DEAD SEA FRUIT
The tale of the British administration of Mesopotamia (or Irak) is the
familiar one of magnificent work done by men on the spot, which is yet
hampered by the feebleness and indecision of "statesmen" at home,
coupled with the activities of newspapers interested mainly in what an
expert of old time, George III., called "that damnably dirty business,
party politics." The tale, however--though one that is well worth the
telling--is too long a one to be put in at the end of a book dealing
with only a part of the land concerned, and here we must confine
ourselves to that of which we have personal knowledge--viz., the
fortunes of the tormented Assyrian nation after they reached "the haven
where they would be," the protection of the British. General affairs can
only be touched on so far as they concern this people.
We left the nation established in the huge refugee camp at Baqubah, near
Baghdad, where they became one of the sights and sensations of
Mesopotamia. They considered that their troubles were over at last, and,
indeed, one of their number even broke out into English poetry to
celebrate the fact, and presented his ode (which he would have been
better advised to write in Syriac) to the General Officer commanding the
camp:
We wish to express our thanks and great wish
To all our friends, especially the British;
For we are under the protection of the world's greatest monarch,
Who to us in this wilderness is like the shadow of the rock.
All gentlemen from the headquarters,
Soldiers, sergeants, corporals, and officers,
All sisters and doctors, with bottles number one, two, three,
They have from typhoid and relapsing fever made us free!
The idea of the people was that they would very speedily be put back,
under British protection, in their old homes; and that full compensation
(and incidentally full revenge) for all past sufferings and losses would
be assured them. They were the allies of the victors in the war; and
there was, of course, no limit either to the power or the wealth of
their British protectors. The inability of European statesmen to make a
peace at all,[168] and the fact that the British Government, in
consequence, could not make up its mind what it wanted to do, or could
do, either with the country at large or with this relatively small
factor in it, were matters simply outside their mental horizon. "Our own
country, under British protection," was their simple and intelligible
demand; a "benevolent" government was all that British authorities could
promise them in return, and, meantime, there was nothing to do but to
wait. If you maintain anyone in idleness, you soon produce a pauper with
all a pauper's vices. Assyrians proved no exception to that rule, and
paupers they soon became, taking all that was given, and expecting more.
They declined to do even necessary camp work without payment; and the
quarrelsomeness and disposition to intrigue that have been their bane
since the beginning appeared among them again.
One thing, however, they could do which was useful--they could fight. A
double battalion of infantry, with one mounted company, was raised from
among them, and put under picked British officers. Such officers, as has
been shown many a time, can make good soldiers out of far worse material
than warlike mountaineers; and the mutual regard that is usual in such
cases soon grew up between the officers and their men. "See that lad
there?" said one of these officers to the writer. "He sprained his ankle
on the way down, but he turned up on parade with it next day hideously
swollen. He only burst out crying when I told him he must not march, and
went off to a bonesetter, who slashed it all round with a blunt knife
and rubbed in gunpowder. Then he turned up again, begging to be allowed
to march with the regiment!"
It is true that some difficulties arose. It had been intended to raise
two battalions: one of mountaineers, and one of Urmi men. The latter,
however (owing to the mistaken advice of some foreign friends), demanded
impossible conditions of service; while the mountain men declared their
readiness to go anywhere, if only they had British officers to lead
them. The double battalion was raised, in consequence, of the mountain
men alone. Then Petros Agha, who was now describing himself as the
"Commander-in-Chief of the Assyrian Army," demanded as of right that any
contingent raised should be under his orders, with such British officers
to assist him as he judged expedient. When this modest demand was
refused, he began intriguing against the project, till it became
necessary to shepherd him gently out of the camp, and suggest Baghdad
(or India) as his residence in future. The force was raised however, and
the little campaign that became necessary against the Kurds in the
summer of 1919 gave these hillmen an opportunity of getting as near to
their own conception of heaven as some of them are ever likely to get,
for they were given good rifles and good leaders, and a real chance of a
slap at their hereditary enemies!
Experienced judges were loud in praise of their marching and fighting
capacities, though admitting that they were "a trifle indiscriminate" at
times. "Those Assyrians have got into it quick," said the G.O.C. on one
occasion, noting how quickly the men opened fire in their advance up a
hill they had been ordered to clear of the enemy. "Oh no, sir," said an
A.D.C., who had experience of the creature; "I'll bet what you like it's
a pig they are firing at!" He did them but a small injustice; it was a
bear and not a boar; but having finished him, they cleared the hill.
"How did the Assyrians really do in the fighting?" asked a British
officer of a Subadar of the Gurkhas with whom they were brigaded. "Why
did you not give us the same mountain sandals that they wear?" came the
answer. "Then we should have done as well as they did!" Verily, when
Gurkhas apologise for not doing as well as the irregular, there is no
fault to find with the fighting capacity of the latter.[169]
Once, it must be admitted, a party of them found civilised campaigning
too slow, and committed the heinous crime of deserting while on active
service; but the apology they sent in (in a mixture of Syriac and
English) went far to redeem their fault. "To the beloved and reverend
Major Knight, our Commander, peace and love be multiplied," it began.
"Dear Father, be it known to you that we did not run away because we did
not wish to kill Kurds, but because we so wished to kill them; and by
the blessing of God, we have been doing that thing for ten days. Regret
to report following casualty: soldier, private, one. But we have killed
a lot more Kurds. Now, dear Father, if you will promise to punish us
yourself, we will come in. But we fear going to Mosul Gaol."
The Major promised that if they came in he would punish them all right,
and he did so; but he subsequently squared matters somehow with his
conscience, and reported that there had been a gratifying absence of
crime on active service!
The campaign had the effect of clearing what is known as the Sapna area
of Kurds; and, incidentally, the house of the English Mission at
Bibaydi, the building of which has been referred to,[170] was fortified
and occupied by British troops. Those old enemies of the writer who had
prophesied that "if that house is built we shall see British troops in
it before our beards are grey," were so delighted at the fulfilment of
their prophecy, and at the local kudos that it brought them, that they
entirely forgot their ill-feeling against the Englishman who had caused
it, and greeted him on a visit as a long-lost friend![171]
Men on the spot now held that the Assyrian problem could be solved at
once; the nation could be settled in the area that they had helped to
clear and conquer, where they would be an admirable frontier guard for
the future state of Irak. Suggestions to this effect were sent home, but
no answer was returned. Those in authority could neither allow the men
on the spot to act for themselves, nor could they produce any other
plan. It was not that they objected (that would at least have been
positive action of a sort), but they neither could, nor would, say or do
anything; and so time passed until local circumstances (notably the
impossibility of keeping British troops dangling in the hills till folk
in comfortable offices at home had made up what they pleased to call
their minds) made a withdrawal inevitable, and a promising scheme
impossible.
By a very unfortunate decision the Assyrian contingent was disbanded
shortly after this, owing to some breaches of discipline in the corps.
Men who were at least being kept from idleness were thus returned to
Baqubah, where a policy of pauperising was sapping all the morale of the
nation; and where Assyrian and British, tied up together under
uncomfortable conditions for too long, were rapidly getting on one
another's nerves, and each showing the other their worst side! About the
same time, too, the nation was deprived of its titular leader by the
death of Polus Mar Shimun, their patriarch. Tuberculosis brought on by
hardship had become worse in the dust-laden air of Baqubah, and a
removal to the purer air of Sheikh Mattai[172] by Mosul had been too
late to stop the disease. A flicker of improvement at the last had
encouraged him as is so often the case, and he returned to his own
people, but only to die. Meantime Authority, both in Mesopotamia and
England, was getting very anxious to be rid of the Assyrians--as is
frequently the case, when a man knows that he has neglected a good
opportunity of getting a thing done. And it was at this juncture, when
the nation had no titular head and all were anxious to be rid of an
incubus, that Agha Petros came forward with a new scheme. Somewhat to
the north of the area occupied by the British was a stretch of
relatively fertile land, extending from the plain of Gawar to the town
of Ushnu, which had once been largely Christian and was now practically
derelict. To the east it stretched nearly to the Urmi plain; on the west
it bordered on the Hakkiari mountains. Petros proposed to lead up the
whole nation, duly armed, and to occupy this "Gawar-Ushnu" area. There
they would be in a state of practical independence under his rule, and
those Urmi folk who wished to return to their own homes could do so,
while Hakkiari would be open to the mountaineers. The fighting men could
go up first and take seizin[AA?] of the land, and the women and
non-combatants could follow after a little.
The scheme was not impossible, provided that the people had enough of
cohesion to unite on any scheme at all, and Petros enough of the
statesman in him to enable him to execute any. If feasible, it certainly
had the merit of providing an Anglophile buffer state just where one was
most wanted; and as such, and as offering some means of getting the
refugees off the shoulders of the British taxpayer, it was accepted by
the Mesopotamian authorities, and urged with more or less of authority
on the nation at large. Under this pressure, the bulk of the nation
accepted it; though it is to be feared that one of its merits in their
eyes was its indefiniteness, and the fact that it could be interpreted
by everybody in his own sense. An Assyrian state with a measure
(undefined) of British protection was what everyone wanted; but everyone
also assumed that the area of the supposed state would include his own
old home. And it is to be feared that Petros Agha[173] got a large
measure of his support by promises to the effect that everybody should
have just what he wanted, if only he was willing to come up with his
true national leader to get it!
Even so the Patriarchal House, and certain sections of the mountaineers
as well, rejected the scheme, owing to their rooted distrust of Petros
and all his works. This, however, was disregarded. The "House," left
leaderless by the death of the Patriarch, and by the fact that Surma
Khanim (possessor of the best brain in it) had gone to England to put
the case of her nation before the Government[174] was just then at a
discount in the nation and had left the camp for Mosul. It was therefore
ignored. It was assumed that the recalcitrant sections would follow with
the rest when they found themselves alone; and so preparations were made
for the breaking-up of the Baqubah camp, and the transfer of its inmates
to Mindan (north-east of Mosul), which could be the base of the new
move.
Assyrian ill-luck, however, dogged the scheme throughout. Time was of
the essence of the plan, if several thousand people had to be got up to
a high tableland, and there to provide food and shelter for themselves
before the winter set in, and one cause of delay after another
supervened. There was a change in the central authority first, for Sir
Arnold Wilson, acting Chief Commissioner, was not only removed from
office, but practically dismissed from the service of the King.
Politicians at home found it convenient to make the good man on the spot
the scapegoat for the fact that the policy they had approved was more
expensive than they had anticipated, and were full of virtuous
indignation because he did not effect in Mesopotamia the drastic
economies which they could not themselves enforce in England. A new
Chief Commissioner (Sir Percy Cox) was soon in the field; but the change
implied delay, and the new man had not (owing perhaps to his home
instructions) that power of giving a quick decision on a question which
had been one of the strong points of his predecessor. Sir Percy,
however, approved the general lines of the policy laid down, and the
move to Mindan was in full swing when the Arab rising of 1920 put a stop
to all action. All fighting men and all transport were imperatively
needed elsewhere, and the Assyrian problem had to wait.
The story of the rising itself does not concern us, though the fighting
men of the Assyrians were actively engaged in it in support of the
Government. Men began to ask what new form of lunacy had possessed those
in authority, that they had disbanded an existing force composed of such
good material, and so absolutely trustworthy. It is true that some of
the fighting was pure self-defence, for the Baqubah camp was left to
look after itself, in the assurance that Assyrians could do so, but in
forgetfulness of the fact that they had been disarmed! For some time the
place was in real peril, particularly when a train loaded with rifles
and ammunition for its defence was derailed some miles from camp.
The force raised in the camp, however, though then armed with a
"scratch" armament, rescued the train and its contents,[175] and from
that time forward the camp was in a state of safety. Skirmishes took
place near it, and after one of these the combatants boasted to their
British officer of the number of Arabs whom they had accounted for.
"Oh, rubbish!" said the officer. "I know how many bullets go astray, and
you need not tell me you hit as many as that." The disgusted
mountaineers said nothing; but after the next action laid out before a
rather horrified Englishman a large number of human ears--right ears all
of them. "Look here, sahib! You can't say we didn't hit those fellows,
anyhow!" Those who already had been transported to Mindan, though
outside the real area of the rising, were not entirely deprived of their
share of the fun. A disorderly tribe of Kurds, the Surchi, thought that
so good an opportunity of making trouble ought not to be missed, and
undertook a raid in the Akra district. The Assyrians had the
satisfaction of sweeping the raiders into the Zab, and of thus restoring
order in that corner of the world.
While this was being done, steps had been taken in Baqubah camp which
tended to split up an already divided nation still further. Polus Mar
Shimun, the Patriarch, had died as stated, and the larger half of the
nation had been removed, under the leadership of Petros Agha, to Mindan.
Those who remained took that opportunity of electing and consecrating
Ishai, son of David d'Mar Shimun and nephew of Polus and Benyamin, to
the Patriarchate--the new prelate being a child of twelve years old! It
is true that, according to the old "_natar cursiya_ system"[176] this
lad was the lawful heir of his departed uncle; but even so the election,
according to that very tribal custom to which they were appealing, was
an affair for the whole nation, and not of a minority in it. The
electing party looked on themselves as the "faithful remnant," who
remained loyal to the old head of the tribes when the bulk of them had
gone off after a new leader who was not of the Sacred House; and also
urged, not too consistently, that the "Mindan seceders" had, in fact,
knowledge of the proceeding, and made no objection to it. In spite of
this defence, the step was a disastrous and improper one; a decision
that, in the opinion of the wiser of the party responsible, would not
have been taken "had Surma _Khanim_ been here."[177] It divided the
nation when union was the one necessity, and degraded the Patriarch into
a mere party leader; while at the same time it gave a fresh lease of
life to just those ancient anomalies (such as the hereditary
Patriarchate and the temporal power of the holder of that office) which
men of experience saw had outlived their usefulness, and for which they
were seeking to provide a decent euthanasia. However, the thing was done
and could not be undone, though the British Director of Repatriation
marked his disapproval of a step which he did not feel entitled to
forbid, by giving an order that no British officer was to attend the
consecration ceremony.
The Arab rising flickered out in due course, but the summer had passed
before the rising did; and when the question of the Assyrian settlement
came up again, those who knew the country shook their heads over the
prospect of moving masses of population at such a season of the year.
October had begun--the month that sees the first snows on the hills--and
there were signs of an early winter. Warnings to that effect, however,
were disregarded, and the Assyrian force that was to go up and clear the
ground under Petros Agha was concentrated at Akra.[178] and made ready
for its march. It numbered about 5,000 men--mountaineers and Urmi men
combined--and made an impressive show under a multitude of cross-bearing
banners. High titles abounded, for Petros as Commander-in-Chief was at
least liberal in this direction. A "Field-Marshal" served under him,
sporting crossed batons on his khaki-clad shoulders, with Generals,
Brigadier-Generals, and Colonels by the score. But if titles were
plenty, experience was far to seek; and considering what a tremendous
risk was being run in sending up the force at all, at so late a date as
the end of October, there was a marvellous casualness shown about the
whole affair. Those in authority seemed to be only anxious to be rid of
the people and the problem together, and to act on the assumption that
if once they could be got over the boundary all would go well, or that
at least the British Government would not be concerned if it did not.
Good rifles were provided, with ammunition, some mountain-guns, and
plenty of mules for transport. There was also a big dump of provisions,
and medical stores in abundance; but when the Assyrians wanted to leave
these behind, those who were there to protect these wild people from
their own folly and ignorance allowed them to do so; and the force moved
off with not so much as a bandage, with provisions for a short seven
days, and no means of securing a regular supply after that. In fact,
these people who were in theory to go up to a land, occupy and colonise
it, and maintain themselves there for a winter, were allowed to go off
with the equipment of a raid and nothing else!
The British officers who were to accompany the force "in a purely
advisory capacity" (three British Lieutenants, to wit) made some
representations, urging in particular the provision of proper
pack-saddles for the mountain-guns sent with the force. They were told
the guns could go on their own carriages, as it would be a stiff pull
over Akra Dagh, but plain sailing after that! A man who can stand at
Akra, and think that the rugged ridge behind that town is the only
obstacle between him and Gawar Plain, has the strangest ideas of the
land he is sending his subordinates into!
No doubt Petros was to blame. An Assyrian who wants to get to a place
will tell you that the road is easy, with the gayest defiance of facts;
and men who will go off with a small raiding party, with no equipment
save rifles and the clothes they wear, have not the least notion that
"an army cannot charge in and out again like a troop of hussars." Those
who directed this "Repatriation" were supposed to know something of that
most difficult of problems, land transport in country where no
mechanical means are available; but they did not force the Assyrians to
benefit by their knowledge.
The frontier was crossed; the Zab, swollen by recent rain, was crossed
also, though with some difficulty in the face of opposition from the
local Kurds, of the Barzan and Zibar tribes. These were swept aside,
however, though in the action Petros rather amused the British officers
by the fact that he would persist in firing his few guns at the mountain
landscape at large. "Hadn't you better wait till you have a target of
some sort to fire at?" they urged. "You won't hurt the rocks, even if
that is your object." "The noise will impress the Kurds," said Petros,
and went on wasting his small supply of artillery cartridges. Barzan
village was stormed and burned, the only remarkable piece of loot
secured therein being a copy of the Book of Common Prayer. It bore the
stamp of a Canadian parish--"St. Luke, North Battleford, Saskatchewan.
_Not to be taken away._" Had the little book been able to speak, it
might have told of strange adventures.
All this took time, however, and provisions began to fail. While the
rations lasted, there had been little looting, if any; but when men are
hungry it takes better discipline than that of such a force as this to
keep them to their ranks and duty. Also, day after day of pitiless cold
rain (such as is common in late autumn in this land) began to tell on
the health and spirits of the Urmi plainsmen, who were quite unused to
such conditions of travel as these. Many broke down altogether, more
than 100 died on the way--the mortality among the animals being also
very heavy--while hundreds abandoned rifles and gear, and turned back to
the refuge of the British once more. The subsequent comment of the
British officers on this proceeding was terse and forcible. Stripped of
some rather unquotable verbiage, it amounts to the statement that a
Tyari man may be as big a thief as heaven ever made, but at least he
will leave his head before his rifle! In fact, one of the two wings into
which the force was divided, that composed of Urmi men, had lost all
spirit and "go" before they were half-way through the mountains. Had
they had to face an enemy of any enterprise, they would have been like
sheep before the butcher.
At this moment news came from the mountaineers of Tyari and Tkhuma
which, though different enough in character from that current among the
plainsmen, was at least equally fatal as far as the success of the
expedition was concerned. These clansmen formed the left, or western, of
the two columns of advance, and when the defeated Zibari Kurds retired
in the westerly direction, they had pursued them till they had lost
touch with their Urmi companions. Now they were in their own mountains,
free from all control, and well armed; their faces were toward their own
homes, and also toward the homes of their hereditary enemies.
What did they care for Urmi men and the settlement of Persia, when
balanced against such a chance of loot and vengeance? Off they went on
the raid, seeing in every Kurd a foe, in every village lawful prize.
Nerwa and Rikan were turned out and burned, Tyari men being quite
reckless of the fact that in all Kurdistan none had been so orderly and
so loyal to the British as the men of these two districts! Word had gone
to the Agha of Chal that he was to cut off the retreat of the fleeing
Zibaris, and he had come out, more or less as an ally of the Assyrians,
to do so. Either from deliberate treachery, or merely from the
indiscipline natural in such a force, troops of the Tyari and Tkhuma men
got round his flank and into his villages, and Chal also went up in
flame and smoke. A glance at the map will show that their wild career
had now brought them again to the Zab, and to the district of Berwar.
Mira Reshid,[179] the biggest brigand in the district, now held this
land as representing British Authority (having undergone, we hope, a
change of soul like Petros Agha); and he now gathered his forces and
held the bridges over the Zab in the name of King George, while a most
naturally indignant British Political officer was hurrying up from
Dohuk with such police as he could gather. The mountaineers' wild career
was now stayed, and like schoolboys who have broken bounds, anticipatory
of dire consequences, but yet feeling that the "rag" had been worth it,
they obeyed the angry master's orders, and returned to the plains and
British authority. The Urmi men, feeling that they could do nothing by
themselves, had also drifted back; and Petros Agha himself, having
entirely lost his army, found that he and his "personal staff" could do
nothing but follow their example. He reported on arrival that he had not
been able to do what he intended, but he was sure that the Government
would be pleased, "because the moral effect upon the Kurds was so
extremely good!"[180]
As it happened Government was anything but pleased; the whole expedition
had failed, the money spent on it was wasted, the problem that they had
hoped solved was still on their hands, and the Kurds, whom it was most
important just then to keep quiet and contented, were all in a state of
entirely justifiable suspicion and wrath. How could they be expected to
believe that this was not what Government had intended? Those
responsible for the arrangements that had broken down so utterly were,
of course, furious, and planned condign punishment for the guilty
hillmen; but these were vetoed by the Political authorities, who perhaps
felt that, whatever the guilt of the men of Tyari, the blame did not
lie entirely with them! The camp at Mindan was reorganised and set going
once more, and harassed authority set itself to consider what could be
done with a problem difficult enough before, and now tangled worse than
ever. One thing only was clear, that in any case it was hopeless to
attempt anything till spring; and so refugees and British, each
extremely cross with the other, settled down for the winter in camp at
Mindan, with nothing settled but the extreme difficulty of a settlement!
Government fell back on a scheme of "settlement by infiltration," or
putting the people on the sites of villages that had "gone vacant" in
time past, either through the war, or by virtue of the general decline
of population during the later years of the Ottoman Empire. It was, of
course, not the "enclave" that had once been planned for them and which
they had been given the opportunity of securing, nor was it "their own
country" for most of them, and they did not at all like the notion of
being put where they could go, with Moslem neighbours and sometimes
Moslem landlords.
Their behaviour towards these was not, it must be owned, altogether
conciliatory. There were cases of villagers put under a particularly
good landlord (and a good Moslem gentleman _is_ a gentleman), who
accepted large advances from him on condition of promising to reap his
crops at a certain wage-rate in harvest, and then (with true up-to-date
spirit) struck for a large advance at the last moment! Even then the
landlord was not anxious to take steps. It was, he said, a point of
honour with him: he had never put any tenant, of any religion, in the
law courts yet.
"Neither shall you now, Agha," said the local Political officer; "but
the Government has its honour, too, and these fellows shall carry out a
contract to which the Government was a party."
In another case, too, one had to admit that the Christians were asking
for trouble. It is not neighbourly to kill a pig, cut him up, and put
the _disjecta membra_ of him in and about the only spring from which
your Mussulman neighbours have to draw their water!
Delay followed delay, it seeming to be the policy of the Government to
keep those who were getting on one another's nerves tied together in
idleness. Home authority said that it would give a "block grant" of
£500,000 to settle the whole Assyrian problem, but would not allow those
on the spot to get to work at the plan they had prepared, being
apparently under the impression that when you are settling people "on
the land" they can begin farming operations on it at any season. "I am
willing to tackle Joshua's job," said a harassed official, "and try to
settle these tribes in a promised land of sorts. Still, unlike Joshua, I
cannot stop the sun, and the summer is advancing now!"
At last permission was received, and preparations commenced for the
movement of the people, tribe by tribe, to villages on and about the
northern border of Irak. The fact that the border was still undefined,
and the only thing clear to everyone on the spot was that the line
suggested by the unratified Treaty of Sèvres was unworkable, added yet
another element of confusion to the problem. One person who was doing
his efficient best to "queer the whole show" was Petros Agha. When
inquiry was made into the fiasco of November, 1920, that worthy had got
off at least as cheaply as he deserved, being acquitted of anything
worse than incompetence and gross mismanagement. There was nothing to
show that he intended Tyari and Tkhuma to go off and raid as they did,
when he assigned to them just that part of his line from which it was
easiest to do so! Thus, he had not been put into prison with others, and
was using his freedom to intrigue against any plan of settling his
people which was not under his control.
His dream now (and how far the man believes in his own dreams is a
problem beyond our solving) was of an "independent Assyria," a thin
strip that should stretch between Turkish and Irak territory, from Urmi
in Persia to Alexandretta on the Mediterranean, the whole to be under
French protection! This he put forward at the moment when the French
were deciding that even Cilicia was beyond their power to hold; and he
perpetually urged all of his nation to have nothing to do with any
British schemes for their disposal, for was not he, Petros Agha, just
coming back with boundless supplies of French rifles and French
napoleons, to lead them back in triumph to their own land once more?
That at least was the song sung by his agents in Mindan camp in his
name, and no suggestion as to the desirability of shepherding the man
out of the country met with any response. In particular, his influence
was thrown against the most hopeful element in the Government
scheme--viz., the reconstitution of the Assyrian contingent. The attempt
to raise an Arab force in Mesopotamia was not looking too promising just
then, and military men were proposing to collect afresh the force that
they had so unfortunately thrown away before, and to use the best
fighting element in Irak in the defence of the land. It was to be as
numerous a force as the nation could raise, and to be officered by
British officers.[181] Petros passed the word round (or his agents in
camp did it for him), that no man who regarded Petros as his leader must
enlist, and Government would not allow those charged with recruiting for
the force to stop this counter-Government propaganda! It says something
for the possibilities of using this nationality in the one way it can be
really of use, that under these circumstances some 600 men were
enrolled. On the final removal of Petros (see below) this number went up
at once to over 2,000. It was only British advice, given for the sake of
the people, that fixed that limit.
However, the wheels continued to revolve, if slowly, and with a vast
amount of creaking and of worry to political officers who had the work
of settling some 10,000 recalcitrant people. This trifling job was
thrown in as a sort of additional faggot on the top of an already heavy
load! Arrangements were come to with the Kurds of Berwar for the return
of the Christians to that district, and to that of Ashitha beyond it, it
being held that if that country was perhaps not strictly in Irak, at
least it had never been efficiently in Turkey! The local Kurds, indeed,
behaved quite unexpectedly well, seeming to regard the presence of their
old Christian neighbours as a part of the established disorder of
things, which had a sort of vested right to be restored. One was
reminded of certain married couples who lead a "cat and dog life" in one
another's society, but who yet both crave for the accustomed irritation
if ever it is withdrawn! They recognised the right of the returning
Christians to their old lands and villages, and even to a half of the
crops that were in the ground, in places where the land was being
cultivated by Kurds after the Christians had left it. Sometimes there
were difficulties to settle, but surprisingly seldom.
In one case, some nomad Kurds who owed no allegiance to anybody had
developed ambitions to try a more settled life, and had sat them down in
a little group of villages known as the Halamun district, far away from
anywhere. These fellows showed no eagerness to clear out and let the
lawful owners return. It took a visit from the assistant Political
Officer and a long argument to put matters straight here, and matters at
one time got so strained that the Kurds began debating whether it would
not be better to kill the English intruder there and then. This matter
was solved by the A.P.O. (who quite understood the matter under debate)
coolly going to bed, and to sleep, in the midst of them, and so leaving
them to talk the interesting problem over. When he woke up in the
morning the Kurds were ready with a compromise. They would turn out of
three of the four villages under debate, but wanted to retain one. This
was agreed to. So matters went on. A pass through a seemingly impassable
range is always found as you approach it. Caravan after caravan of
tribesmen (each caravan perhaps 1,000 strong) was moved in turn from
Mindan camp and up to the distributing centre at Dohuk, whence they
could be forwarded, after considerable grumbling, to the destination
which was marked out for them. Every man, woman, and child received the
Government grant of 120 rupees at Dohuk, and sometimes there were
unforeseen claimants. One lady walked in triumphant with a baby that had
not been there when she left Mindan two days before. She had simply gone
aside from the caravan as it travelled, produced this infant, and then
put it on the top of the bundle she was carrying, and so finished the
day's journey! She wanted the Government to make the usual "capitation
grant" to this new arrival. Strictly, he (or she) was not entitled to
it, as not having been on the roll at the time of the departure from
Mindan! Still, a point was stretched in this case.
The tribesmen were, of course, armed for self-defence, receiving a quota
of rifles; and a very delicate business it was, in the light of recent
events, to determine the proportion of guns that would enable them to
defend themselves, and at the same time not tempt them to go a-raiding
against their neighbours! This danger was a real one, as may be seen
from the request of one Tabriz, an Amazonian lady who had led her own
retainers in person through all the fighting, and who now specially
demanded two rifles for herself. "Why two, Tabriz?" "One to kill the
Turkish Agha of Chal, and the other to kill the man who killed my
brother, and who is now in your gendarmerie!"
In spite of such grateful flashes of humour the business was a weary
one, hearing the same sort of grumbles from an endless succession of
people over and over again, and trying to get them to see that, when
they could not get what they would like, it was better to take what they
could get! One thought with profound admiration of Moses. We had not 1
per cent of the mass of people whom he had to manage for forty years;
and yet--so far as is recorded--he only lost his temper once, and then
only hit out at the rock instead of his tormentors! Would that we could
say as much.
Ultimately, the thing got done somehow, and the people put where, given
honest work and fair luck, they had at least a chance of living. The
writer, as a reward for his small share in the work, found himself
identified, not with Moses or Joshua, but with a much humbler Scriptural
character. A flippant friend declared that he had always wanted to make
the acquaintance of "that Egyptian" (Acts xxi. 38) "who made an uproar,
and led out into the wilderness 4,000 men that were murderers," and now
at last he had done so! The final stage of the work consisted in the
settlement of the Patriarchal family in the "English Mission House" at
Bibaydi (the property of the Archbishop of Canterbury), which was
repaired and made ready for their reception. During the later stages of
the _volks-wanderung_, they had remained rather in the background,
seeming to acquiesce in a rather unfortunate manner in their own
supersession by Petros Agha and his partisans. It was, therefore, a
satisfaction to see them settled in a place where they could resume
their proper work for their people; and where the old loyalty has a
chance of crystallising afresh, though perhaps in a new form, round the
ancient ecclesiastical throne they represent. The ultimate removal of
Petros Agha[182] from the land, and the arrangement of working
understandings with the local Kurds, both help in the same direction,
and the boy-patriarch shows signs (under the influence of his aunt and
guardian) of developing on sound lines. Indications that the human boy
in him is not entirely swamped by his office (the fact that the
Patriarch has been known to snowball official callers suggests joyous
visions of what might be at episcopal palaces in England) will probably
be thought, at least by English folk, absolutely healthy symptoms!
The mountaineers were thus settled in a place where they could live,
even if they had to fight famine, local diseases, and domestic foes, and
their settlement provides a centre to which scattered refugees may
rally. With the Urmi sections, however, it is a different case. It was
simply impossible for British authority to guarantee protection to these
folk if they returned to their old home in Persia, and equally
impossible for the Persian "Government" to protect them when there.
The only effective authority in the Urmi district is the ruffian Simco,
and the feeling against the return of the expelled Christians is far
more pronounced in Persia than in Kurdistan. In Kurdistan the war was
simply a large instance of the feuds that had always been fought out in
the land since time began. In Persia it was an unprecedented, and
largely successful, rising of an inferior and subject race! This is a
thing far harder to forgive. Thus, in Kurdistan the Kurds were ready to
clear out of "Christian lands" that they had actually occupied and
tilled; in Persia, the Mussulmans were ploughing the Assyrian village
sites, and building houses on the vineyards, in their readiness to face
any loss and labour, if only all trace of the Christians could be
obliterated.
The British authorities declared that they could not repatriate men of
Urmi. Every individual would receive a "capitation grant" similar to
that given to others, and every family would be given lands, in Irak, if
they would accept them. If they returned to Persia, it must be as
individual Persian subjects at their own risk. It was a hard saying, but
one does not see what else they could possibly say.
Even so, the drawing force of their own land was too strong to be
resisted in many cases. "The earth that bore us lies lightest on our
bones," and some thousands of Urmi people (there were some 10,000 of
them in all) sought to return to their own land. Many settled in
Mesopotamian towns, and found work there, but hardly any accepted the
lands in Irak that the Government would give. Nothing is harder than
helping folk! At first there were difficulties about the reception of
even individuals at the frontier, but this was overcome, and several
thousand returning refugees drifted to centres like Hamadan and Tabriz
(where others of their co-nationals had preceded them), there to wait
and live as they could, till fate should open a way for them to return
to their own. One must admit with deep regret that, for these people,
the result of joining the Entente in the war has been the utter
extinction of a community of Christians who trace back their life to the
Magi who came to worship at the manger of Bethlehem. Even the life of
their mountain brethren is not assured. If war, famine, and disease
shall spare them, and if a British democracy that fought the war to
secure the safety of small nations shall not make peace at the price of
handing over a small allied nation to its avowed and bitter enemy, then
it may, perhaps, be allowed the chance of doing what it desires to do,
and of continuing to serve England in the only way in which it can
render service. But that matter is not settled at the date of writing.
The Assyrian settlement then has been, like the Mesopotamian settlement
of which it is a part--like the whole Peace for that matter--a "botched
job." A piece of work that might have been finely done has, in fact,
been just patched up to go on somehow: because the Democracy that was
going to make the world safe is too tired to finish its work; and
because it was unwilling or unable to make up its mind as to what it
wanted at all.
The spectacle is a pitiable one, only redeemed by the magnificent work
done in Mesopotamia by the officers who now seem likely to meet the
usual reward of those who serve the British Government well!
Turkey in 1918 was willing to accept absolutely any terms that Britain
laid down, with thanks to Allah that they were not more severe. "We
don't even care who governs us now," said a Turk of position to the
writer (then a prisoner in Turkish hands in Anatolia). "No conceivable
Government can be as bad as our own, and we only hope that the British
will take us over." Then, because our "statesmen" did not know what they
wanted, came delay, delay, delay: till the Turk could gather his forces
again, and show himself, as usual, a good fighter, but uncivilised and
uncivilisable; absolutely incapable of recognising that a _rayah_ has
or can have rights, and equally incapable of seeing anything wrong in
his habit of dealing with even the suspicion of "treason" by massacring
every man and ravishing every woman! There may have been some excuse for
maintaining him in Europe before the war, when to abolish him meant the
outbreak of one. Now, after it, he has been maintained to be the seed of
future trouble, by statesmen who proclaimed the "war to abolish war";
and on their heads rests the guilt of the future massacres that will
surely arise after the gigantic lesson they have given to the world that
massacres can be committed with impunity, if only they are big and
horrible enough!
The war was "to make the world safe for Democracy." Has Democracy shown
itself capable of dealing with the world? Its weaknesses are, first,
that it cannot trust its agents. No race on earth has such
administrators as the British; and the writer, who has been privileged
to live with some of them and see their working, only hopes some day to
be able to tell the story of what he has seen, that England may have at
least the chance of knowing what manner of men they are who serve her in
despised Mesopotamia. Yet, because one man in a hundred may show himself
no true sahib, and may fall under temptations that he has never been
trained to bear, Democracy at home hampers the ninety-nine good men for
that reason; and will not allow the man on the spot, who knows, to act
on his own judgment in crises, without delaying reference to those who
neither know nor can know.
Second, Democracy, as represented by its leaders at home, gives pledges
lightly, and abandons them. "Its vows are lightly spoken; its faith is
hard to bind." In the East, decision and firmness come first. A governor
who has these will always be respected, even if he be cruel as no
Englishman can be. Let him be just as well, and he is worshipped. But
how can he be firm and decisive when those at home will not let him act
for himself, and send him ever-varying orders from Downing Street?
It is this conduct in the British Government; this failure, not in the
men on the spot, but in those at home, that calls out all the worst
qualities in Turk and Arab, Armenian and Assyrian. Few people know
better than the writer how annoying those latter types can be, but they
can respect and serve a Government that knows its own mind. It is
because of this evil spirit that we have ourselves evoked that some now
clamour for the complete evacuation of Mesopotamia.
This is a claim to which in honour we cannot yield. Even apart from the
guardianship that we have definitely accepted under treaty, we have
contracted a moral obligation that it is impossible for us to disown. We
did not make war on the inhabitants of Mesopotamia; we came to free them
from the domination of the Turk. Having so freed them, we cannot
honourably leave them till fresh authority has arisen to control the
disorderly elements that swarm in every quarter of that land. That was
our pledge to those who have stood by us through good and ill.
We have cast out one unclean spirit; now, if we leave the house empty,
seven other spirits more wicked than the Turk will enter in, and the
last state of Mesopotamia will be worse than the first.
_Printed by_ LOWE & BRYDONE (PRINTERS) LTD., _London, N.W. 1_.
GLOSSARY
=Abba.= An Arab cloak. See p. 9.
=Agha.= "Master." The title of a petty chieftain, chiefly in use
among the Kurds.
=Araba.= A light carriage. See p. 6. The driver is an =Arabaji=.
=Ashiret.= "Feudatory." See p. 167.
=Baita= (or Bait). A living room (Syriac).
=Beg= (or Bey). Perhaps equivalent to "Honourable." A title given to
Europeans as well as to local chiefs.
=Belai.= Perhaps equivalent to Belvedere. See p. 142.
=Binbashi.= Lit. the commander of 1000 men. A "Major" (Turkish),
often written Bimbashi, for euphony.
=Birader.= "Brother" (Kurdish).
=Cadi.= "Judge" or "Magistrate."
=Capitulations.= The charters defining the privileges of foreign
residents in Turkey. Originally granted by the Sultans of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and confirmed in their present
form in 1870.
=Chôl.= The desert. See p. 61.
=Dagh.= "Mountain" (Turkish).
=Deir.= "Monastery" (Syriac).
=Diwan.= Lit. "Sofa" or "Däis"; hence an "Audience" or "Reception."
=Diwan Khana=, "A Reception Room."
=Effendi.= "Sir." A title given especially to Europeans.
=Fedai.= An Armenian terrorist. See p. 245.
=Firman.= An Imperial rescript.
=Franga.= "Frank"; i.e. European.
=Giaour.= An "Infidel"; i.e. one who is not a Moslem.
=Haj.= The obligatory pilgrimage to Mecca, which is incumbent upon
all strict Moslems. =Haji=, one who has performed the pilgrimage.
Shiahs go also on "Haj" to the tomb of Hossein at Kerbela.
=Hakim.= A physician.
=Hamidié.= The battalions of irregular soldiers embodied by Abdul
Hamid II.
=Hegira.= The flight of Mohammed from Mecca in 622 A.D.
=Imaum.= Properly one who leads the Responses in the public services
in the Mosques. A Moslem divine, learned in the =Sheriat= or Sacred
Law.
=Iyba.= "Shame"; "Infra dig."
=Jebel.= "Mountain" (Arabic).
=Jehad.= A "Holy War," undertaken for the defence of Islam against
unbelievers.
=Kaimakam.= A Turkish district governor of the third rank, inferior
to a =Vali= and a =Mutaserif=. =Kaimakamlik=, the district governed by a
=Kaimakam=.
=Kala.= "Castle."
=Kalima.= The Moslem Confession of Faith.
=Katar.= "Mule." =Katarji.= A "Muleteer."
=Kavass.= An armed attendant, usually attached to a foreign
Consulate.
=Keleg.= A raft buoyed on inflated skins. See pp. 137 and 340.
=Kelegji=, the man who works it.
=Khan.= An "Inn" (Turkish). =Khanji=, an "Inn-keeper."
=Khan.= "Chief" (Persian). A title of respect.
=Malik.= "Chief" (Syriac). Akin to =Melek=, "King." A title in use
among the Mountain Syrians as about equivalent to =Agha= among the
Kurds.
=Mar.= "Lord." Fem. =Mart.= (Syriac). A title given by
the Syrians to the Saints and Bishops of their Church.
=Mejidié.= A Turkish silver coin of the value of twenty =piastres=.
Equivalent at present rates to about 3s. 9d.
=Millet.= Any subject religious sect officially recognized as
existing in the Ottoman Empire. See pp. 80 and 89.
=Mira.= "Ruler." A form of =Amir= or =Emir= (Arabic). A title given to
the Chief of the Yezidis, and to certain prominent Chiefs among the
Kurds.
=Mohurram.= The ten days' mourning observed by the Shiah Moslems in
memory of Hassan and Hosein, the sons of Ali: particularly in
memory of the latter, slain by his rival Yezid at Kerbela in 680.
=Mollah.= A Moslem priest.
=Mudir.= A Turkish local governor of the fourth and lowest rank;
inferior to a =Vali=, a =Mutaserif=, and a =Kaimakam=.
=Mutaserif.= A Turkish provincial governor of the second rank;
inferior to a =Vali.=
=Piastre.= A Turkish coin, worth about 2-1/4d.
=Pshitta.= The ancient Syriac version of the Holy Scriptures.
=Qasha.= A Christian priest (Syriac).
=Rabban.= Fem. =Rabbanta= (Syriac). A Christian who has adopted certain
Monastic obligations. See pp. 113 and 270.
=Rabbi.= "Teacher" (Syriac). The title usually given by the Syrians
to the members of the Archbishop's Assyrian Mission.
=Rais.= The head man of a village.
=Ramazan.= The great Moslem Fast, lasting one lunar month; during
which time no food may be taken from sunrise to sunset.
=Rayat.= "Subject" or "Serf"; see p. 167.
=Regie.= An inter-national trading company, which rents the tobacco
monopoly from the Ottoman Government.
=Sam.= The "Poison Wind" of the desert. See pp. 62 and 339.
=Santon.= A Moslem saint.
=Serai.= Strictly a "yard" or "quadrangle"; hence a house which is
built around a quadrangle: often "Government House."
=Seyyid.= A descendant of the Prophet Mohammed.
=Shamasha.= A Christian deacon (Syriac).
=Sheikh.= Lit. "Elder." A title given especially to Moslem chiefs
possessing high religious authority.
=Sheriat.= The "Sacred Law," as enunciated in the Koran.
=Shiah.= An important sect among the Moslems, dominant in Persia and
India, who maintain that Ali, Mohammed's son-in-law, was his
legitimate and hereditary successor, and who accordingly repudiate
the authority of Ali's three predecessors in the Khalifate, Abu
Bekr, Omar, and Othman.
=Sufi.= A Moslem mystic of somewhat pantheistic sympathies.
=Sunni.= The Orthodox Moslems, dominant in Turkey, who regard Abu
Bekr, Omar, and Othman as being legitimate Khalifs and assign them
precedence over Ali.
=Tashnak.= The Armenian Revolutionary Society. See p. 245.
=Tel.= A prehistoric barrow or tumulus.
=Vali.= A Provincial Governor-General. A Turkish governor of the
highest rank.
=Vilayet.= The province under the jurisdiction of a =Vali=.
=Yezidi.= See chap. iv, pp. 87-110.
=Zaptieh.= A policeman of the Turkish constabulary. See p. 47.
=Ziaret.= A Moslem place of pilgrimage; usually the tomb of a saint.
INDEX
A
Abbassides, Khalifs at Baghdad, 4, 115-6 _n._, 349;
their last living descendant, 132
Abdi Agha (of the Sindiguli Kurds), his stronghold at Tanina, 311-2;
his "hint" to the men of Amadia, 325-6
Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of Turkey, incidents of his rule, 37, 38;
arms the Kurds as _Hamidié_ irregulars, 168;
countenances the Armenian Massacres, 232, 292;
his deposition deplored in Mosul, 79;
his reverence for Sheikh Abd-l-Kadr of Kirkuk, 343;
his endorsement of Ali's _Firman_ at Adeljivas, 243;
_lèse-majesté_ in the expression, H_{2}O., 226
Abdurrahman the Kurd, his robbery of our messenger, 331;
his imprisonment and release, 331-3
Abgarus, King of Osroëne, legend of, 18-9
Ablahad the Deacon, his exploits and death, 192-4
Abraham the Patriarch, claimed as tutelary saint of Urfa, 22-3;
teaches his descendants to offer sacrifices, 187
Adeljivas, the Armenian priest of, and his hereditary privilege, 242-3
Akra, 128-33; 401-2
Aleppo, 1-7;
origin of name, 22 _n._
Alexander the Great, his victory at Arbela, 115;
his design to fix his capital at Babylon, 356-7;
his theatre there, _ib._
Ali (the fourth Khalif), his _Firman_ to the family
of the Armenian priest at Adeljivas, 242-3
Ali Beg (Mira of the Yezidis), 93;
his castle, 106-7;
his authority over his followers, 107-8;
murdered by his successor, 108-9
Ali Ihsan, Turkish General, 382-3
Ali Riza (_Vali_ of Van), interviewed by David, the Fedai informer, 252;
his steps to suppress the Fedais, 252-7
Alkosh, 116-7
Amadia, 43-4, 321-33, 337;
_Kai makam_ of, endeavours to expel us from Sapna, 324-5;
our dealings with him concerning Abdurrahman the Kurd, 331-3
Amida, _see_ Diarbekr
Anastasius, Emperor, gives orders for the building of Daras, 49
Antioch, 5;
seat of Patriarchate, 44-6
Arabs, costume of, 9-10;
encampment of, 65-7;
unruliness of, 65, 85-6, 99, 399-401
Aram, chief of the Fedais at Van, captured, 256-7;
Amnestied, and let loose again, 258-9
Ararat, Aghri Dagh, 25, 335
Archbishop's Assyrian Mission, _see_ Preface;
_also_, 153, 262, 271, 321
Armenians, their national characteristics, 237-9;
their conquest by the Turks, 238;
their condition under the Turks, 35-6, 239-45;
their perverseness, 240-1;
massacred in 1895 at Urfa, 17 _n._;
also at Diarbekr, 34-6;
and elsewhere, 244-5;
escape their pursuers in the Chokh Mountains, 231-2;
sheltered by Zohar Agha, 232;
Their revolutionary organizations, 245-7;
their outbreaks at Mush and Van in 1905, 247-51;
their arsenals betrayed, 252-3;
their murder of the informer, 254;
their leaders captured, 255-7;
and amnestied at the Revolution, 257;
impracticability of their Programme of "Reform," 257-9;
massacres in the Great War, 360, 363-4, 383, 385, 387-91;
resistance of their fighting units, 378, 382
Assur, _see_ Kala Shergat
Assyrian Empire, 39, 122-4;
its final fall, 83-4, 114;
its conquest of Urmi, 200;
of Urartu, 236-7;
and of Babylon, 121, 352-3
Assyrian remains, at Nineveh, 69, 83-5, 114;
at Bavian, 121-4;
at Amadia, 320-1;
at Kala Shergat, 343-6
Assyrians, the East Syrian Highlanders supposed
to be descended from them, 112, 168;
their share in the Great War, 359-387;
under British protection at Baqubah, 392-400;
difficulties of re-settlement, 400-415, _see also_ East Syrian Christians
Assyrian contingent, formation, 393-4;
exploits, 394-5, 399-400;
disbandment, 396;
re-embodiment, 399;
dissolution under Petros Agha, 404-5;
re-constitution under Iraq government, 408
Avalanches, 285-6;
escapes from, 278, 285-6;
Armenian escape through, 231-2
B
Babylon, 350-7;
destroyed by Sennacherib, 121, 352-3;
rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar, 352-4;
chosen by Alexander the Great as the capital of his empire, 356-7
Babylonian charms, still in use, against the evil eye, etc., 329 _n._
Babylonian remains, at Samarra, 348-9;
at Babylon, 350-7
Baghdad, 349-50
Baghdad Railway, progress of, at Aleppo, 1-2;
at Mosul, 85;
at Baghdad, 349-50
Bajan, Malik of Balulan, his exploits and death, 189
Baldwin I and II, Counts of Edessa in the Crusades, 20-1
Bar Soma, Bishop of Nisibis, founds the University of Nisibis, 58
Baqubah, formation of refugee camp, 386, 392, 396;
attacked by revolted Arabs, 399-400
Barzan, the Sheikh of, 134-54;
his country, 134-7;
his "palace," 137-8;
his fair treatment of his subjects, 138, 153-4, 312-3;
devotion of his clansmen, 141, 143-5;
his war with the Government, 139-41, 143-5;
his reception of us at Suryi, 142-3;
his quashing of Tettu's _Jehad_, 143-4;
his request for medical assistance, 146-7;
his "score" off the Heriki Kurds, 149-51;
put to death by Turks, 369;
storming of Barzan village, 403
Bashkala, 226-7, 231;
postal arrangements at, 226-7
Bathing _al fresco_ in the mountain districts, 294-5
Bavian, Assyrian sculptures at, 121-4
Baz, 167, 303 _n._, 366, 370, 381
Bazaar, humours of, at Akra, 132-3;
Persian, at Urmi, 196-7
Bedr Khan Beg, Mira of Bohtan, his massacres of
the Syrian Christians in 1845, 37, 279, 338;
banished to Candia, 37 _n._;
reproved by his brother, 318
Bedr Khan Beg, grandson of last, suppressed by the Government, 37
Bedr Khan Beg, of the Begzadi Kurds, his dark and sunny sides, 190, 193-4
Begzadi Kurds, 189
Belisarius wins the battle of Daras, 52-3;
his previous escape, 56
Berwar, 311, 319-20;
Jewish village raided on Good Fridays by the Tyari Christians, 304;
misdeeds of Mira Reshid, 311-16;
in the Great War, 366, 369, 404;
resettlement in, 409
Bibaydi, building of English Mission House, 321 _et seq._;
its conversion into British military post, 395-6;
selection as the seat of the Patriarchate, 411
Blood money, awarded in expiation for murder, 303
Blood offerings, practised by Abraham, 187;
by the Yezidis at Sheikh Adi, 101, 104;
by the Christians at Mar B'Ishu, 187-8;
and at Mar Sergius and elsewhere, 205-6;
by Moslems at the Feast of Bairam, 187;
by all creeds at Noah's Altar on Judi Dagh, 335
Bohtan, _see_ Bedr Khan Beg, tale of the Christian Captive, 337-8
Bridges--at Shuster, said to have been
built by the captive Emperor Valerian, 16;
at Dara (Roman), 52 _n._;
at Nisibis (Roman), 59;
at Mosul, 82-3;
near Suryi (the "Bridge of Rocks" erected by the Heriki Kurds), 149;
in the mountain districts, 288;
at Chumba, 296;
at Lizan, held against the Kurdish raiders, 315
British Consul (from Van, 1909), affronted by Sheikh Musa of Neri, 165-6;
attacked by escort in Gawar, 179-82;
entertained by an ingenuous Agha between Urmi and Van, 228-9;
(from Tabriz) at Urmi on the frontier commission, 219-20;
hears of our murder, and arranges for our funeral, 225-6;
(from Mosul) canvasses Abdi Agha in our interest, 325-6;
visits us at Amadia, 326, 331;
his interview with the Servian prophetess, 326;
(from Van, 1902) attacked by Kurds in Sapna, 329-30
British Consulates--at Diarbekr, 40-1;
at Mosul, 69-70, 75, 340;
its establishment the cause of a mild religious riot, 79-80;
at Van, a good point for seeing the fight between
the Government troops and the Fedais, 253-4;
at Baghdad, 350
British influence, a waning quantity, 40-1;
exerted on behalf of the Yezidis, 107;
to secure fair usage for the Sheikh of Barzan, 140;
and on behalf of the East Syrian Christians, 272;
a valuable factor for the prevention of oppression, 41, 263-4, 321, 324
British invasion of Mesopotamia, 379, 382-4, 386-7
Browne, the late Rev. W. H., incidents of his life at Qudshanis, 271-3;
his perilous predicament in the hands of the men of Tkhuma, 299-300
C
Capital punishment, as carried out at Mosul, 77-9;
as left in abeyance at Van, 244
Carchemish, 13
Cave monasteries, at Urfa, 18 _n._;
at Dara, 54-5;
at Rabban Hormizd, 117-20;
at Bavian, 121;
at Maragha, 185 _n._
Censorship of books in Turkey, 226
Census taking in the mountains, 174-5
Châl, raided by the Tyari men, 297-8;
sacked by Assyrians, 377, 404
Châl, The Agha of: _mudir_, murderer, and Jew farmer, 317;
joins coalition against Assyrians, 366;
reconciled to British authority, 404;
Tabriz' vendetta against him, 410
Chaldæan Christians (Uniat Nestorians), 80-1;
in the monastery of Rabban Hormizd, 118-9;
proposal to eliminate them in Tal, 303-4;
their bishop in Sapna, his medæival methods of controversy, 321-3
Charrae, Crassus' defeat at, 16;
Valerian's defeat at, _ib._;
its identity with Abraham's Haran, 22 _n._
Chokh Dagh, the road across, 231;
escape of Armenian fugitives in its gorges, 231-2
Chôl, the, 61-8
Cholera, at Urmi, 207
Chosroës I., king of the Sassanid Persians, his siege of Edessa, 31 _n._
Chosroës II., king of the Sassanid Persians,
his capture of the "True Cross," 188;
his defeat by the Emperor Heraclius at Nineveh, 115;
his palace at Seleucia-Ctesiphon, 354
Churches--at Dara, in the Cave Monastery, 55;
at Deir el Za'aferan, 44;
at Erdil, Oramar, 154-5;
at Rabat, Tal, rebuilt by the villagers, 302-3;
at Rabban Hormizd, 119-20;
at Shwawutha, 263, 274 _n._;
at Urfa, scene of the Armenian massacre, 17;
of Mar Abd' Ishu, Tal, 306-7;
of Mar B'Ishu, Gawar, 185-8;
of Mar Giwergis, Lizan, 315;
of Mar Sergius, Urmi, 205-6;
of Mar Shalitha, Qudshanis, 273-6;
of Mar Zeia Jilu, 171-3;
sack of, 370;
of Mart Miriam, Urmi, 202;
of Mart Miriam, Walto, 291;
of St. James at Nisibin (fourth-century Roman), 59-61;
of SS. Peter and Paul at Van, its property registered
in the names of the patron saints, 241
Commandeering of our horses by Sheikh Musa at Neri, 165-6;
of an English traveller's horses by soldiers at Diza of Gawar, 182-3
Constantius, Emperor, fortifies Amida, 30
Costume, of Arabs and Kurds, 9-10;
of the upper official classes, 10;
of the Yezidis, 92, 106-8;
of Syrian and Kurdish mountaineers, 112-3, 143;
of Syrian women, 152;
of Persians at Urmi, 197;
of Seyyids at Urmi, 209;
in Mar Shimun's _Diwan_, 276
Cox, Sir Percy, Chief Commissioner of Mesopotamia, 399, 411 _n._
Crassus, defeated by the Parthians at Charrae, 16
Crusaders, employed as captives to build Aleppo citadel, 3;
their capture and loss of Edessa, 20-1
Cyaxares, king of the Medes, captures Nineveh, 83
D
Dara, anciently Daras, the building of the city, 48-9;
its ruins, 48-52;
the battle, 52-3;
the ancient quarries, 54-5
David d'Mar Shimun, his leadership during the war, 366, 377, 381;
his escape at the murder of the Patriarch, 380;
his son elected to the Patriarchate, 400
David, the Armenian informer, betrays the rebel arsenals at Van, 252-3;
murdered, 254
Deir el Za'aferan, 44-6
Derceto, worshipped at Edessa, 23
Devil worship, _see_ Yezidis
Dhuspas, _see_ Van
Diarbekr, anciently Amida, its walls and monuments, 26-9;
its siege by Sapor, II, 30-1;
by Kobad, 31-3;
and by Farzman, 33-4;
massacre of the Armenians at, 34-5;
British Consulate at, 40-1;
massacres during the Great War, 389
Diz, the _Qasha_ and the looted cow, 291-2;
during the war, 365, 372-4
Diza of Gawar, 179, 180-3, 185
Donkeys, regarded as _infra dig_ by the _Ashirets_, 288-9;
their use on _Kelegs_, 348 _n._
E
East Syrian Christians (Nestorians), 80-1, 112, 118-9;
origin and former importance of their church, 19, 264-5;
its present condition, 150-3, 202-4, 265;
their patriarch and hierarchy, 264-8, 112-3;
their churches, rites and ceremonies, 185-8, 274-6;
their constancy to their religion, 154, 177, 337-8
Eden, traditional site of, 26, 235, 264
Edessa, _see_ Urfa
Enver Pasha, invades Trans-Caucasia 361-2;
his responsibility for Armenian massacres, 387, 391
Episcopate in the East Syrian Church, hereditary, 266-8
Erdil, 147-57
Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, 122, 353;
his palace at Nineveh, Nebi Yunus, 84-5
Euphrates River, crossing of, 12-3
Evil Eye, belief in, and charms against, 328-9
F
Farzman, recaptures Amida from the Persians, 33-4
Fasting, as a religious observance, importance of,
in an Oriental's eyes, 259, 277-8, 338, 342;
the "Rogation of the Ninevites," 85 _n._;
strictness of the Nestorian Lent, 303; 405 _n._
Fedais (Armenian Terrorists), their methods and organization, 245-7;
their outbreak at Mush, 247-50;
their exploits there, 247-9;
their strongholds, 249-50;
their incursion into Van, 250-1;
their arsenals betrayed, 252-4;
their leaders captured, 255-6;
and amnestied, 257;
their proceedings since the Revolution, 257-9
Ferries, across the Euphrates near Birijik, 12-3;
across the Tigris at Mosul, 82;
across the Zab at Barzan, 136-7
Feuds, general conduct of, 167-9, 292-4;
dormant in the "Apostles'" house, 292;
composed by the Patriarch's intervention, 268-70, 298;
by payment of blood money, 303;
feuds between Christians and Kurds in Tergawar, 189-90, 192-4;
the author unwittingly involved, 223-5;
feuds between the men of Châl and Tkhuma, 143, 297-8;
between Reshid Beg and the men of Lizan, 314-5
Fire worship, traces of, 101, 199-200
Fishing, by dynamite, 229;
in the river-bed after an avalanche, 286
Fountain worship, traces of, 100, 101
G
Gawar, 176-85;
oppression of the Christian inhabitants, 177-9;
attacked in the marshes by our own escort, 179-82;
state of the Government, 182-3;
the Cave of the Jann, 183-5;
massacres during the war, 362, 372;
proposed resettlement of Assyrians in, 397-8, 401-5
German excavators, at Kala Shergat, 343-7;
at Babylon, 352-7
Ghara, 311;
Reshid Agha wishes to be enrolled as a British subject, 323-4
Ghufas, in use on the lower Tigris, 347-9
Goblins, etc., belief in, 183-4, 333-5
Gregory the Illuminator, Saint, converts the Armenians, 238-9
H
Haidar Beg, Vali of Mosul, his murder of Hormizd, 368;
of the Sheikh of Barzan, 369
Haji Kas, and how his own son bought him, story of, 210-4
Hakkiari, _see_ Barzan, Jilu, Neri, Oramar, Tkhuma, Tyari, etc.
Hassan and Hosein, sons of Ali, the mourning
for them at Urmi (Mohurram), 207-8;
tombs of their comrades at Samarra, 348;
Pilgrimage to Hosein's tomb at Kerbela, 220, 350-1
Hassan Beg, of the Marku Kurds, Governor of Urmi, 214-5
Heraclius, Emperor, his victory over the Persians at Nineveh, 115
Heriki Kurds, their migrations and depredations, 127-8, 159-60;
their original home, 162-3;
their tribal palladium, _ib._;
their encounter with the Sheikh of Barzan, 149-51;
their orisons at the shrine of Mar Sergius, 206;
"Hermit Crab Act" (so-called) 177-9;
plundered of their sheep by Assyrians during the war, 377
Hermits' cells attached to churches, 206, 275 _n._
Herodotus, inaccuracies in his description of _kelegs_ and _ghufas_, 348 _n._;
of the walls of Babylon, 351-2;
and of the Babylonian temples, 354-5
High places for worship, 3, 62, 233-4, 343
Hittites, traces of their empire, 13-4, 344
Hormizd d'Mar Shimun, murdered by the Turkish government, 368
Houses, at Diarbekr, 28;
at Mosul, 70-1;
identical with the plans of the ancient houses at Assur, 346;
at Akra, 129, 131;
in the mountain districts, 142 _n._, 153
I
Inns and lodgings, on the plains, 8-9, 109, 125-6;
in the mountains, 152-3, 155
Invulnerability, reputations of, 189, 329-30
Ishtar, Temple of, at Babylon, 354-6
Ismail, Malik of Chumba, protects the
Turkish soldiers who seek refuge with him, 296-7
J
Jacobites, Monophysite Christians, 44-46;
at Deir el Za'aferan, the seat of their Patriarch, _ib._;
at Nisibin, 61;
at Mosul, 80-1;
at Sheikh Mattai, 118;
in Sapna, 312;
formerly at Tekrit, 347;
massacres during the Great War, 364, 391
Jaffar Agha, murdered by the Shah at Tabriz, 216
James of Nisibis, Saint, his defence of Nisibis, 57;
his church and tomb, 59-61
Jebel Maklub, 116;
monastery of Sheikh Mattai, 118
Jebel Sinjar, 67;
Yezidi stronghold, 90, 102, 154 _n._
Jebel Tur, a district full of ancient monasteries, 42-3, 46
Jevdet of Ghara, his difficulties as to the marriage of his daughter, 330-1
Jevdet Bey, Vali of Van, his massacres of Assyrians, 383;
and of Armenians, 389, 390
Jews at Mosul, claiming descent from the ten tribes, 81-2;
in Berwar, making the same claim, 304;
at Bashkala, 226;
suspected of ritual murder, 88 _n._;
raided by the Tyari Christians on Good Fridays, 304;
farmed by the Agha of Châl, 317;
and by other Kurdish Aghas, 317-8;
their pilgrimage to Nahum's tomb at Alkosh, 116;
and to Noah's altar, 335
Jilu, 167-76;
wandering habits of the tribesmen, 169-71;
their Church of Mar Zeia, 171-3;
the _Diwan_ of their bishop, 173-4;
troubles of a census taker, 174-5;
during the war, 366, 370, 377
Job, said to have dwelt at Urfa, 22 _n._
Jonah the Prophet, his reputed tomb at Nineveh, 84-5;
his fast, 85 _n._;
his estimate of the size of Nineveh confirmed, 114
Judi Dagh, the traditional resting-place of the Ark, 335-6
Julian, Emperor, defeated by Sapor II, 57-8, 348
Justinian, Emperor, attempts to suppress the Jacobites, 45;
his castle between Dara and Nisibin, 56
K
Kala Shergat, anciently Assur, excavations, 343-6
Karaja Dagh, 25-6
Kelegs, on the Tigris, 70, 340-2, 347;
on the Zab, 136-7;
employed for transporting the Assyrian sculptures, 122
Kerbela, 220, 348, 350-1
Khoja Nazr-ed-din and the Seyyid, story of, 209
Khosbaba of Lizan, his leadership during the war, 371, 374, 381
Khoshab Kala, 232-3
Kirkuk, 343
Kobad, king of the Sassanid Persians, captures Amida, 31-3;
sends his queen on pilgrimage to the monastery at Dara, 54 _n._;
defeats Justinian's army, 55-6
Kouyunjik, _see_ Nineveh, origin of name, 102
Kurds, their origin, 39 _n._; 111;
their costume, 9-10, 112-3;
their toughness and hardihood, 133, 168-9, 173-4, 278, 329-330;
their turbulence and plundering, 39-40, 216-8, 222-4, 263-4;
their oppression of Christians, 177-8, 279, 319, 337 _n._;
and of Yezidis, 99-100, 102;
favoured by the Government to its own detriment, 38-9, 178-9;
_see also_ Barzan, Begzadi, Châl, Heriki, Neri, Sapna,
Reshid Agha, Zohar Agha, &c.; in the Great War;
acquiescence in Assyrian repatriation, 409
L
Labaree, the Rev. Benjamin, of the American
Mission, murdered, 191 _n._, 224 _n._
Languages of the various tribes, 10, 111-2, 265, 289
Legends, of the Roman columns in Urfa Citadel, 18 _n._;
of King Abgarus of Osroëne, 18-9;
of Rabban Ephrem of Urfa, 21-2;
of Abraham at Urfa, 22-3;
of Sheikh Adi and Melek Taüs, 105;
of Rabban Hormizd at Sheikh Mattai, 117-8;
of the woman of Sat and the Devil, 160-1;
of the True Cross, 188;
of St. Thomas walking across Lake Urmi, 201;
of the Wise Men of the East, 202;
of Prester John, 262;
of the hoopoe, 283;
of the Tyari man and his father, 308-9;
of the Tyari men searching for the sun, 309-10;
of Noah and the Deluge, 90, 335-7
Liturgy of the East Syrian Christians, 270 _n._, 275-6
Lizan, raided by Mira Reshid of Berwar, 314-5;
the defence of the bridge, 315;
during the war, 366, 371, 374
Lyke-wake for the dead, 278-9
M
Madness, as treated at "Churches of Name," 120, 206;
by the Tyari men, 308;
and by the Archbishop's Mission, 327-8
Mardin, 42-6
Mar Dinkha, Bishop of Tergawar, 191;
his martyrdom; 362
Marku Kurds, 214, 218
Marriage, inadmissible when the best man has been smoking, 277 _n._;
marriage problems submitted for our solution at Amadia, 330-1
Mar Sergius, Bishop of Jilu, 172-4
Mar Shimun (Benyamin), Patriarch of the East Syrian Christians, 262, 264;
his temporal authority, 262, 265-6, 279-80;
his ecclesiastical jurisdiction, 262, 266-7, 271, 273-4;
his youth, 266-8;
his reputation among his people, 141, 268;
his interventions as peace-maker 268-70, 298;
his _Diwan_, 276-9;
his leadership of his people during the Great War, 359-81;
his personal heroism, 368, 371;
murder by Simko Agha, 380-1