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A LOST By WALTER J. KAHLER

The r~ent evel1ts ill Ihe LWrtl101' have again called aUe,llioTl to the Near East and il8 rrstless populatioll. The following article takes 'US to Muopotomia. Ihe heart of this area. The autllOr ill oue of Ih06e travelers who spend their whole I,ve.! on Ihe move from olle place to another, wid who, IlJh61~ on.e meets them in some r617Wtc corl1er of Ihe earth., can tell olle with the same matter-of-factness about /lleir experiellGeB in 'l.'ibet, 0" the C011g0, or in the Cordilleras. Aside from many olher tmvets, he has made four great journeys during the lnst ten years: by ca.r from L(~pla"d through all the latitudes to Souill Africa, and from Berlin 10 India; 011 foot with native bearers through southeastern Asia; and On h.orseback acr088 Soutl~ Amerir~. 'l'he 10(11' has Pllt a temporary 8tOp /0 his tra'velli, and he is now living in 1'okyo.-K.1H. HEN, coming from the eastern port on the sea, Tadmor, also known as coa·t of the Mediterranean, you Palmyra, the ca.pital of the Palmyrian W have crossed the range of the Empire. It was a station on the ancient Lebanon Mountains and climbed the transcontinent,al trade road which carried Anti-L~banons on the other side of the the goods pas ing between the Roman valley which is the continuation of the Empire and the dista.nt lands of the deep Jordan Depression, you see below East. Long camel caravans came from you the Syrian Desert, an absolutely flat Central Asia and crossed the desert in expanse spread out like a tablecloth thou­ order to transport the wa,res of the Orient sands of miles eastwardto the Persian Gulf. to the ports of the Mediterranean: slaves, This desolate piece of country, known perfumes and spices, cotton, hand­ as Mesopotamia, looks back upon an wrought products of copper and brass, ancient history. Countless tribes and tea, porcelain, paper, precious stones, races have crossed it in the course of the carpets, and bales of silk. centuries. Jews, Hittites and Ammo­ In Tadmor the camels were watered nites, Persians and Greeks, fought on its and the caravans supplied with guides soil; Romans, Egyptians, Tartars. and and mounted guards to protect them Saracens struggled for possession of this against predatory nomads, who from cOlmtry to be used as a steppingstone time immemorial regarded the plundering for further conquests. All these peoples of travelers as their traditional business. have left traces of their cultmes. Assyria Here a,greements were made with the and Babylon are strewn with the remains infiuential sheiks through whose territory of former cities, of temples, towers, and the caravans had to paSl.:l. It was the palaces. Babylon, where Nebuchadnez­ same system that is still used here today zar lived, the city of the hunging gardens; and which is known as ,·ifaq. Each tribe Ur of the Chaldees, Abraham's birthpla.ce, has its territory within which it demands where once stood the temple of the tribute from all travelers. In the district moon god; Kish, the first Babylonian of Deir ez Zor, for inst,ance, one must capital after the Flood; Ashur, Erbil, pay about £1 per head not to be molested. Niniveh, and many other sites of the The high income from the duty exacted past, are now among the favorite hunting in Palmyra for the passage of goods grounds of historians and archaeologists. enabled this town to develop into a splendid metropolis. \Vide streets flanked PALMYRA, ECHO OF THE PAST by columns and statues were constructed, Once upon a time, on the western edge the most magnificent of which led directly of the SyTian Desert, there lay, like a to the temple of . A PARADISE LOST 409

Yet the history of the Palmyrian Early in the afternoon we reached Empire is a short one. After the murder "T 3," the first of these pumping stations, of King Odenathus, a vassal of Rome, whose round, aluminum-painted oil tanks who had expanded the empire to the we had seen shining from afar. As every­ borders of Egypt and had united all of where else where Europeans live in Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia under solitude, the people here were very glad his scepter, his ambitious wife Zenobia to have visitors. It meant a break in risked repudiating her allegiance to Rome. the constant monotony and provided an Fortune did not favor her. Tadmor was excuse for an extensive dinner and count­ stormed in 272 A.D. by Emperor Aure­ less glasses of whisky. The guest room lian's troops and burned down to its to which we were shown was furnished foundations. The beautiful queen was like a first-class hotel room with a private taken prisoner and led through Rome in bathroom, electric light, radio, telephone, a triumphal march. Since then the re­ and several electric fans. The quarters mainders of the walls, houses, and columns of all the employees were furnished with of the town have been covered up by the same comforts. Besides a corre­ sand. Even the name was forgotten spondingly high salary, this is the only until in 1678 merchants from Aleppo means of keeping the employees at the rediscovered Palmyra. Today the place stations, which lie like little islands in is nothing but a small oasis, a miserable, the vastness of the desert. dusty cluster of mud huts and a passport office for the border traffic with Iraq. MODERN HERMITS The actual border between Syria and Iraq The considerations determining the is 200 kilometers further east in the desert construction of the living quarters were and is simply marked by a signboard. heat in summer, cold in winter, and flies TRACKS IN THE DESERT all the year round. For these reasons the rooms face north and south, the roofs There are two bus lines crossing the are almost as thick as the walls, and all desert between Damasous and Bagdad: windows are screened. Everything is a Syrian one and the Nairn Transporta­ done to make the occupants' stay 8B tion Company, whose luxurious motor agreeable as possible. The wide avenues eoaches are equipped with Pullman com­ connecting the whitewashed houses with partments, washrooms, telephone, and a the pumping plant are tarred to keep refreshment buffet. They cover the dis­ off dust and are planted with young tance of 870 kilometers in about twenty­ acacias and casuarinas, which in a few four hours, with a short stop midway at years will provide welcome shade. There Rutbah Wells. are ice-making, mineral-water, cold­ storage, and central-heating plants; a The authorities at Damascus are very laundry, bakery, canteen, and a well­ strict about not allowing single cars to equipped hospital, which has mostly to start out alone into the desert, for there deal with trachoma and other diseases of have been several cases of lonely drivers the eye. There are even vegetable gar­ losing their direction and getting lost in dens, chicken, geese, pigeons, and rabbits. the desert. But as we were asked to The artesian well supplying the water pay £5 for the privilege of swallowing needed for the whole station is 200 meters the dust of other cars, we chose the deep. route via Palmyra. Here, too, there is no actual road, but one cannot get lost The technical equipment of the stations as long as one follows the telephone lines. consists of an engine room containing Moreover, there are several stations of three five-hundred horse-power motors the Iraq Petroleum Company interspersed which supply the power for three large at distances of about a hundred kilometers pumps. Each of these sets in turn runs along this route where one could find day and night without stopping for three help in case of need. weeks. Then it ·is cleaned and prepared THE XXth CENTURY for it.s next turn. The pump house in The history of Hitt is closely C61Wected which the oil is forced ou under great with the story of the Flood and Noah's pressure into the main pipe line is sepa­ ark. Tales of a great deluge that coveted rated from the engine room by a gas­ almost every country are to be 'found in and waterproof waU. the legends of many races, even among These costly and strategically important those that had nothing whatever to do plants supply the fuel for the entire with MesopotlLmia. Hence it is a moot British Mediterranean fleet. In order to question, whether the event mentioned protect them from sabotage and damage in the Scriptures was limited to the great each station. consisting of about a hundred valley between the Euphrates and the acros, is surrounded by a high wire fence. Tigris. However, it is not impossible, The staff of some eventy native workers since in those days Mesopotamia was the and their families live outside. In ad­ center of the inhabited world. dition to this, the plants are protected Noah, too, had come to Hitt to fetch by a small fort, in which the employees pitch. The tells liS that it poured can find refuge with their families in case for forty days and forty nights. 1'his of disturbances. These small fortresses, may be somewhat exaggerated; but it is some 75 by 55 meters in size, have bas­ quite possible that exceptionally heavy tions at two of their corners; they are rains fell in the Kurdi h-Armenian moun­ equipped with a wireless station, tele­ tains which caused the Euphrates and phone, water tanks, an electric generator, the 1'igris to overflow their banks and as well as food., weapons and ammunition flood aU Mesopotamia, drowning the for two weeks. Company police patrols greater part of the population. Noah equipped with planes and machine guns had probably just completed his ark. are on the move day and night to keep He salvaged his dome tic animals and a constant watch on the entire line with wa,ited till the Deluge subsided. its length of about a thousand kilometers. The fact that a· deluge of extraordinary A number of emergency landing fields proportions once took place in Mesopota­ along the line serve the same purpo e. mia has been proved by archaeologists. WB.ERE NOAH BUILT H1S AllK In the cour e of the excavations of the ancient Chl1ldean city of Ur, north of Troublesome swarms of Hies and a Basra, a shaft was sunk nineteen meters disagreeable alkaline odor announce that into the earth. The individual layers you are approaching Hitt. The odor through which this shaft passes clearly comos from the asphalt beds found here, show the sequence of the cultural periods. as weU as near Qaiyarah, sixty kilometers In the uppermost nine meters, eight south of Mosul. The presence of pitch different periods are discernible. Then always indicates the vicinity of oil de­ comes a layer of sand two to three posits, and at Qaiyarah German oil meters thick, in which no traces whatever expert hn.d discovered oil even before of human activity have been discovered. the Great WlU. The asphalt is to be This layer obviously represents the secli­ found in these beds in a semiliquid ment of the Deluge. Under it there are state. again several layers which, like the top­ The pre ence of IIR,lt and asphalt in most eight layers cont-ain the remains the environment of Bitt was known as of houses. fragments of }Juttery a.nd long ago as in Biblical times, The other objects of daily use. l~ncient Babylonians already used pitch During the excavations in Niniveh, to impregmtte their bricks to make them the capital of the ancient Assyrian more durable. People from Ur and Empire a large library of some twenty Dabylon went on foot to Hitt, where thousand earthenwttre tablets was dis­ they built boats, loaded them with salt covered under the ruins of Assurbanipal's and pitch, and made their way home in palace. In deciphering them, some were them on the Euphrates. found which told of a great flood disaster. A PARADISE LOST 411

These tablets wit,h their cuneiform writing, eastern mountain country, whoso capital the majority of which are now in the was Susa. These thre peoples fought British Museum. tue among the oldest for two thousand years for supremacy documents of literntllrc ever to have until HILmmurabi mounted the throne of been found. The rudiment.'i of thiH form Babylon about :WOO B.C. This was the of writing were invented as early a-li beginning of the BlLbylonill.n-Hittito­ about 4500 B.C. by the Sumerlans, a non­ Elamite period. which lasted until about Semitic race which had immigratod frum 600 H.C., to be follu\\od hy t,he Neo­ the east, apparently from the regions Babylonia,n and Persian periods. Alter north of the Indus, into Mesopotamia. that. Parthians, Romans, Arabs. and The characters were engraved with a Turks ruled the country. But the fllLt style on soft clay tablet·, which struggle for this hotly disputed region werc then hardened by baking in an oven. continues to this day.

CRADLE OF MANKIND? TIlE CURSE OF OIL

The Biblical theory, aecording to whioh The presence of coo.!, iron ore, copper. Mesopotamia, "the country of two rivers," and other important ores is always a is the cradle of the human raco, has misfortune for countries which are not fowul some support tluough neolithic strong enough to defend themselves. finds, which archaeologists estimate at But the greatest misfortune to such a being twenty thowmnd years old. The coun-try iii oil. It is the liquid gold early history of tho cowltry saw three toward which all the gren,t powers of the different races: the Semitic Akkadians, world turn their eyes. who ruled Mesopotamia from Babylon; the Sumerians in the southern alluvial The soil of Iraq, Arabia, and Iran i8 plain of the Euphrate and the Tigris, especially rich in deposits of this coveted whose oldest capital, excavated hy Ger­ substance. Indeed, the subterranean man archaeologists, was Uruk, the Erech mineral-oil deposits of these countries uf the Bible; and the Elamitel> in the are among the richest in tpe world. Thus

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Iraq and the Near East 41! THE XXUl CENTURY it is not urprtsmg that the interests of Kerkuk is one of Kurdistan's ohief the three allied powers, Russia, , market places. Within its walls there and America.. clash in this territory. tands an ancient mosque said to contain Within the last seven years, the tandard the grave of the prophet Daniel. Not Oil Company of 'alifornia ha.'i built far from the town there is a field, about highly modern refmcries on the pearl­ an acre in ext.ent and called "Jehennum" fi hi g i land of Bahrein in the Persian by the nativc ,in which, since the memory Gulf whi h produce about a million tons of man, tongue of flame have leaped. up f oil every year. lightly to the north from the ground. This field is the of this island, too in tho small independent "Gehenna" of the Bible, where, aocording state of Kuwait oil has been discovered, to legend, Daniel's three friends Shadrach, as well as in audi Arabia, where an Meshach, and Abednego were th.rown AmNican oil company made the first into the eternal fire, the "fiery furnaco." drilling. in 1930. Among the richest Today this region presents a. fant.astic wells arc tho oil fields near Dizful in spectacle, especiu.lly at night. for here southern iran, 250 kilometers northeast burn like giant torches the gases cscaping of Basra. One of t.he most modern from the smoke. tacks and water coolers refineries is to bp. found here. The oil is of the oil plants. carried by a pipe line to the port of The first experimental drillings, which Abadan on the Persian Gull, where it led to the discovery of one of the most is loaded into tankerti. productive oil fields in the world, were Th 0 rich fields, 80 far in British made here in October 1927. The first hand . at present form the focal point of drilling had just been started and the Amorican interests. Tho nited. tates, surface of the earth hardly pierced when upon whose abundant oil production a mighty jet of the coveted liquid spurted motorized war ha already made 8uch high up into t.he air. This happened so great demand. that privat.e consumption unexpectedly tJlat hundreds of barr I of has had to be curtail I even ih the oil­ oil were 10 t before the gusher could be producing states, i now trying to force brought under control. Ten years later, England out of this territory 011 the thirty-two wells were already being pretense that she urgently requires these worked. In the years 1937/39 the total wolls for the supplying of her motorized annual oil production of Iraq averaged troops in the Kear East and North 41 million tons. Alrica, since the overseas supply by tanker In Kerkuk the oil undergoes a pre­ ha.'! become too risky on account of the liminary refining and is then pumped Cerman V-boats. Once American in­ through two pipe lines to the ports of terests have obtained a foothold in the the Mediterranean. For 255 kilometers Iranian oil t.erritory, they will not let these two pipe lines run side by side; after themselves be forced out again by Eng­ orossing the Euphrates they separate. l.and when the war is over. The northern arm leads for 650 kilometers THE FffiES OF OEHENNA via Palmyra to the Syrian port of Tripoli. The high mountain walls of the Taurus The French used to get a quarter of the &nd Zagros, whose snow-covered peaks total yield, but after the collapee of provide u. rlramatic background in winter France the British blocked this pipe line. to the monotonous plains of Mesopotamia, The other arm goes via Rutbah Wells form the natural. borders of Iraq toward and through Transjordania to the port the north and the east. At the foot of of Haifa in Palestine, 800 kilometers these rugged mountains lie the two old away. Through this arm, 900 tons of towns of Erbil and Kerkuk, both sur­ oil an hour are pumped to Haifa, where rounded by high walls. Like all his­ it is refined and loaded into tankers. torical ites in Iraq, they too stand on Work was begun on these pipe lines hills consi ting of the foundations and in 1931. Huge trench-digging machines remains of long-vanished cities. laid a trench seventy centimeters wide 41:1 nIHI CENTURY

THE MESOPOTAMIAN DESERT

'I'''"qd,·~. (·()hllJlIlS. A.nd !>luff-S }H'nr witllct>8 to lhe pUJo(t glory lIf "nlrn~ ra, "hi,·1t III Btllllllll t illl's Ilt'ld Ilie Iwy to lit I rude rUlltu [,{'lWUt'lI Eurul'tl nltd Asia.

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PALACES OF TilE PAST MOSQl ES OF TOD:\Y

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and two meters deep across the desert, Ibn-Saud rules tills fanatical tribe of and the Lebanon range. The pipe line desert dwellers with great skill. In spite required no less than 150,000- lengths of of his sixty years of age he shows a pipe; 12,000 Bedouin laborers. were em­ surprising youthfulness. Before him. ployed on this job for four years; and Arabia was a land of constant inseourity. the total costs amounted to some ten Attacks on caravans and pilgrims, theft million pounds sterling. and murder, were the traditional right of all Bedouins. Ibn-Saud has done THE BIRTH OF IRAQ away with all tills. He has suppressed tribal feuds and punishes vendettaS' as When, after the Great War. the old lllurder. He is fighting eorrupt,ion and Ottoman Empire hurst into fragments, controls prices. Indeed, he has even one of which was Mo, opotamia with its succeeded in settling nomads who have oil areas of Mmml and Kerkuk. England been accustomed to moving around all saw to it that the League of Nations their lives from country to country. handed over the mandate of this strate­ Crime has become rare since ibn-Saud gically highly important bit of country rules in Nejd, and believers can no\\' to her. Tho newborn political child that make pilgrimages to Mecca unllloiested. had been brought into the world by for the desert il'l patrolled by reliable Versailles was baptized Iraq according to police troops. In addition to these, an a.ncient geographical term. The coun­ ibn-Saud has created an i.nfantry anfl tl'y covers approximately 350.000 square camel ca valrv such as Arabia ha~ never kilometers-the borders with ~audi AraLia known. It i~ sain that he can put :.WO,Ooo and Transjordania luwe not yet been well-equipped and well-mounted fighter:;; definitely fixed-and feeds a popubtion into the field. His army even possesf

8ayid Talib, the most influential man in choice but to bribe the independent Basra, that England was able to muter Bedouin shein by considerable sums of the situation. In giving their support, cash to keep their tribes quiet. Thi8 i8 these two men lUl8umed that the Nakib an expensive method if one recalls that would become the head of the new in 1921 the Bntish control of Mesopotamia Iraqian national state, while Sayid Talib cost English taxpayers ten million pounds would receive the post of Minister of the in subsidies and in the following year Interior; for England had promised that eight million pounds. the Ira.qian people would be allowed to In 1932 the efforts at independence on choose its rulers from among its own the part of the population were at last ranks. crowned with suocess. On October 3 of Howe\'er, when Winston Churchill be­ that year Iraq was accepted in the League came England's Minister for the Colonies, of Na.tions and recognized as an in­ the British policy toward Iraq was sud­ dependent state. England withdrew her denly reversed. In spite of all the warn­ High Commissioner but reserved the ings on the part of Sir Percy Cox, then right of maintaining military bases in High Commissioner for Iraq, Churchill Bagdad and Basra for the protection of declared at the Cairo Conference in March her air line Cairo/Karachi. Naturally 1921 that England had decided to make London o.lso supervises the lraqian Gov­ Faisal, Hussein's son who had fled from ernment's foreign policy, so that de facto Syria, king of Iraq. No one can main­ there has been little change from the tain that this choice was a particularly country's former status as a protectorate. happy one, for Faisal was for the Ira.qians EX-PARADISE not only a foreigner but, being 0. Sunnite, belonged to the orthodox branch of lBlam, Mesopotamia is known to us from the while the majority of the inhabitants of Bible as the . I find it Mesopotamia were Shiites and, as such, difficult to understand that and his declared enemies. (See "Islam and could discover no ootter place in the Society," page 3S8, December 1942 issue world to spend their honeymoon; for, of this magazine.) apart from the Kurdish Mountains and The rumor soon spread in Iraq that the Zagros range in tile north, which Engln.nd intended to frustrate the coming forms the border to Iran, Iraq is the national election; and Sayid Talib declared flattest, most monotonous and most openly in an after-dinner speech that the desolate land one can imagine. Through people would never recognize FaiBal as this wilderness flow the two rivers Eu­ their ruler. Sayid Talib was promptly phrates and Tigris with their brown, arrested and exiled to Ceylon. A sham muddy waters, till they unite in a delta. election was held among the various in the swampy alluvial plain of Shatt el sheiks at which no one, not even the Arab. Their banks are lined with roods Nakib, dared to vote against Faisal. A and dusty date palms, which serve as a few weeks later Faisal landed in Basra; hiding place for the scanty wild life such his reception among the population was as jackals, wolves, hyenas, partridges, a very cool one. and waterfowl. The Iraqian people have never for­ But in olden days this may have aU gotten this fraud. King FaisaJ died a been different. The soil itseU is very mysterious death in Bern on September fertile and offers all that is needed for 8, 1933, on his return home from England. luxuriant growth. The only thing lack­ ing is regulSoJ: irrigation to turn Iraq once The administration of Iraq has provided more into a flowering garden. But since Great Britain with many a headache. the Mongols destroyed the ancient irriga.­ On several occasions there were revolts tion system during their invasion in the lasting for many months. After much thirteenth century, the great.er part of fruitless negotiation, England had no Mesopotamia has, as a result of its A PARADISE LOST 417 llubsequent rulers' neglect, remained a are dried for a month in the sun. For desert. Ea{'h of t.he ancient Babylonian export--Iraq supplies about eighty per dynasties had contributed its share to­ cent of the world's requirements in dates ward improving the irrigation systems. -they are packed while still fresh ar The largest qf these was the Nahrawan pressed into large square blocks. Canal, whose trenches watered more than In addition to the cultivation of dates, 340 kilometers of the land. Today one there is also agriculture on the lower {'an hardly recognize this canal in the reaches of the Euphrates and the Tigris. narrow depression in the cart,h. The main products are wheat and barley, Now t.he only means of irrigation are also rice, which thrives in the hot, damp the ancient Persian 7'laouras, huge water atmosphere of the Persian Gulf; other wheels of about, ten meters in diameter, products are cOttOIl, some flax, jute, t,o which are fast,elled a number of earthen­ .Japanese peanuts, and ma,ize. Tobacco, ware jugI'. At every turn of the wheel tomatoes, onions, melons, pumpkins, and these jugs fill with water which they dis­ many varieties of fruit .are also grown. charge into ditches that distI'ibute the There are two harvests a year, in April precious moisture to the thirsty fields. and in the autumn. Day and night these heavy wheels turn Iraq's climate shows great contrasts. on the banks of the rivers and fill the During the winter months the t,hermom­ air with squeaking and creaking. eter sometimes drops below freezing The population is distributed according point, while in summer the temperature to the fertility of the soil in the different often rises to over 50 degrees centigrade areas. I n the northern zone there are in the shade. Spring and autumn are about seven inhabitants to the square short. The rainy season, with an average kilometer; in the central desert zone annual rainfall of 170 millimeters at Bag­ hardly two; while the greatest density dad and 420 millimeters in the Mosul of population-about fourteen to the area, lasts from December to April. 8quare kilometer-is to be found in the From time to time very sudden cyclone­ delta area of the Euphrates and Tigris. like hailstorms sweep across Mesopotamia., representing a serious danger to naviga­ DATES AND THE WEATHER t.ion on t,he Euphrates and the Tigris.

The most important plant, which is SONS OF THE DESERT the main source of food for the entire The sparse vegetation which in spring population, is the date palm. There are covers the steppes with friendly green over 30 million of these throughout the before the scorching heat of summer dries country, more than half of which grow up every living plant, as well as ta.mari8ks in huge plantations in the delta region of and shrubs on the river banks, provide Shatt el Arab. Cultivated with the ut­ fodder for the herds of the Bedouins and most care, there are about sixty different seminomads who go to makp. up a large species of datc palm in Iraq. The tree part of the population of Jray.. reaches a height of 25 meters, and the fruits grow in great bunches weighing The life of these tanned sons of the {rom 20 to 25 pounds. Male and female desert, their customs and their clothes, blossoms do not grow on the same tree. are the same today as in the days of Hence the fertilization of the blossoms is Abraham. There are only two imple­ done during April by hand and, more­ ments of ci~ilization {or which they show over, still in exactly the same way as is an irresistible craving: modern military depicted on the ancient Babylonian relief rifles, for which they willingly pay several sculptures of Niniveh. While the bunches camels apiece, and luxurious, high­ of fruit are growing, they are protected powered American automobiles, which by little bags {rom Wl18p8 and other every rich self-respecting sheik possesses. insects. The harvest takes place in Octo­ The wealth of the nomads is counted ber. For home consumption the dates according to their ca.ttle: sheep, goa.ta, 418 THE XXth· CENTURY horses and, above all. camels, with which At night the nomad roUs himself up in it. they move around the country as the A square piece of cloth folded into a pasture varies. What ,is most important triangle protects head, eyes, and mouth to them is the watering places in the from cold, sand. and the sun. A double desert. Disputes over the use or posses­ cord of goat hair keeps it in place. sion of such wells have often led to Sandals made of untanned camel: hide bloody feuds between the various tribes. complete the apparel. Around the watering places there is The women also wear a shirt like the a.lways lively traffic, for they are the goal men, but in their case it is dyed a Simple of all caravans. Sometimes there are indigo blue. They take pride in loading more t,han a hundred camel'> waitillg thero their heads and chests with coins, clips, for a drink: and the little Bedouin girls brooches. beads, and other ornaments, with their herds of goat Illust often wait and theirs arlllS and legs are also often a long t.ime for their turn, for camels are decorated wit,b numerous silver bracelets. always given preference. The Bedouins usually marry within The home of the Bedouin is the "house their tribes. The women are bought for of hair." Thi tent is composcd of hand­ a numb'er of camels or goats or a certain woven rugs made of black goat bair and quantity of silver. Thc price is, fixed camel wool which are held together by according to the looks of the girl, her rope. and pegs. Similar rugs serve as working capacity, and her skill in weaving. walls. An ordinary tent is about ten meters long and is Ret lip with its back The laws of the Bedouins are as: old wall to the wind. In winter the heavy as the Bible. They recognize no borders fabric keep.' out the wind; in summer the and no authority, acknowledging only side walls are dispensed with, thus provid­ the laws of their own tribe. Each tribe ing plcnt.v of air while the roof gives pro­ is headed by a shcik. whose word must tection against the hot rays of the sun. be obeyed by all. Phy ical labor and A curtain decorated with geometrical agriculture as carried on by the villagers dCi"igns or stripes of hrown camel hair and and feUahs arc looked upon with (lisdain. gray or black goat hair on a white ground Instead, the nomads regard it as their of sheep'f; wool divides the tent into two sacred right to waylay caravans and parts. The 'mahram is used by the pilgrims crossing their tel'l'itory or to women and the fa,1ll il.y, a,nd cooking grant them safe ('onduct against a, cor­ utenf'ils as well as beclding and saddle. responding toll. are kept there. The more open e.s shim! Their food consists mainly of camel's is the "parlor," in which the husband milk. mutton, rice. and ~l.ried 'qates. receives his guests. The home of a All thi::; iR fiRhcd out of a large common sheik corresponds to his wealth in that bowl with the fingers and fornied by it is longer and has scveral "rooms." In the hands into little balls, pushed into the tent of Rtate there i,' room for severaI the mouth. buncl.recl visitors. BY ROAD OR RATL THEIR CLOTHI::S AKD THEm :FOOD lraq's mean of communications ~re The garmonts of the Bedouins consist hardly developed at all. The desert is of a white cotton shirt reaching down to crossed only by caravan trails. Toward below the kneel>. Over this comes the t.he south there is something like a motor f1b1' , a white or striped robe of wool or road between Bagda,d and Basra on the silk that is open in front. It is held Persian Gulf; another such road leads together by a wide leather belt and a via Khallaqlli.n to Kermanshah in Irall. shoulder strap. The most important'gar­ A single shower of rain, however. is ment, howevel', iR the aba, a clark cloak enough to turn the dusty mud roadll into made of camel or sheep's wool. It, is such a morass that they may become rainproof and keeps the wearer warm., impassable for weekE!. The two roads A PARADISE LOST 419 lea:ding to t,he oil territories of Kerkuk SACRED SITES OF JSLA.M and Mosul are in a bett.er condition. Today Iraq, with its black, white, and Until recently, the railways consisted green Bag with a red trapezium and two of the lines BagdadjBasra, Bagdadj white stars in it, is an avowedly Moslem Khanaquin, BagdadjKerkuk, and Bagdadj country and possesses several Shiit.e sanc­ Baiji. The final link of 350 kilometers tuaries such as Najaf (30,000 inhabitants), from Baiji via Mosul to Nisibin, connect­ which contains the grave of Ali, Moham­ ing up with the Turkish Taurus Rail­ med's son-in-law, and Kerbala (65,000 way. was completed in the autumn of inhabit.ants) with the grave of Hussein, J940, so that one can now travel on the Ali's son. During such religious festivals "Bagdad Railway" from Berlin to Basra as. for instance, that of Muharram on June with two (·hanges, at t.he Bosporus and S, the day on which Hussein fell in battle in Bagdad, Another project that is to at Kerbala in 680 A.D. thousands of connect Mosul and Kerkuk with Tabriz pious pilgrims from Persia, Afghanistan, via. ErbiljRowaduz iM under construction. and even India flock to these sacred FAIRY-TALE PALACE places of Islam. Old people and invalids do not shrink from the mOtit arduous Not far from Bagdad there is one of journey in order to die in the holy city. t.he most famons monuments of vanished Many people bring the bodies of decca~ed culture: Ctesiphnn. At a distance one members of theil' family t.here, for para­ ('nn already see the vast haU of the old dise is assured to aU those who lie buried palace risillg above the plain, a miracle in sacred earth. of architccture from the days of the Sa:'lsanids the Persian kings who ruled .In contrast to the mosques of North before the a.dvent, of the Moslems. The Africa and Arabia, those of Iraq and mighty vault of the roof reaches up to Iran are gorgeously decorated. The mina­ a height of t,hirt,y-thrcc meters above the rets and domes arc covered with light blue, yellow. and green glazed porcelain ground. Built of briek, with ]10 supports or gl'oins, it has withstood the storms of tiles, while the interior of the buildings llixteen eenturies. According to leg­ is decorated with mosaicH and milTors, end, the fa9ade of the palace was riehly "ith gold, silver a.nd preciou~ stones. decorated with gems. In the center of The dome of the sacred grave-mosques t,he haJI, resplendent in the light of of Najaf, Kerbala, and Kadhimain, how­ golden lampR and candelabra, stood the ever, like those of Meshad and Qum in jewel-studded t,hrone, on which King Iran, are plated with pure gold. The Chosroes sat in audience, surrounded by golden cupolas shine far across the <:oun­ his ministers and soldiers. Behind him a try in the rays of the sun and transplant IlHl.gnificeJlt carpet hung down from the the onlooker into the fau'y-tale atmosphere of the Arab-ian Nig1lts. Infidels arc striet­ ceiling, It trelUmre of incalculable worth, ly prohibited from entering these holy depicting cL landscape. On a golden lJackground, t,he paths were woven in places, and caution is also advised ill ~ilvef' the meadows were done in emeralds, taking photographs. t.he rivers in pearls and Bowers, t,rees, Other important cities in Iraq are and fruit in other colored gems. When Samarra (30,000 inhabitants), Kadhimain the Arabs looted Ctesiphon, this gorgeous neal' Bagdad (65,000), the lagoon cit,y of sp.ecimen fell into their hands. Nothing Basra, five kilometers from the Persian Jlas ever been heard of it since. Gulf (80,000), Mosul (85,000) and, last The brilliance of the days of fairy tale but not least, the capital Bagdad with its has long vanished. Pigeons and bats 300,000 inhabitants. now live in the nooks and crannies of t.he HARUN-AL-RASR1D'S RESJDENCE old ruin. But the monumental con­ struction of the throne room still a·rouses Bagdad was founded in 762 by Abdal­ the awe of present generations. lah-a.l-Mansur, the "Victorious." Under 420 THE XXtb CENTURY the government of his splendor-loving old-faahioned Persian water wheelB .still nephew Haron-al-Rashid (786 to 809) the squeak day and night; and on the dirty city developed roto a metropolis of world brown water of the river, queer circular renown. Arts and Literature flourished, tubs float which are typical of the traffie and Bagdad soon outshone Babylon and on the Euphrates and the Tigris. These the furmer capitals of Mesopotamia. In guJJas measure about six meters across. the following centuries. however, its in­ They are made of willow and woven fluence declined again. During the Mid­ reeds, covered with hides, and calked dle Ages, Mongol hordes descended twice with pitch. Together with sailing vessels upon Bagdad (1258 and 1401). Tamer­ with a forward-slanting mast, they rep­ lane indulged in his favorite pastime resent the most popular means of trans­ here too by erecting before the gates of port for people, domestic animals, and the city a tower made of the heads of the produce of the oountry. . 90,000 massacred citizens. In later times The dominating colors of the celebrated the population was decimated by disease city are dusty gray and muddy brown. and floods; and whcn in the spring of The majority of its two-storied houses are 191 i British troops under General Maude built of adobe bricks. Gray dust Lies on marched into Bagdad nothing was left the flat roofs and covers the streets and of the glamour of its past but dusty the dry palm fronds which are moved alleyways, swarms of flies, and the by no breath of air. Against this monot­ "Ambiun nights," for during the summer onous backgrowld oven the myriads of months the heat in the capital of Iraq is flies soom quito decorative. The only so opprossive that life on the streets does touches of color are provided by the not begin until evening. slender columns of the minarets and the Then all the alleys are filled with a domes of the mosques which, with their colorftll mixture of rI\.CCS, with Arme­ pleasing designs of glazed colored tiles, niantl, Arabs: Persians, Jews, Indians, look like huge cloisonne bowls turned Afghan', Levantines, Negroes, Kurds, upsido down. and Bedouins, some of whom can be dis­ When evening falls and the slanting tinguished by their headgear. Then all rn.yR of the sun are reflected from bhe the cafes on the roofs of the houses over­ brilliant mosaic of the mosque cupolas, flow with people smoking narghiles, turning the gray of the houses to rust drinking tea, and playing dominoes. and crimson; when the moon rises and There is a single wide road that crosses pours its silver light over the blackness Bagdad from one end to the other. of the Tigris-tha.t is the atmosphere Ra..'lhid Street wa.:; cut straight through which revives in many a visitor the the middle of the city by the Turks stories of the life of splendor at the court during the Great War in order to provide of Harun-al-Rashid, stories into which a route of transport for the trueks and Scheherazade, the Arabian teller of 'tales, heavy weapons of their army. But aside wove all the colors of her Oriental iluagi­ frum this Bagdad hus remained purely nation. But in the morning everything Oriental. On the banks of the Tigris the is gray again.