Road through Kurdistan

Road through Kurdistan [English, London, 1942]

Ma route à travers le Kurdistan irakien [Français, Paris, 1994]

Kürdistan'dan Geçen Yol [Türkçe, İstanbul, 2001]

Road through Kurdistan
The Narrative of an Engineer in Iraq by A. M. HAMILTON
with a foreword by Major-General Rowan-Robinson

... From whatever quarter the city is approached no one can forget his first sight of Baghdad as it appears on die flat horizon—tall minarets and even taller factory chimneys thrusting above the date palms and the domes of mosques. Often above the venerable town there hangs a pall of smoke. Factory chimneys and minarets! A strange combination: all of them leaning a little this way or that.

When the hot sun beats on the desert the mirage makes the whole silhouette stand clear of the earth, and it shimmers and waves above the skyline. T.ike the floating island of Laputa it seems to move over the land from place to place. Even to-day, half-modernized, half-antiquated, Baghdad can yet look a magic city as of old.

As one cornes doser this visionary effect diminishes till in the outskirts of the town the romance of the place is lost in squalid streets. Baghdad has only two main thoroughfares; the rest of the city is for the most part a rabbit warren of flat-roofed houses built haphazard beside the Tigris River. The incoming road from the west crosses a railway line which is actually a part of the famous Berlin-Baghdad railway planned by Germany for the conquest of India—a dream of the Kaiser's that never materialized...

CONTENTS

1. LAND OF ETERNAL CONFLICT / II
2, DIWANIYAH / 24
3. NORTHWARD TO THE MOUNTAINS / 38
4. THE ROAD / 49
5. I CAMP ON SPILIK / 60
6. THE BRIGAND, HAMADA CHIN / 70
7. GALI ALI BEG / 79
8. FORTS ON THE FRONTIER / 91
9. MEN OF THE MIDDLE EAST / 104
I0. THE DEPTHS OF THE CANYON / 117
11. ALL IN THE DAY'S WORK / 130
12. A CHRISTMAS EVE IN KURDISTAN / 145
13. THE SNOWS MELT / 161
14. THE CAVE OF KOSPYSPEE / 173
15. THE TREASURE-VAULT OF THE ANCIENT KINGS / 182
16. THE CONQUEST OF GALI AL1 BEG / 192
17. THE BLOOD-FEUD OF ROWANDUZ / 209
18. THE FATE OF A KURDISH CHIEFTAIN / 222
19. THE ASSYRIANS / 240
20. THE GOAL ATTAINED / 252
 
ILLUSTRATIONS
I. IN THE ROWANDUZ GORGE facing / 32
Photograph Captain H. M. Burton

2. DIWANIYAH / 33
3. THE BLIND BEGGAR ON THE KIRKUK ROAD / 48
4. AN ALTUN KEUPRI FISH / 48
5. ARBIL / 49
Royal Air Force Official Photograph—Crown Copyright Reserved

6. A KURDISH PLOUGHMAN 64
7. THE NEW ROAD UP SPILIK PASS 65
Royal Air Force Official Photograph—Crown Copyright Reserved

8. SPILIK PASS POLICEMAN, GUERGES AND HASSAN / 80
9. MULE CARAVAN TRANSPORTING `JUSS' TO KAN1 RASH / 80
10. THE CARAVAN TRACK IN THE ROWANDUZ GORGE / 81
Royal Air Force Official Photograph—Crown Copyright Reserved

11. ROWANDUZ FROM THE AIR / 96
Royal Air Force Official Photograph—Crown Copyright Reserved

12. KURDISH VILLAGERS / 97
13. THE ALANA SU JOINS THE ROWANDUZ RIVER / 112
Photograph: 5. D. Kidd

14. BERSERINI GORGE / 113
Photograph: Captain H. M. Burton
15. COOLIES TAKING THEIR MIDDAY REST, ASLEEP ON
THE ROCK / 128
16. SAYED HEUSNI EFFEND1 THIRD FROM THE RIGHT)
AND SHABANAS OF SHAIKH SAYED TAHA / 129
Photograph: Captain H. M. Burton

17. SHAIKH MAHMUD / 144
18, THE OLD BERSERINI BRIDGE / 145

ILLUSTRATIONS
19. TREWHELLA WINCH OPERATORS CONTROLLING
BRIDGE ERECTION facing / 160

20. HALF-TUNNELLED ROADWAY 1N THE ROWANDUZ GORGE / 161
Photograph: Pilot-Officer W. I. Scott, R.A.F.

21. A DARING AIR PHOTOGRAPH OF THE BALKIAN GORGE / 176
Royal Air Force Official Photograph—Crown Copyright Reserved

22. THE BALKIAN BRIDGE / 177
Royal Air Force Official Photograph—Crown Copyright Reserved
23. THE MAIN BRIDGE OVER THE ROWANDUZ RIVER / 192
24. ISMAIL BEG ON THE KURDISH BRIDGE AT ROWANDUZ / 193
Photograph: Captain H. M. Burton

25. SHAIKH AHMAD OF BARZAN WITH HIS CHIEFTAINS / 208
Photograph: Captain C. E. Littledale

26. ASSYRIAN CHILDREN / 208
27. THE ROAD NEAR RAYAT / 209
Photograph: F. D. Kidd

28. THE TOWN OF ROWANDUZ / 209
Royal Air Force Official Photograph—Crown Copyright Reserved

MAPS
IRAQ AND THE ROAD THROUGH KURDISTAN at the end of the book
THE ROWANDUZ ROAD at the end of the book

FOREWORD

The Hamilton road runs from the Arbela of Alexander past the home of Saladin to the Persian plateau... A wonderful engineering feat, it traverses on its way the gorges of Rowanduz and Berserini, two stupendous obstacles which might well have scared any adventurer even were he armed with the most modern appliances and supported by an army of trained and expert workmen.

Mr. Hamilton, however, was equipped in modest fashion and, as the solitary European of the party, had to teach the arts of hill-blasting and of road-making as he proceeded. He alone could reconnoitre the gloomy depths of the canyons for possible lines of passage. He alone had to supervise operations, control, pay and feed his gangs. He was at once the leader, the father, and the mechanic; and, for some five years in the blazing heat of summer and in the icy blasts of winter, isolated among savage tribes, he played these responsible parts till he brought his great work to completion.

I had the privilege of meeting him during operations in Kurdistan. Then, when that most unruly of all lands was in a state of violent fement, when Kurds were fighting Arabs and Kurds were killing Kurds, when outside a fortified encampment or a village every man took his life in his hand and went armed to the teeth, peace and order reigned along the road that Hamilton was building. His motley collection of Persians, Kurds, Assyrians and Arabs passed to and fro unarmed and unperturbed. In the successful pursuit of a great material aim he had unconsciously won the moral battle. His leadership, his personal skill, his sense of justice and his continual regard for the welfare of his men had not only procured him the respect without which the work could not have proceeded; but, over at least the period of his rule, it also had an ennobling effect upon these savage tribesmen. New Zealand may well be proud of the work of one of her sons upon a distant border.
The last two chapters need to be read with discrimination, for Mr. Hamilton was living in close contact with the Assyrians and felt their misfortunes keenly. Actually there was not only an Assyrian side but a British side and an Iraqi side to this troublous question. We have, however, a clear responsibility towards these ancient allies of ours; and, now that the Orontes scheme has fallen through, we cannot allow our conscience to rest until we shall have established them in a satisfactory home.

H. ROWAN-ROBINSON

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I have to thank all those who have so kindly lent me photo-graphs and I wish especially to thank Miss Ella Sykes for her invaluable. help in the preparation of this book.

A.M.H.

ROAD
THROUGH KURDISTAN
The Narrative
of an Engineer in Iraq
by
A. M. HAMILTON

with a foreword by
Major-General
Rowan-Robinson
C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.


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First published in March Mcmxxxvii
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