Small 8vo. iv, 211 pp., lacking folding map, numerous tables, contemporary printed vellum, cover and endpapers soiled, paper browned, index, appendices, printed at the Government Monotype Press, Gatalogue No. M. 3, Simla, first edition, 1915.

Synopsis

Scarce and rare guide used only by British military during the First World War in Iraq. The work covers history, geography, population, natural resources of Iraq, together with notes on the Turkish army in the country and navigation in Tigris and Euphrates. It also describes routes in Mesopotamia which includes 36 different routes including Kuwait to Basrah, Umm Qasr to Zubair, Fao to Basrah, and Basrah to Baghdad. The political situation in Iraq during that period was intimately connected with that in Arabia and the Arab Gulf. During the 19th century the British who were based in India gradually built up for themselves a special position in the Arab Gulf and Lower Mesopotamia and consequently, almost the entire trade of the region was in British hands.