A PARADISE LOSTBy WALTER J. KAHLER

The r~ent evel1ts ill Ihe LWrtl101' have again called aUe,llioTl to the NearEast 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 movefrom olle place to another, wid who, IlJh61~ on.e meets them in some r617Wtc corl1er ofIhe 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 thelnst ten years: by ca.r from L(~pla"d through all the latitudes to Souill Africa, andfrom Berlin 10 India; 011 foot with native bearers through southeastern Asia; andOn h.orseback acr088 Soutl~ Amerir~. 'l'he 10(11' has Pllt a temporary 8tOp /0 histra'velli, and he is now living in 1'okyo.-K.1H.

WHEN, coming from the easterncoa·t of the Mediterranean, youhave crossed the range of the

Lebanon Mountains and climbed theAnti-L~banons on the other side of thevalley which is the continuation of thedeep Jordan Depression, you see belowyou the Syrian Desert, an absolutely flatexpanse spread out like a tablecloth thou­sands of miles eastward to the Persian Gulf.

This desolate piece of country, knownas Mesopotamia, looks back upon anancient history. Countless tribes andraces have crossed it in the course of thecenturies. Jews, Hittites and Ammo­nites, Persians and Greeks, fought on itssoil; Romans, Egyptians, Tartars. andSaracens struggled for possession of thiscOlmtry to be used as a steppingstonefor further conquests. All these peopleshave left traces of their cultmes. Assyriaand Babylon are strewn with the remainsof former cities, of temples, towers, andpalaces. Babylon, where Nebuchadnez­zar lived, the city of the hunging gardens;Ur of the Chaldees, Abraham's birthpla.ce,where once stood the temple of themoon god; Kish, the first Babyloniancapital after the Flood; Ashur, Erbil,Niniveh, and many other sites of thepast, are now among the favorite huntinggrounds of historians and archaeologists.

PALMYRA, ECHO OF THE PAST

Once upon a time, on the western edgeof the SyTian Desert, there lay, like a

port on the sea, Tadmor, also known asPalmyra, the ca.pital of the PalmyrianEmpire. It was a station on the ancienttranscontinent,al trade road which carriedthe goods pas ing between the RomanEmpire and the dista.nt lands of theEast. Long camel caravans came fromCentral Asia and crossed the desert inorder to transport the wa,res of the Orientto the ports of the Mediterranean: slaves,perfumes and spices, cotton, hand­wrought products of copper and brass,tea, porcelain, paper, precious stones,carpets, and bales of silk.

In Tadmor the camels were wateredand the caravans supplied with guidesand mounted guards to protect themagainst predatory nomads, who fromtime immemorial regarded the plunderingof travelers as their traditional business.Here a,greements were made with theinfiuential sheiks through whose territorythe caravans had to paSl.:l. It was thesame system that is still used here todayand which is known as ,·ifaq. Each tribehas its territory within which it demandstribute from all travelers. In the districtof Deir ez Zor, for inst,ance, one mustpay about £1 per head not to be molested.

The high income from the duty exactedin Palmyra for the passage of goodsenabled this town to develop into asplendid metropolis. \Vide streets flankedby columns and statues were constructed,the most magnificent of which led directlyto the temple of Baal.

A PARADISE LOST 409

Yet the history of the PalmyrianEmpire is a short one. After the murderof King Odenathus, a vassal of Rome,who had expanded the empire to theborders of Egypt and had united all ofSyria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia underhis scepter, his ambitious wife Zenobiarisked repudiating her allegiance to Rome.Fortune did not favor her. Tadmor wasstormed in 272 A.D. by Emperor Aure­lian's troops and burned down to itsfoundations. The beautiful queen wastaken prisoner and led through Rome ina triumphal march. Since then the re­mainders of the walls, houses, and columnsof the town have been covered up bysand. Even the name was forgottenuntil in 1678 merchants from Alepporediscovered Palmyra. Today the placeis nothing but a small oasis, a miserable,dusty cluster of mud huts and a passportoffice for the border traffic with Iraq.The actual border between Syria and Iraqis 200 kilometers further east in the desertand is simply marked by a signboard.

TRACKS IN THE DESERT

There are two bus lines crossing thedesert between Damasous and Bagdad:a Syrian one and the Nairn Transporta­tion Company, whose luxurious motoreoaches are equipped with Pullman com­partments, washrooms, telephone, and arefreshment buffet. They cover the dis­tance of 870 kilometers in about twenty­four hours, with a short stop midway atRutbah Wells.

The authorities at Damascus are verystrict about not allowing single cars tostart out alone into the desert, for therehave been several cases of lonely driverslosing their direction and getting lost inthe desert. But as we were asked topay £5 for the privilege of swallowingthe dust of other cars, we chose theroute via Palmyra. Here, too, there isno actual road, but one cannot get lostas long as one follows the telephone lines.Moreover, there are several stations ofthe Iraq Petroleum Company interspersedat distances of about a hundred kilometersalong this route where one could findhelp in case of need.

Early in the afternoon we reached"T 3," the first of these pumping stations,whose round, aluminum-painted oil tankswe had seen shining from afar. As every­where else where Europeans live insolitude, the people here were very gladto have visitors. It meant a break inthe constant monotony and provided anexcuse for an extensive dinner and count­less glasses of whisky. The guest roomto which we were shown was furnishedlike a first-class hotel room with a privatebathroom, electric light, radio, telephone,and several electric fans. The quartersof all the employees were furnished withthe same comforts. Besides a corre­spondingly high salary, this is the onlymeans of keeping the employees at thestations, which lie like little islands inthe vastness of the desert.

MODERN HERMITS

The considerations determining theconstruction of the living quarters wereheat in summer, cold in winter, and fliesall the year round. For these reasonsthe rooms face north and south, the roofsare almost as thick as the walls, and allwindows are screened. Everything isdone to make the occupants' stay 8B

agreeable as possible. The wide avenuesconnecting the whitewashed houses withthe pumping plant are tarred to keepoff dust and are planted with youngacacias and casuarinas, which in a fewyears will provide welcome shade. Thereare ice-making, mineral-water, cold­storage, and central-heating plants; alaundry, bakery, canteen, and a well­equipped hospital, which has mostly todeal with trachoma and other diseases ofthe eye. There are even vegetable gar­dens, chicken, geese, pigeons, and rabbits.The artesian well supplying the waterneeded for the whole station is 200 metersdeep.

The technical equipment of the stationsconsists of an engine room containingthree five-hundred horse-power motorswhich supply the power for three largepumps. Each of these sets in turn runsday and night without stopping for threeweeks. Then it ·is cleaned and prepared

THE XXth CENTURY

for it.s next turn. The pump house inwhich the oil is forced ou under greatpressure into the main pipe line is sepa­rated from the engine room by a gas­and waterproof waU.

These costly and strategically importantplants supply the fuel for the entireBritish Mediterranean fleet. In order toprotect them from sabotage and damageeach station. consisting of about a hundredacros, is surrounded by a high wire fence.The staff of some eventy native workersand their families live outside. In ad­dition to this, the plants are protectedby a small fort, in which the employeescan find refuge with their families in caseof disturbances. These small fortresses,some 75 by 55 meters in size, have bas­tions at two of their corners; they areequipped with a wireless station, tele­phone, water tanks, an electric generator,as well as food., weapons and ammunitionfor two weeks. Company police patrolsequipped with planes and machine gunsare on the move day and night to keepa constant watch on the entire line withits length of about a thousand kilometers.A number of emergency landing fieldsalong the line serve the same purpo e.

WB.ERE NOAH BUILT H1S AllK

Troublesome swarms of Hies and adisagreeable alkaline odor announce thatyou are approaching Hitt. The odorcomos from the asphalt beds found here,as weU as near Qaiyarah, sixty kilometerssouth of Mosul. The presence of pitchalways indicates the vicinity of oil de­posits, and at Qaiyarah German oilexpert hn.d discovered oil even beforethe Great WlU. The asphalt is to befound in these beds in a semiliquidstate.

The pre ence of IIR,lt and asphalt inthe environment of Bitt was known aslong ago as in Biblical times, Thel~ncient Babylonians already used pitchto impregmtte their bricks to make themmore durable. People from Ur andDabylon went on foot to Hitt, wherethey built boats, loaded them with saltand pitch, and made their way home inthem on the Euphrates.

The history of Hitt is closely C61Wectedwith the story of the Flood and Noah'sark. Tales of a great deluge that covetedalmost every country are to be 'found inthe legends of many races, even amongthose that had nothing whatever to dowith MesopotlLmia. Hence it is a mootquestion, whether the event mentionedin the Scriptures was limited to the greatvalley between the Euphrates and theTigris. However, it is not impossible,since in those days Mesopotamia was thecenter of the inhabited world.

Noah, too, had come to Hitt to fetchpitch. The Bible tells liS that it pouredfor forty days and forty nights. 1'hismay be somewhat exaggerated; but it isquite possible that exceptionally heavyrains fell in the Kurdi h-Armenian moun­tains which caused the Euphrates andthe 1'igris to overflow their banks andflood aU Mesopotamia, drowning thegreater part of the population. Noahhad probably just completed his ark.He salvaged his dome tic animals andwa,ited till the Deluge subsided.

The fact that a· deluge of extraordinaryproportions once took place in Mesopota­mia has been proved by archaeologists.In the cour e of the excavations of theancient Chl1ldean city of Ur, north ofBasra, a shaft was sunk nineteen metersinto the earth. The individual layersthrough which this shaft passes clearlyshow the sequence of the cultural periods.In the uppermost nine meters, eightdifferent periods are discernible. Thencomes a layer of sand two to threemeters thick, in which no traces whateverof human activity have been discovered.This layer obviously represents the secli­ment of the Deluge. Under it there areagain several layers which, like the top­most eight layers cont-ain the remainsof houses. fragments of }Juttery a.ndother objects of daily use.

During the excavations in Niniveh,the capital of the ancient AssyrianEmpire a large library of some twentythousand earthenwttre tablets was dis­covered under the ruins of Assurbanipal'spalace. In deciphering them, some werefound which told of a great flood disaster.

A PARADISE LOST 411

These tablets wit,h their cuneiform writing,the majority of which are now in theBritish Museum. tue among the oldestdocuments of literntllrc ever to havebeen found. The rudiment.'i of thiH formof writing were invented as early a-liabout 4500 B.C. by the Sumerlans, a non­Semitic race which had immigratod frumthe east, apparently from the regionsnorth of the Indus, into Mesopotamia.The characters were engraved with afllLt style on soft clay tablet·, whichwerc then hardened by baking in an oven.

CRADLE OF MANKIND?

eastern mountain country, whoso capitalwas Susa. These thre peoples foughtfor two thousand years for supremacyuntil HILmmurabi mounted the throne ofBabylon about :WOO B.C. This was thebeginning of the BlLbylonill.n-Hittito­Elamite period. which lasted until about600 H.C., to be follu\\od hy t,he Neo­Babylonia,n and Persian periods. Alterthat. Parthians, Romans, Arabs. andTurks ruled the country. But thestruggle for this hotly disputed regioncontinues to this day.

TIlE CURSE OF OIL

The Biblical theory, aecording to whiohMesopotamia, "the country of two rivers,"is the cradle of the human raco, hasfowul some support tluough neolithicfinds, which archaeologists estimate atbeing twenty thowmnd years old. Theearly history of tho cowltry saw threedifferent races: the Semitic Akkadians,who ruled Mesopotamia from Babylon;the Sumerians in the southern alluvialplain of the Euphrate and the Tigris,whose oldest capital, excavated hy Ger­man archaeologists, was Uruk, the Erechuf the Bible; and the Elamitel> in the

The presence of coo.!, iron ore, copper.and other important ores is always amisfortune for countries which are notstrong enough to defend themselves.But the greatest misfortune to such acoun-try iii oil. It is the liquid goldtoward which all the gren,t powers of theworld turn their eyes.

The soil of Iraq, Arabia, and Iran i8especially rich in deposits of this covetedsubstance. Indeed, the subterraneanmineral-oil deposits of these countriesare 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 ofthe three allied powers, Russia, England,and America.. clash in this territory.Within the last seven years, the tandardOil Company of 'alifornia ha.'i builthighly modern refmcries on the pearl­fi hi g i land of Bahrein in the PersianGulf whi h produce about a million tons

f oil every year. lightly to the northof this island, too in tho small independentstate of Kuwait oil has been discovered,as well as in audi Arabia, where anAmNican oil company made the firstdrilling. in 1930. Among the richestwells arc tho oil fields near Dizful insouthern iran, 250 kilometers northeastof Basra. One of t.he most modernrefineries is to bp. found here. The oil iscarried by a pipe line to the port ofAbadan on the Persian Gull, where itis loaded into tankerti.

Th 0 rich fields, 80 far in Britishhand . at present form the focal point ofAmorican interests. Tho nited. tates,upon whose abundant oil productionmotorized war ha already made 8uchgreat demand. that privat.e consumptionhas had to be curtail I even ih the oil­producing states, i now trying to forceEngland out of this territory 011 thepretense that she urgently requires thesewolls for the supplying of her motorizedtroops in the Kear East and NorthAlrica, since the overseas supply by tankerha.'! become too risky on account of theCerman V-boats. Once American in­terests have obtained a foothold in theIranian oil t.erritory, they will not letthemselves be forced out again by Eng­l.and when the war is over.

THE FffiES OF OEHENNA

The high mountain walls of the Taurus&nd Zagros, whose snow-covered peaksprovide u. rlramatic background in winterto the monotonous plains of Mesopotamia,form the natural. borders of Iraq towardthe north and the east. At the foot ofthese rugged mountains lie the two oldtowns of Erbil and Kerkuk, both sur­rounded by high walls. Like all his­torical ites in Iraq, they too stand onhills consi ting of the foundations andremains of long-vanished cities.

Kerkuk is one of Kurdistan's ohiefmarket places. Within its walls theretands an ancient mosque said to contain

the grave of the prophet Daniel. Notfar from the town there is a field, aboutan acre in ext.ent and called "Jehennum"by the nativc ,in which, since the memoryof man, tongue of flame have leaped. upfrom the ground. This field is the"Gehenna" of the Bible, where, aocordingto legend, Daniel's three friends Shadrach,Meshach, and Abednego were th.rowninto the eternal fire, the "fiery furnaco."Today this region presents a. fant.asticspectacle, especiu.lly at night. for hereburn like giant torches the gases cscapingfrom the smoke. tacks and water coolersof the oil plants.

The first experimental drillings, whichled to the discovery of one of the mostproductive oil fields in the world, weremade here in October 1927. The firstdrilling had just been started and thesurface of the earth hardly pierced whena mighty jet of the coveted liquid spurtedhigh up into t.he air. This happened sounexpectedly tJlat hundreds of barr I ofoil were 10 t before the gusher could bebrought under control. Ten years later,thirty-two wells were already beingworked. In the years 1937/39 the totalannual oil production of Iraq averaged41 million tons.

In Kerkuk the oil undergoes a pre­liminary refining and is then pumpedthrough two pipe lines to the ports ofthe Mediterranean. For 255 kilometersthese two pipe lines run side by side; afterorossing the Euphrates they separate.The northern arm leads for 650 kilometersvia Palmyra to the Syrian port of Tripoli.The French used to get a quarter of thetotal yield, but after the collapee ofFrance the British blocked this pipe line.The other arm goes via Rutbah Wellsand through Transjordania to the portof Haifa in Palestine, 800 kilometersaway. Through this arm, 900 tons ofoil an hour are pumped to Haifa, whereit is refined and loaded into tankers.

Work was begun on these pipe linesin 1931. Huge trench-digging machineslaid a trench seventy centimeters wide

41:1IHI

nCENTURY

THE

MESOPOTAMIAN

DESERT

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A PARADISE LOST·

and two meters deep across the desert,and the Lebanon range. The pipe linerequired no less than 150,000- lengths ofpipe; 12,000 Bedouin laborers. were em­ployed on this job for four years; andthe total costs amounted to some tenmillion pounds sterling.

THE BIRTH OF IRAQ

When, after the Great War. the oldOttoman Empire hurst into fragments,one of which was Mo, opotamia with itsoil areas of Mmml and Kerkuk. Englandsaw to it that the League of Nationshanded over the mandate of this strate­gically highly important bit of countryto her. Tho newborn political child thathad been brought into the world byVersailles was baptized Iraq according toan a.ncient geographical term. The coun­tl'y covers approximately 350.000 squarekilometers-the borders with ~audi AraLiaand Transjordania luwe not yet beendefinitely fixed-and feeds a popubtion(If :~t millions. In compenf;ation for tbi;,;loss, Turkey was granted it royalty 011

the oil production for the next thirtyyears.

With the bit·th of Iraq, England starteda new game of "divide and rule" on thechet'sboard of her Near East policy.There wu.· one man abO\~e all whose in­crea ·itlg power and popularity among theArabs was a thorn itl the side of England:ibn-Saud.

KING OJ? TilE WAHABrTES

Abdul-Aziz ibn-Saud was the ruler ofNejd and the head of the independenttribe of the Wahabites. The Wahauitei'arc the Puritans among the Moham­medans who look down disdainfully onthe less orthodox l\'Ioslems and on the

. coastal Arabs who have been softened byEuropean influence. Fanatical cham­pions of their faith, they adhere strictlyto the laws of the Koran, eschewingalcohol and even tobacco, to which allother Arabs are addicted. They permitno infringement of their dogma, arewholly intolerant of other faiths, andabho; deceit, lies, and adultery,

Ibn-Saud rules tills fanatical tribe ofdesert dwellers with great skill. In spiteof his sixty years of age he shows asurprising youthfulness. Before him.Arabia was a land of constant inseourity.Attacks on caravans and pilgrims, theftand murder, were the traditional rightof all Bedouins. Ibn-Saud has doneaway with all tills. He has suppressedtribal feuds and punishes vendettaS' aslllurder. He is fighting eorrupt,ion andcontrols prices. Indeed, he has evensucceeded in settling nomads who havebeen accustomed to moving around alltheir lives from country to country.Crime has become rare since ibn-Saudrules in Nejd, and believers can no\\'make pilgrimages to Mecca unllloiested.for the desert il'l patrolled by reliablepolice troops. In addition to these,ibn-Saud has created an i.nfantry anflcamel ca valrv such as Arabia ha~ neverknown. It i~ sain that he can put :.WO,Ooowell-equipped and well-mounted fighter:;;into the field. His army even possesf<esa. iTr Ia lleS.

lSTRfG C ES Al\ D HEADAOHES

During the Great \\"0.1' England beganall kinds of dangerous experiments in theNear East without apparently takingfuture con 'equences into account.

'olonol Lawrence had succeededtluough skillful diplomacv and by meunsof his personal populnrity alUong theBedouins in obtaining for the Alliei' thesupport of King Hussein ibn-Ali of theHejaz against the Turks. England there­upon spread propaganda alllong the var­ious Ara b tribes for the purpo e of set­ting up her protege King Hussei.n as aseconn caliph to replace the Sultan ofTurkey. By this means England hopedto split the supporters of Islam into twocamps. She furthered the Pan-Ara.bianmovement and was greatly 'urprisedwhen in ] 920 this movement turnod intoa. large-scale revolt in Iraq, whi'c11 costhundreds of Tommies their lives.· TheBritish garrison itl Bagdad was seriouslyimperiled by the nationalist rebels, andit was only through the support of thepro-English Nakib of Bagdad and of

THE XXth CENTURY

8ayid Talib, the most influential man inBasra, that England was able to muterthe situation. In giving their support,these two men lUl8umed that the Nakibwould become the head of the newIraqian national state, while Sayid Talibwould receive the post of Minister of theInterior; for England had promised thatthe Ira.qian people would be allowed tochoose its rulers from among its ownranks.

Howe\'er, when Winston Churchill be­came England's Minister for the Colonies,the British policy toward Iraq was sud­denly reversed. In spite of all the warn­ings on the part of Sir Percy Cox, thenHigh Commissioner for Iraq, Churchilldeclared at the Cairo Conference in March1921 that England had decided to makeFaisal, Hussein's son who had fled fromSyria, king of Iraq. No one can main­tain that this choice was a particularlyhappy one, for Faisal was for the Ira.qiansnot only a foreigner but, being 0. Sunnite,belonged to the orthodox branch of lBlam,while the majority of the inhabitants ofMesopotamia were Shiites and, as such,his declared enemies. (See "Islam andSociety," page 3S8, December 1942 issueof this magazine.)

The rumor soon spread in Iraq thatEngln.nd intended to frustrate the comingnational election; and Sayid Talib declaredopenly in an after-dinner speech that thepeople would never recognize FaiBal astheir ruler. Sayid Talib was promptlyarrested and exiled to Ceylon. A shamelection was held among the varioussheiks at which no one, not even theNakib, dared to vote against Faisal. Afew weeks later Faisal landed in Basra;his reception among the population wasa very cool one.

The Iraqian people have never for­gotten this fraud. King FaisaJ died amysterious death in Bern on September8, 1933, on his return home from England.

The administration of Iraq has providedGreat Britain with many a headache.On several occasions there were revoltslasting for many months. After muchfruitless negotiation, England had no

choice but to bribe the independentBedouin shein by considerable sums ofcash to keep their tribes quiet. Thi8 i8an expensive method if one recalls thatin 1921 the Bntish control of Mesopotamiacost English taxpayers ten million poundsin subsidies and in the following yeareight million pounds.

In 1932 the efforts at independence onthe part of the population were at lastcrowned with suocess. On October 3 ofthat year Iraq was accepted in the Leagueof Na.tions and recognized as an in­dependent state. England withdrew herHigh Commissioner but reserved theright of maintaining military bases inBagdad and Basra for the protection ofher air line Cairo/Karachi. NaturallyLondon o.lso supervises the lraqian Gov­ernment's foreign policy, so that de factothere has been little change from thecountry's former status as a protectorate.

EX-PARADISE

Mesopotamia is known to us from theBible as the Garden of Eden. I find itdifficult to understand that Adam andEve could discover no ootter place in theworld to spend their honeymoon; for,apart from the Kurdish Mountains andthe Zagros range in tile north, whichforms the border to Iran, Iraq is theflattest, most monotonous and mostdesolate land one can imagine. Throughthis wilderness flow the two rivers Eu­phrates and Tigris with their brown,muddy waters, till they unite in a delta.in the swampy alluvial plain of Shatt elArab. Their banks are lined with roodsand dusty date palms, which serve as ahiding place for the scanty wild life suchas jackals, wolves, hyenas, partridges,and waterfowl.

But in olden days this may have aUbeen different. The soil itseU is veryfertile and offers all that is needed forluxuriant growth. The only thing lack­ing is regulSoJ: irrigation to turn Iraq oncemore into a flowering garden. But sincethe Mongols destroyed the ancient irriga.­tion system during their invasion in thethirteenth century, the great.er part ofMesopotamia has, as a result of its

A PARADISE LOST 417

llubsequent rulers' neglect, remained adesert. Ea{'h of t.he ancient Babyloniandynasties had contributed its share to­ward improving the irrigation systems.The largest qf these was the NahrawanCanal, whose trenches watered more than340 kilometers of the land. Today one{'an hardly recognize this canal in thenarrow depression in the cart,h.

Now t.he only means of irrigation arethe ancient Persian 7'laouras, huge waterwheels of about, ten meters in diameter,t,o which are fast,elled a number of earthen­ware jugI'. At every turn of the wheelthese jugs fill with water which they dis­charge into ditches that distI'ibute theprecious moisture to the thirsty fields.Day and night these heavy wheels turnon the banks of the rivers and fill theair with squeaking and creaking.

The population is distributed accordingto the fertility of the soil in the differentareas. I n the northern zone there areabout seven inhabitants to the squarekilometer; in the central desert zonehardly two; while the greatest densityof population-about fourteen to the8quare kilometer-is to be found in thedelta area of the Euphrates and Tigris.

DATES AND THE WEATHER

The most important plant, which isthe main source of food for the entirepopulation, is the date palm. There areover 30 million of these throughout thecountry, more than half of which growin huge plantations in the delta region ofShatt el Arab. Cultivated with the ut­most care, there are about sixty differentspecies of datc palm in Iraq. The treereaches a height of 25 meters, and thefruits grow in great bunches weighing{rom 20 to 25 pounds. Male and femaleblossoms do not grow on the same tree.Hence the fertilization of the blossoms isdone during April by hand and, more­over, still in exactly the same way as isdepicted on the ancient Babylonian reliefsculptures of Niniveh. While the bunchesof fruit are growing, they are protectedby little bags {rom Wl18p8 and otherinsects. The harvest takes place in Octo­ber. For home consumption the dates

are dried for a month in the sun. Forexport--Iraq supplies about eighty percent of the world's requirements in dates-they are packed while still fresh arpressed into large square blocks.

In addition to the cultivation of dates,there is also agriculture on the lowerreaches of the Euphrates and the Tigris.The main products are wheat and barley,also rice, which thrives in the hot, dampatmosphere of the Persian Gulf; otherproducts are cOttOIl, some flax, jute,.Japanese peanuts, and ma,ize. Tobacco,tomatoes, onions, melons, pumpkins, andmany varieties of fruit .are also grown.There are two harvests a year, in Apriland in the autumn.

Iraq's climate shows great contrasts.During the winter months the t,hermom­eter sometimes drops below freezingpoint, while in summer the temperatureoften rises to over 50 degrees centigradein the shade. Spring and autumn areshort. The rainy season, with an averageannual rainfall of 170 millimeters at Bag­dad and 420 millimeters in the Mosularea, lasts from December to April.From time to time very sudden cyclone­like hailstorms sweep across Mesopotamia.,representing a serious danger to naviga­t.ion on t,he Euphrates and the Tigris.

SONS OF THE DESERT

The sparse vegetation which in springcovers the steppes with friendly greenbefore the scorching heat of summer driesup every living plant, as well as ta.mari8ksand shrubs on the river banks, providefodder for the herds of the Bedouins andseminomads who go to makp. up a largepart of the population of Jray..

The life of these tanned sons of thedesert, their customs and their clothes,are the same today as in the days ofAbraham. There are only two imple­ments of ci~ilization {or which they showan irresistible craving: modern militaryrifles, for which they willingly pay severalcamels apiece, and luxurious, high­powered American automobiles, whichevery rich self-respecting sheik possesses.

The wealth of the nomads is countedaccording to their ca.ttle: sheep, goa.ta,

418 THE XXth· CENTURY

horses and, above all. camels, with whichthey move around the country as thepasture varies. What ,is most importantto them is the watering places in thedesert. Disputes over the use or posses­sion of such wells have often led tobloody feuds between the various tribes.Around the watering places there isa.lways lively traffic, for they are the goalof all caravans. Sometimes there aremore t,han a hundred camel'> waitillg therofor a drink: and the little Bedouin girlswith their herds of goat Illust often waita long t.ime for their turn, for camels arealways given preference.

The home of the Bedouin is the "houseof hair." Thi tent is composcd of hand­woven rugs made of black goat bair andcamel wool which are held together byrope. and pegs. Similar rugs serve aswalls. An ordinary tent is about tenmeters long and is Ret lip with its backwall to the wind. In winter the heavyfabric keep.' out the wind; in summer theside walls are dispensed with, thus provid­ing plcnt.v of air while the roof gives pro­tection against the hot rays of the sun.A curtain decorated with geometricaldCi"igns or stripes of hrown camel hair andgray or black goat hair on a white groundof sheep'f; wool divides the tent into twoparts. The 'mahram is used by thewomen and the fa,1ll il.y, a,nd cookingutenf'ils as well as beclding and saddle.are kept there. The more open e.s shim!is the "parlor," in which the husbandreceives his guests. The home of asheik corresponds to his wealth in thatit is longer and has scveral "rooms." Inthe tent of Rtate there i,' room for severa Ibuncl.recl visitors.

THEIR CLOTHI::S AKD THEm :FOOD

The garmonts of the Bedouins consistof a white cotton shirt reaching down tobelow the kneel>. Over this comes thef1b1' , a white or striped robe of wool orsilk that is open in front. It is heldtogether by a wide leather belt and ashoulder strap. The most important'gar­ment, howevel', iR the aba, a clark cloakmade of camel or sheep's wool. It, israinproof and keeps the wearer warm.,

At night the nomad roUs himself up in it.A square piece of cloth folded into atriangle protects head, eyes, and mouthfrom cold, sand. and the sun. A doublecord of black goat hair keeps it in place.Sandals made of untanned camel: hidecomplete the apparel.

The women also wear a shirt like themen, but in their case it is dyed a Simpleindigo blue. They take pride in loadingtheir heads and chests with coins, clips,brooches. beads, and other ornaments,and theirs arlllS and legs are also oftendecorated wit,b numerous silver bracelets.

The Bedouins usually marry withintheir tribes. The women are bought fora numb'er of camels or goats or a certainquantity of silver. Thc price is, fixedaccording to the looks of the girl, herworking capacity, and her skill in weaving.

The laws of the Bedouins are as: oldas the Bible. They recognize no bordersand no authority, acknowledging onlythe laws of their own tribe. Each tribeis headed by a shcik. whose word mustbe obeyed by all. Phy ical labor andagriculture as carried on by the villagersand feUahs arc looked upon with (lisdain.Instead, the nomads regard it as theirsacred right to waylay caravans andpilgrims crossing their tel'l'itory or togrant them safe ('onduct against a, cor­responding toll.

Their food consists mainly of camel'smilk. mutton, rice. and ~l.ried 'qates.All thi::; iR fiRhcd out of a large commonbowl with the fingers and fornied bythe hands into little balls, pushed intothe mouth.

BY ROAD OR RATL

lraq's mean of communications ~re

hardly developed at all. The desert iscrossed only by caravan trails. Towardt.he south there is something like a motorroad between Bagda,d and Basra on thePersian Gulf; another such road leadsvia Khallaqlli.n to Kermanshah in Irall.A single shower of rain, however. isenough to turn the dusty mud roadll intosuch a morass that they may becomeimpassable for weekE!. The two roads

A PARADISE LOST 419

lea:ding to t,he oil territories of Kerkukand Mosul are in a bett.er condition.

Until recently, the railways consistedof the lines BagdadjBasra, BagdadjKhanaquin, BagdadjKerkuk, and BagdadjBaiji. The final link of 350 kilometersfrom Baiji via Mosul to Nisibin, connect­ing up with the Turkish Taurus Rail­way. was completed in the autumn ofJ940, so that one can now travel on the"Bagdad Railway" from Berlin to Basrawith two (·hanges, at t.he Bosporus andin Bagdad, Another project that is toconnect Mosul and Kerkuk with Tabrizvia. ErbiljRowaduz iM under construction.

FAIRY-TALE PALACE

Not far from Bagdad there is one oft.he most famons monuments of vanishedculture: Ctesiphnn. At a distance one('nn already see the vast haU of the oldpalace risillg above the plain, a miracleof architccture from the days of theSa:'lsanids the Persian kings who ruledbefore the a.dvent, of the Moslems. Themighty vault of the roof reaches up toa height of t,hirt,y-thrcc meters above theground. Built of briek, with ]10 supportsor gl'oins, it has withstood the storms ofllixteen eenturies. According to leg­end, the fa9ade of the palace was riehlydecorated with gems. In the center oft,he haJI, resplendent in the light ofgolden lampR and candelabra, stood thejewel-studded t,hrone, on which KingChosroes sat in audience, surrounded byhis ministers and soldiers. Behind him aIlHl.gnificeJlt carpet hung down from theceiling, It trelUmre of incalculable worth,depicting cL landscape. On a goldenlJackground, t,he paths were woven in~ilvef' the meadows were done in emeralds,t.he rivers in pearls and Bowers, t,rees,and fruit in other colored gems. Whenthe Arabs looted Ctesiphon, this gorgeoussp.ecimen fell into their hands. NothingJlas ever been heard of it since.

The brilliance of the days of fairy talehas long vanished. Pigeons and batsnow live in the nooks and crannies of t.heold ruin. But the monumental con­struction of the throne room still a·rousesthe awe of present generations.

SACRED SITES OF JSLA.M

Today Iraq, with its black, white, andgreen Bag with a red trapezium and twowhite stars in it, is an avowedly Moslemcountry and possesses several Shiit.e sanc­tuaries such as Najaf (30,000 inhabitants),which contains the grave of Ali, Moham­med's son-in-law, and Kerbala (65,000inhabit.ants) with the grave of Hussein,Ali's son. During such religious festivalsas. for instance, that of Muharram on JuneS, the day on which Hussein fell in battleat Kerbala in 680 A.D. thousands ofpious pilgrims from Persia, Afghanistan,and even India flock to these sacredplaces of Islam. Old people and invalidsdo not shrink from the mOtit arduousjourney in order to die in the holy city.Many people bring the bodies of decca~ed

members of theil' family t.here, for para­dise is assured to aU those who lie buriedin sacred earth.

.In contrast to the mosques of NorthAfrica and Arabia, those of Iraq andIran are gorgeously decorated. The mina­rets and domes arc covered with lightblue, yellow. and green glazed porcelaintiles, while the interior of the buildingsis decorated with mosaicH and milTors,"ith gold, silver a.nd preciou~ stones.The dome of the sacred grave-mosquesof Najaf, Kerbala, and Kadhimain, how­ever, like those of Meshad and Qum inIran, are plated with pure gold. Thegolden cupolas shine far across the <:oun­try in the rays of the sun and transplantthe onlooker into the fau'y-tale atmosphereof the Arab-ian Nig1lts. Infidels arc striet­ly prohibited from entering these holyplaces, and caution is also advised illtaking photographs.

Other important cities in Iraq areSamarra (30,000 inhabitants), Kadhimainneal' Bagdad (65,000), the lagoon cit,y ofBasra, five kilometers from the PersianGulf (80,000), Mosul (85,000) and, lastbut not least, the capital Bagdad with its300,000 inhabitants.

HARUN-AL-RASR1D'S RESJDENCE

Bagdad was founded in 762 by Abdal­lah-a.l-Mansur, the "Victorious." Under

420 THE XXtb CENTURY

the government of his splendor-lovingnephew Haron-al-Rashid (786 to 809) thecity developed roto a metropolis of worldrenown. Arts and Literature flourished,and Bagdad soon outshone Babylon andthe furmer capitals of Mesopotamia. Inthe following centuries. however, its in­fluence declined again. During the Mid­dle Ages, Mongol hordes descended twiceupon Bagdad (1258 and 1401). Tamer­lane indulged in his favorite pastimehere too by erecting before the gates ofthe city a tower made of the heads of90,000 massacred citizens. In later timesthe population was decimated by diseaseand floods; and whcn in the spring of191 i British troops under General Maudemarched into Bagdad nothing was leftof the glamour of its past but dustyalleyways, swarms of flies, and the"Ambiun nights," for during the summermonths the heat in the capital of Iraq isso opprossive that life on the streets doesnot begin until evening.

Then all the alleys are filled with acolorftll mixture of rI\.CCS, with Arme­niantl, Arabs: Persians, Jews, Indians,Afghan', Levantines, Negroes, Kurds,and Bedouins, some of whom can be dis­tinguished by their headgear. Then allthe cafes on the roofs of the houses over­flow with people smoking narghiles,drinking tea, and playing dominoes.

There is a single wide road that crossesBagdad from one end to the other.Ra..'lhid Street wa.:; cut straight throughthe middle of the city by the Turksduring the Great War in order to providea route of transport for the trueks andheavy weapons of their army. But asidefrum this Bagdad hus remained purelyOriental. On the banks of the Tigris the

old-faahioned Persian water wheelB .stillsqueak day and night; and on the dirtybrown water of the river, queer circulartubs float which are typical of the traffieon the Euphrates and the Tigris. TheseguJJas measure about six meters across.They are made of willow and wovenreeds, covered with hides, and calkedwith pitch. Together with sailing vesselswith a forward-slanting mast, they rep­resent the most popular means of trans­port for people, domestic animals, andthe produce of the oountry. .

The dominating colors of the celebratedcity are dusty gray and muddy brown.The majority of its two-storied houses arebuilt of adobe bricks. Gray dust Lies onthe flat roofs and covers the streets andthe dry palm fronds which are movedby no breath of air. Against this monot­onous backgrowld oven the myriads offlies soom quito decorative. The onlytouches of color are provided by theslender columns of the minarets and thedomes of the mosques which, with theirpleasing designs of glazed colored tiles,look like huge cloisonne bowls turnedupsido down.

When evening falls and the slantingrn.yR of the sun are reflected from bhebrilliant mosaic of the mosque cupolas,turning the gray of the houses to rustand crimson; when the moon rises andpours its silver light over the blacknessof the Tigris-tha.t is the atmospherewhich revives in many a visitor thestories of the life of splendor at the courtof Harun-al-Rashid, stories into whichScheherazade, the Arabian teller of 'tales,wove all the colors of her Oriental iluagi­nation. But in the morning everythingis gray again.