.1 £4 BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Menrg M. Sage 1891 JA^aqoins: $mh Cornell University Library DS 51.K7W66 Cradle of mankind 3 1924 028 549 925 THE CRADLE OF MANKIND Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028549925 THK RIVKR OK EDEN (rHK /AH ENTKl-IlN'. THK TVARl ilURCKh) The view down --itream from the mouth of ihe Ori valley, a liulc aljuve T 'J'he distant snow peak is Ghara Dagh on tlic southern side ofrkhiima THE CRADLE OF MANKIND LIFE IN EASTERN KURDISTAN BY THE REV. W. A. WIGRAM, D.D. AUTHOR OF "THE HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIAN CHURCH" AND EDGAR T. A. WIGRAM AUTHOR OF "NORTHERN SPAIN" ILLUSTRATED FROM SKETCHES AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY EDGAR T. A. WIGRAM LONDON ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 1914 e.v. The truth is, that ye hen naething about our Mil country, or Hklands as we ca' them. They're a kind of wild world by themselves, full of heights and howes, caverns, lochs, rivers and mountains, that it would tire the very deeviPs wings to flee to the tap of them. And the folk are clean anither set frae the likes of huz ; there's nat bailie-courts amang them—nae magistrates that dinna bear the sword in vain. Never another law hae they but the length of their dirks ; the broad-sword's pursuer, and the target is defender, and the stoutest head hears longest out. Sir Walter Scott (" Rob Roy ") PREFACE It requires at least four persons to compound a salad sauce, say the Spaniards. The requisite incompatibilities can never co-exist in one. A spendthrift should squander the oil, and a miser dole out the vinegar. A wise man should dispense the salt, and a madman should do the stirring. Similarly, it has been stated that it takes two people at least to write a book of travel ; a newcomer to give the first impressions and an old resident to reveal the true inwardness of things. Though the quality of the ingredients must remain of more importance than the proportions, the authors of the present volume hope that at least the latter are correct. One of the writers has spent but three months in the country, the other has lived there for ten years. One was quite ignorant of the East, and spoke no word of any Oriental language ; the other had become so intimate with the tribesmen of his own locality, that they had even begun to tell him of their superstitions—the last secret that they ever disclose. And the country itself possesses most intense and varied interest. It contains some of the grandest scenery, and some of the most venerable monuments in the world. It is the very Jons et origo of our Indo-European ancestors. Its traditions connect it with the Garden of Eden, with Noah, and with Abraham. Its folk-lore preserves the old Nature-worship which originated in the brains of the Ape- man. Its history records the very dawn of civilization, and the rise and fall of the earliest of the great empires. The every-day life of its present inhabitants is to this hour the life of the Patriarchs, the life of Europe in the Dark viii PREFACE Ages, the life of the Highlands of Scotland in the days of Stewart Kings. It is not an accessible country, even when judged by half-civilized standards. It is visited on sufferance only, even by its nominal rulers themselves. Fortune has given to the authors the opportunity of travelling through it, and of residing in it, and they have ventured to set down m these chapters the impressions it has left upon their minds. The opportunity of residence in this country, it may be stated, came to one of the authors through his membership of the "Archbishop of Canterbury's Assyrian Mission." This Mission (which consists of five or six clergy of the Church of England) has been maintained in the district in question, by successive Archbishops, for a period of about twenty-five years. It exists at the request of the Patriarch " and other authorities of the " Nestorian " or " Assyrian Church, and it works with the object of educating the clergy and laity of that body, without disturbing them in their membership of their own ancient and interesting communion. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGB I. BEYOND THE PALE OF THE RAILWAY I (Aleppo and Urfa) II. A LAND OF DUST AND ASHES 34 (DiAKBEKR AND MarDIN) III. THE MARCHES OF ANCIENT ROME 47 (Dara and Nisibin) IV. THE BURDEN OF NEWER NINEVEH 69 (Mosul) V. THE TEMPLE OF THE DEVIL 87 (Sheikh Adi) VI. THE SKIRTS OF THE MOUNTAINS III (Rabban Hormizd, Bavian, and Akra) VH. AN ORIENTAL VICH IAN VOHR 134 (The Sheikh of Barzan) VIII. A MASTER OF MISRULE 158 (Neei and Jilu) IX, THE DEBATABLE LAND 176 (Gawar, Mergawar, and Tergawar) X. TWIGS OF A WITHERED EMPIRE 196 (Urmi) XL A LAND OF TROUBLE AND ANGUISH 22i (Urmi to Van) XII. A SLOUGH OF DISCONTENT 235 (Van) XIII. THE LAND OF PRESTER JOHN 26a (Qudshanis) X CONTENTS CHAP. PAGB XIV. THE GREAT CANONS 284 (Tyaei and Tkhuma) XV. INTRUDERS IN A PANDEMONIUM 311 (Amadia and Bohtan) XVI. GRAVES OF DEAD EMPIRES 339 (Mosul to Baghdad) GLOSSARY 359 INDEX 363 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PRINTED SEPARATELY 1. The River of Eden frmtisfkce I'acrlig pa^c 2. The Citadel Gate, Aleppo i 3. Pool of Abraham, Urfa 16 4. The Walls of Diarbekr 33 5. The Quarries at Dara 48 6. Crossing the Chul 65 7. Courtyard of a House in Mosul 80 8. Mosul 81 9. Sheikh Adi 96 10. The Temple Court, Sheikh Adi ioi 11. Rabban Hormizd 108 12. The "Picture Rocks" of Bavian 113 13. Akra 128 14. Deir 145 15. Oramar 165 16. The Heriki Valley 172 17. The Mountains of Tkhuma and Jilu 176 18. The Gorge of Ishtazin, Jilu 181 19. A Halt for the Night 1S8 20. Entrance to the Bazaar, Urmi 193 21. A Corridor in the Bazaar, Urmi 208 221 A Group of Mountain Syrians 225 23. Khoshab Kala 229 24. The Citadel Rock, Van 236 25. Akhtamar 240 26. The Qudshanis Mountains 257 27. The Road to Qudshanis 272 28. Church of Mar Shalitha, Qudshanis 277 xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Facing page 29. Bear Hunters at Qudshanis 284 30. A Mountain Bridge 289 31. The Gorge of the Zah, Tyari 293 32. Malik Ismail's House, Chumea, Tyari 300 33. Travelling in Lower Tkhuma 304 34. Village of Zawttha, Lower Tkhuma 309 35. Chal 316 36. Entrance to Amadia 321 37. Group of Mountain Syrians on the Roofs at Bibaydi 328 38. Syrian Women at Work on the Roofs at Bibaydi 336 39. MosguE of Sheikh Abd-l-Kadr, Kirkuk 341 40. Takht-i-Khosrau 348 PLANS IN THE TEXT PAGE Great Granary of Daras 51 Church of St. James at Nisieis 59 The Yezidi Temple at Sheikh Adi gj Church of Mar B'Ishu 185 Qudshanis : Church of Mar Shalitha 273 Temple of Ishtar'i Babylon 35= ^' < o u o < a 9i , %'/' ^t CD THE CRADLE OF MANKIND CHAPTER I BEYOND THE PALE OF THE RAILWAY (ALEPPO AND URFA) The belated Jinn who emerged out of Suleiman's Brass Bottle into twentieth-century London found there, amid much that was strange to him, some beings of his own kin. These were the railway locomotives, obviously Jann like himself, but yet more oppressively treated ; bound by spells of appalling potency to labours more arduous and wearisome than Suleiman had ever conceived. And truly his blunder was plausible : for if Jann be extinct nowadays (which one doubts after visiting Asia), then assuredly cylinders and boilers are charged with the might of the Jann. They are set to work regularly now instead of rarely and spasmodically ; and though they raise less dust and clamour their net output is considerably more. The slaves of the Lamp and the Ring developed intense explosive energy, but their effective radius was limited. They could rear Aladdin's palace in a night, or transport him to Africa in a twinkling ; but these more domesticated Titans are capable of transmogrifying whole communities, and advancing the clock of progress five hundred years at a span. And now the modern Magrabis, the busy Western magicians, have let slip these formidable Efrits against the City of Al Raschid himself : and one fine morning his descendants will awake from the slumber of centuries to find themselves environed by a new heaven and a new earth. The Baghdad railway has started. It has penetrated inland to Aleppo. " That great river, the river Euphrates," is bitted with its girders and caissons. One more stride 2 BEYOND THE PALE OF THE RAILWAY will carry it to Mosul across a country so open and even journey that it needs but the bedding of the sleepers ; and a which now takes a fortnight will be accomplished in a ten- hour run. What is now a mere stagnant backwater will thus be suddenly scoured out by one of the main channels to calculate of the world's commerce ; and who can venture the changes which will follow ? Western reform will not convert the East any more than Alexander's conquests converted it ; but it may evolve unintentionally some new sort of Frankenstein's Man. But meanwhile the East waits unconscious. It takes no thought for the morrow.