'Turkish Arabia: Being an Account of an Official Tour in Babylonia, Assyria, and Mesopotamia, 1886-87' [‎14v] (28/72)

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love of independence. Vast numbers of the Kurds, it is true, live in villages, absorbed in
agriculture. But these, not less than their nomadic brethren, are still distinctly tribal^
with the very same tendency to look up to some patriarchal chief; and no one who knows
them is likely to imagine that in seasons of trouble they will ever remain passive under
mere provincial governors or officials whether Ottoman or Persian.
At the time of writing, indeed, as periodically during many years past, the frontier of the
Ham^wand tribe of Kurds. Baghdad and Mosul Pashaliks is dangerous from the raids
of the Ham^wand, or Ahmedawand Kurds. Within the
present year, this great postal line has once or twice been closed because of them, to other
than the largest kdfilas ; and Her Majesty's Vice-Consul at Mosul, when passing over it
lately, reported that his " escort ranged from one hundred and thirty mounted infantry to
twenties and fifteens; besides Dhdbitias [gens d'armes) according to the state of the road.''
<( The Hamawands/' he added, " have created a regular scare all along the line; and
although there are large numbers of troops moving about, they never seem to come up
with them." And yet, this thorn in the side of two great Governments is represented
by a horde of barely five hundred fighting men. Armed with Martinis, and mounted on
mares " lifted " from the Shammar, they are as ubiquitous, as mischievous, and as difficult
to touch as swarms of wasps. Only the other day an officer was wounded, and a soldier
killed, by them near Sulimamah.
The day the Hamrin range was crossed the Hamiwands luckily were somewhere else,
Bi shi rtah an ^ nothing was seen of them, although no additional
escort had been provided. After a twelve hours' march the
tents were set up at dusk, in an open and cultivated country, full of feature, and
inclosed in a setting of mountains, some of them white with recent snow. Close by was
the Kurdi hamlet of Bi-shi-nah, consisting of about a hundred hovels. There was plenty of
good water. On a man in uniform going aforaging it was stoutly asserted at every door
that not even had an egg been laid in that village since their grandfathers' days ! But
bye and bye, when a Baghdad domestic went, money in hand, on the same errand, not
only eggs, but the roosters themselves, with milk and firewood, were produced ! Some little
way off, as it turned out, an Ottoman guard or picquet kept watch over certain salt pits,
as well as for the Hamawands. Hearing strangers arrive in the dark, these worthy fellows
lay close till the sun was well up the following morning, when, after ascertaining that it
was not the Hamiwands, and that countrymen of their own formed the escort, they came
galloping one by one after the party, shaggy men, on shaggier horses, much like the
a Tatar couriers" of old picture-books, warranted to keep and go for long periods without
pay or food, and never better marksmen than when apparently in the very act of tumbling
out of their saddles.
The vitality of the Hamdwands is not without its significance politically. Especially
so when it is remembered that the warlike population of
feaTure. Ham4wands as a P olltlcal w hom they form at the present time the head and front
numbers, as has been seen, more than a couple of millions.
It does not appear that any new or actual grievance is now exciting them. The Otto
man Government, it is not to be doubted, is, for its own sake, most anxious to deal
decisively with them, indeed, a high functionary is just now on his way from Constanti
nople specially charged with this duty. As the case stands, they are the leaven which
may so easily leaven the whole Kurdi mass, and the importance of Persia's relations
with other powers seems greater than ever when viewed in connection with the influence
she can command in these western provinces of Asiatic Turkey. With the enervating
effects of ultra-civilisation so generally on the increase, the Sublime Porte is as remark
able for the great mines of raw material of armies lying ready to her hand, as for the
fatality which seems to prevent her from utilizing them very fully.
On 8th November a march through open and cultivated but rugged country brought
Kirkuk. Kirkuk once a capital; but now containing
less than 20,000 inhabitants. A bridged stream, known
as the Tshai, separates the citadel mound or hill —130 feet high, with the more
squalid parts of the town clinging to its base—from a suburb covered with offi-
cial buildings. The population is chiefly of Muslim (Sunni) Kurds. There is also a
Jewish quarter, and a number of "old Nestorians," now adherents of the Church of Rome.
1 o feed the latter flock, a McLtT(xn ) or bishop, is maintained. The government is
exercised by a a Mutasarrif," or Commissioner, subordinate to the W^li of Mosul. There
is also a Municipality, the functions performed by which certainly do not include