A Bibliography of the Iran-Iraq Borderland
Keith McLachlan
Richard N. Schofield
Middle East & North African Studies Press
The Iran-Iraq war that broke out in September 1980 served as a reminder that the long-standing conflict on Iran’s western frontier remains a potent source of friction. This volume offers an extensive working bibliography not simply of the border war, but of the many aspects of history, topography & ethnology of the two states. A thorough-going compilation of materials that deals with the borderland regions of both Iran & Iraq has been undertaken with a view to widening knowledge of the many varied sources on this bitterly contested region which lies in the heart of the Middle East oil producing area.
Keith Mclachlan is Senior Lecturer in Geography with reference to the Middle East at the School of Oriental & African Studies (University of London). He has been involved in field research in Iran for many years.
Richard Schofield is currently a Senior Research Assistant in Geography at the University of Durham and is the author of Evolution of the Shatt Al-’Arab Boundary Dispute and co author, with Dr. Gerald Blake, of Boundaries & State Territory in the Middle East & North Africa, both published by Menas Press.
Contents
Introduction
Notes on Library Sources in London / viii
Acknowledgements / xii
Chapter one: Geography / 1
1.1 Iran-Iraq Borderlands / 1
1.2 Iran / 14
1.3 Iraq / 52
1.4 Kurdestan / 72
1.5 Kuwait / 79
Chapter Two: Geology and Geomorphology / 84
2.1 Iran: Geomorphology / 84
2.2 Iraq: Geomorphology / 88
2.3 Iran: Structural Geology / 91
2.4 Iraq: Structural Geology / 102
2.5 Iran: Historical Geology and Stratigraphy / 106
2.6 Iraq: Historical Geology and Stratigraphy / 109
2.7 Iran: Regional Geological Studies / 113
2.8 Iraq: Regional Geological Studies / 115
2.9 Iran and Iraq: Sedimentary Petrography, Mineralogy and Hydrochemistry / 119
2.10 Iran: Economic Geology, Mining and Exploration / 127
2.11 Iraq: Economic Geology, Mining and Exploration / 136
2.12 Iraq: Hydrology / 141
Chapter Three: Maps / 144
3.1 Atlases / 144
3.2 Iran-Iraq Borderland: General maps / 146
3.3 Iran-Iraq Borderland: Physical Maps / 161
3.4 Iran-Iraq Borderland: Social and Political Maps / 163
3.5 Iran-Iraq: Geology and Minerals / 165
3.6 Iran-Iraq: Surveying, Map-making and Remote Sensing / 171
3.7 Iran: Transport Maps / 173
3.8 Iraq: Transport Maps / 175
3.9 Iran: Old and Historical Maps / 176
3.10 Maps of Kuwait / 184
Chapter Four: Modern History and International Relations / 186
4.1 Iran: General / 186
4.2 Iraq: General / 206
4.3 Iran-Iraq Relations and the Gulf War / 216
4.4 Superpower Rivalry in Iran, Iraq and the Gulf Region / 230
4.5 Geopolitics and Gulf Security / 251
Chapter Five: Treaties, Reports and Bibliographies / 276
5.1 Iran-Iraq: Treaties / 276
5.2 Iran-Iraq: British Government and Colonial Office Reports / 279
5.3 Iran-Iraq: Bibliographies / 292
Appendices
Appendix One: Public Record Office / 297
Embassy and Consular Archives 1881-1890 / 297
Protocols of Treaties 1846-1922 / 299
Arabia 1955-1956 / 301
Embassy and Consular Archives: Iraq Correspondence / 303
Original Correspondence: Iraq Correspondence 1921-1932 / 311
Persian Gulf Residencies and Agencies 1949-954 / 324
a. Bahrain Residency / 324
b. Kuwait Political Agency / 325
Turkey: Embassy an Consular Archives
Correspondene 1840-1946 / 327
Turkey: Miscellanea 1863-1868 / 331
Appendix Two: India Office Records / 332
Departmental Papers: (Political) External Files and Collections 1931-1950 / 332
Departmental Papers: Political and Secret Separate (or Subject) Files 1904-1933 / 333
Bushire Political Residency Records 1762-1948 / 343
Iraq 1931-1948 / 347
Kuwait Political Agency Record 1904-1927 / 349
Persia 1931-1948 / 359
Appendix Three: Addendum / 363
Addendum: Recent and Other Publications / 363
Index / 366
INTRODUCTION
There is some justice in the view that there are no problems of boundaries only problems between nations. The long land boundary between Iran and Iraq has been variously aligned over the centuries but friction between the two powers ruling in Persia and the Mesopotamian lands has prevailed regardless of such changes. The estuarine frontier zone along the Shatt al-’Arab has also been an area of continuing rival claims.
This bibliography attempts to review the literature germane to disputes over the boundary including matters affecting the entire frontier zone. Recognition is given to the importance of a varied and interesting topography in the borderlands region. The first three chapters are concerned with geography, geology and geomorphology and their expression in map form, respectively. The available map sources are less than complete in their coverage of the ground and, while it is known that more complete series of maps exist in the military archives, few of these are normally accessible to the general public. Section 3.6 makes reference to the increasing materials in the field of remotely sensed imagery. Libraries holding remote sensing data in the USA and Europe are open for scrutiny and have been significant sources for interpreting the changing fortunes in the war between Iran and Iraq since September 1980.
Special mention is also given to hydrology and to detailed regional studies, since formal complaints on violations of the border and declared casus belli invariably included references to specific territory and the drainage pattern of rivers crossing the frontier line.
The principal chapter in this bibliography, Chapter 4, lists the main publications that are currently available from libraries on contemporary history and international relations as they reflect events surrounding the Iran-Iraq border. The main criterion used to decide whether a publication with a broad aspect of study should be included or omitted was the incorporation or otherwise of significant reference to aspects of the borderlands and events relevant to them.
General surveys of the Gulf region and the Middle East have not been incorporated where the authors felt that this basic condition could not be met. The Iran-Iraq war, which was continuing when this bibliography went to press, was increasingly represented in the academic literature, though the media such as newspapers and weekly journals also provided an important coverage for those requiring details of current events. For the purposes of this bibliography, current materials of this latter kind have been included only where it was judged that useful analysis or interpretation of more than passing interest was made. For the most part, therefore, a general bibliography of newspaper and current affairs journals is omitted and readers are invited to look elsewhere for such materials (for example the selective bibliography of contemporary materials offered in Mahrad, A., Der Iran-Irak Konflikt, Frankfurt o M., Bern, New York, 1985).
The authors became acquainted with a substantial amount of literature in Persian, Arabic and Russian which dealt with the Irano-Iraqi border, the frontier territories and the Gulf War. The quantity of materials in Persian and Russian languages was extensive and it was arbitrarily decided 1 y authors to leave them for inclusion in a specialist.work at a later date. The exclusion of these items is in no way intended to diminish their importance as contributions to the international literature on this subject.
Readers will note the appearance of two sections detailing the India Office Library Records. Perhaps a word of explanation is due here. While this volume was in an advanced stage of preparation one of the authors embarked o a lengthy research project which necessitated frequent visits to both the IOLR and PRO. It proved possible to collect more detailed information than that originally scheduled for presentation and hence Appendix One. It was decided however to retain both sections as they are neither duplicates nor uncomplementary.
Notes on Library Sources in London
School of Oriental and African Studies Library:
The subject index, both pre-1968 bound volumes and supplements and post-1968 card catalogue, contain entries of interest. Subject entries are very broad, alphabetical headings being subsumed within area headings, hence all materials are listed under Iraq or Persia rather than under, for example, Boundaries: Ottoman Empire; Treaty.
British Library: Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books Library:
Materials are listed by language. For Persian language materials, the card catalogue, covering the period 1923-1977, has both a subject index and added entries under author/title. Bound volumes with selected subject indexes list materials acquired before 1923. Some of the volumes also have added entries in the author/title section.
For Arabic language materials, the same system applies, except that the card catalogue only goes back as far as 1970. Subject headings are very broad.
British Library - Main Reading Room:
The subject index covers materials acquired during 1881-1980. After 1980 there is as yet no adequate method of search by subject. Any modern bibliography of Middle Eastern subjects may be checked, and relevant author/title entries then searched for in the British Library main catalogue.
The subject indexes for 1946-1970 (bound volumes), 1971— 1975 (microfilm) and 1975-1980 (microfiche) are all available. The most useful materials are duplicated at the SOAS Library.
There are, however, also added entries by country - Iraq, Persia, - in the General Catalogue of Printed Books to 1975, and in the Author/title microfiche index 1975-1980.
.....
Keith McLachlan
Richard N. Schofield
A Bibliography of the Iran-Iraq Borderland
Middle East
Middle East & North African Studies Press
A Bibliography of the Iran-Iraq Borderland
Keith McLachlan
Richard N. Schofield
Published by
Middle East and North African Studies Press Ltd.,
Gallipoli House, the Cottons, Outwell, Wisbech,
Cambridgeshire, PE14 8TN, England.
1987
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
McLachlan, K.S.
A Bibliography of the Iran-Iraq Borderiand-
(Menas Bibliographies)
1. Iraq-Bibliography 2. Iran-Bibliography
I. Title II. Schofield, Richard N.
016.955 / Z3036
© Menas Press Ltd. 1987
ISBN 0 906559 21 9
Printed by Whitstable Litho Ltd., Whitstable, Kent
