'Turkish Arabia: Being an Account of an Official Tour in Babylonia, Assyria, and Mesopotamia, 1886-87' [‎11r] (21/72)

9
The most interesting feature about it perhaps is the tramway connecting it with
Tramway between Baghdad and Baghdad. Of the many works begun by the public-
K&dhimain. spirited, but unfortunate, Midhat Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , when W&li of
Baghdad, this was one of the few that saw completion. Hundreds every day still reap
the benefit of it, and its contribution to the revenue must be considerable. The wonder
is that, with this to encourage them, neither the capitalists of Baghdad nor its gov
ernment have as yet laid down a tramway over the flats between Baghdad, KarbalS.,
and Najaf.
On 21 st October left the companionship of the Tigris, and held nearly due west, over
Irak—the ancient "land of Chaldea"—escorted by an
Shekh Dh&hiru 1 Mahmud. officer of the Osmanli mounted police with a party of four
under him, all on mules. Country traversed merest desert. That is, not by any means
sandy or sterile, but deserta in the sense of unpeopled ; uncultivated; unreclaimed.
After marching from sunrise to near sunset, encamped at a spot called Abu Ghur^b. Here
is located, under awnings of black blankets, after the manner of his ancestors, an antique
Arab Shekh of the name of Dh&hiru'l Mahmud, head of a small sept called Zoba, said to
have branched off, at a remote period, from the Shammar Bedouin. The relations between
this patriarch and 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. have chiefly consisted, so far, in his frequently
asking, and occasional receiving, presents both in money and other forms. His visible
property consists of sheep and a few mares. He and his numerous progeny also cultivate
as much as they can with water brought through an artificial cutting from the Tigris.
Over against this half-peasant half-Bedouin settlement civilization in the form of a white
washed revenue post or collectorate rears its head ominously. Round this a chronic
struggle with the tax-assessor goes on. Periodically the scene shifts to Baghdad, where
the old man will spend a week in trying to convince the officials that the locusts or some
thing else have stripped him to the skin. Occasionally also members of the Baghdad
Revenue Board go out to Abu Ghureb in person to see what is to be got. But at head
quarters or on the spot "hold fast" on Dhahir's part is steadily pitted against "pay out"
on the Treasury's. The very reason that the Bedouin cling to the nomadic, and shun the
settled,life is that, as their saying goes, in the latter "there is subjection," i.e., par excel
lence to the tax-collector! A scenite horde squatted thus so near Baghdad may almost be
thought to resemble those foreign villages set up last year in London. And yet it is not
so. For these are the children of the soil; and like the old Hindu land-holders in India,
are powers in the country still. More unlikely things have happened than that they
should outlast later comers.
The day following west by north was the direction. Vast expanses of wild liquorice
The Euphrates sighted; and coun- («*). an artide of eX P 0rt t0 , Eur0 P e '
try of Dilem Arabs entered. and other herbs dear to camels were crossed. Then the
bright blue waters of the Euphrates showed themselves, and the country of the Dilem
was entered.
Originally Bedouins, that is nomadic and strictly pastoral, these afford at the present
time an interesting example of a population passing, or
The Dilem. newly passed, from that phase to the settled and agricul
tural. While retaining the tribal form, with much of desert manners, the Dil6m are fast
exchanging the spear for the plough ; and the black blankets under which their swarms
still take shelter are gradually being covered in with reeds, and made more and more like
homesteads.
Their studs are now largely made up of rough little mares, the commonest kinds of
which, locally called kadish, are used, like bullocks in
Horse stock of the Dilem. India, for drawing up water from the Euphrates to irrigate
wheat and barley. Even these when put to a better stamp of stallion often produce colts
such as will pass muster in Bombay. But likely colts are snapped up so quickly by pro
fessional caterers for the Indian horse -market,that in the whole Dilem country not one
was seen such as remount officers look for. In Ir^k, as elsewhere, the difficulty of collect
ing horses for military purposes partly turns on the breeders' wishing to dispose of their
young stock as yearlings, while most Governments object to take them till three years old.
This gives other buyers plenty of time to pick them up one by one, and disperse them in
all directions. The Dilem say that owing to the Government embargo on the export of
horses they now prefer to breed mules. Of these they certainly produce large numbers
to meet the demand in every direction. But that they are giving up horse-breeding is not
so clear.
B