept on day and night, except for a few minutes on halt-days,
while the animal is curried over. Two muleteers, including owner, look after seven or
eight mules. No Arab or Persian ever thinks of working his animals tied each to the
other's tail. The love of fixing everything in "grades," or groves which besets the official
mind, has led to the adoption of this plan in the Osmanli military service, as in our own
transport trains. But otherwise the eastern muleteer takes particular care to let his
strongest and fastest animals press to the front. With this object he makes his whole
string consist of female mules, with one entire pony as common leader. This pony, when
the object is to mark time, and earn easily a day's hire, he loads up with barley or chopped
straw, and causes to lag behind. No amount of driving will then make the mules in
front of him step out. When, on the contrary, the man really means going, he mounts
his pony himself, and pushes on ahead. Then the kdjila will stream over the desert
almost like a Bedouin ghazu* making perhaps five miles an hour, or even more, for a
whole day, including stoppages.
* Ghazu or ghaswu, a party of mounted Bedouin out on foray.
About this item
- Content
This volume is a printed account of the official winter tour of 1886-87 in Babylonia, Assyria and Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) undertaken by Colonel William Tweedie, Bengal Staff Corps, Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in Turkish Arabia A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. (Iraq) and His Majesty's Consul-General at Baghdad. The purpose of the tour was to visit the Vice-Consulate of Mosul in Upper Mesopotamia and the Consulate at Bussorah [Basra], as well as Indian subjects residing in Karbala and Najaf, the two centres of Shiah pilgrimage. In addition, the author identifies it as an opportunity to see the inhabitants and features of Turkish Arabia A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. more generally (folio 7). The report was published by the British Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. Baghdad on 24 May 1887, and printed by the Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, India in 1888. This copy was presented by the author to George Curzon (see inscription on folio 2v).
The volume contains a table of contents (folio 5), list of maps and illustations (folio 6), and note on Arabic and Persian transliteration and names (folio 6v). The volume includes the following sections: 'Section I.- Marching in Turkish Arabia A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. '; 'Section II.- Transport'; 'Section III.- Equipment'; 'Section IV.- From Tigris to Euphrates'; 'Section V.- Across Al Jazîrah [al-Jazīrah]'; 'Section VI.- Localised Bedouins east of Tigris'; 'Section VII.- Through Al Hawîja [al-Ḥawījah] to Kirkûk'; 'Section VIII.- Kirkûk to Sulimânîa [Sulaymānīyah]'; 'Section IX.- Sulimânîa to Mosul'; 'Section X.- Mosul to Sinjâr Hills', including details about the Yazîdîs [Yazidis]; 'Section XI.- Sinjâr to Der on the Euphrates'; 'Section XII.- Right bank of Euphrates, from Der to Rumâdi [al-Ramādī]'; 'Section XIII.- Southern Shâmîya'; 'Section XIV.- Karbalâ and Najaf'; and 'Section XV.- Baghdad to Bussorah and back, by steamer', including details on Arab coast of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and Muhamarah.
Illustrations include: 'Resident's Camp, Turkish Arabia A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. , 1886' (folio 7v); 'Mule gear equally for draught and pack' (folio 8); 'Arab pâlân [ pālān , pack-saddle]' and 'Persian pâlân' (folio 9); 'Arab Camel-rider: and Saddle' and 'Horseshoe of Arabs, Persians, Turkomans, Afghans, and others' (folio 9v); 'Picqueting chain and peg (forefront)' and 'Arab and Persian paiwand' (folio 10); 'Arab rashma [ rashmah ]: including (1) rashma proper, or (iron) nose-band: (2) idhâr [ ‘idhār ] , or headstall: and (3) rasn [ rasan ] (lit. rope) or rein' (folio 10v); and 'Flying camp: Sinjâr to Karbala (all three tents Baghdad-made)' (folio 24).
Maps include: 'Map Accompanying Account by Resident, Turkish Arabia A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. , of his Winter-Tour, 1886-87' (folio 4v); 'Sketch of Map of Route from Hît to Tikrît crossing lower portion of Al-Jazîra' (folio 14v); 'Mosul Pashâlik, 1887' and 'Plan of Mosul Town (After Capt. F. Jones), 1852' (folio 18v); and 'Straightest route (across Syrian desert) for camel riders only, between Baghdad and Mediterranean, as followed by late (Consular) dromedary post' (folio 27).
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (35 folios)
- Arrangement
This volume contains a page of contents (folio 5) which references page numbers.
- Physical characteristics
Condition: Folio 34 includes annotation (likely by Curzon) and a section of text has been cut out and removed.
Foliation: The foliation sequence commences at the front cover, and terminates at the inside back cover; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. Pagination: The volume also contains an original printed pagination sequence.
- Written in
- English and Persian in Latin and Arabic script View the complete information for this record
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- Reference
- Mss Eur F112/384
- Title
- 'Turkish Arabia: Being an Account of an Official Tour in Babylonia, Assyria, and Mesopotamia, 1886-87'
- Pages
- front, front-i, 2r:29r, 30v:35v, i-r:i-v, back-i, back
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence