Enemy on the Euphrates, page 47
18. Gertrude Bell Project, University of Newcastle, www.gerty.ncl.ac.uk, Gertrude Bell to Hugh Bell, 24 April 1918.
19. Wilson, Mesopotamia, 1917–1920, p. 76.
20. According to Atiyyah, p. 231, ‘The punishment … created deep resentment at British cruelty and a wide gulf between the populace and the British authorities.’
Chapter 16: Britain’s New Colony
1. Mann, p. 182.
2. Ibid., p. 175.
3. Thomas Lyell, The Ins and Outs of Mesopotamia, A. M. Philpot, London, 1923, p. vii; second edition edited by Paul Rich and re-published as Iraq and Imperialism: Thomas Lyell’s The Ins and Outs of Mesopotamia, Authors Choice Press, San Jose, 2001.
4. Wilson, Mesopotamia, 1917–1920, pp. 110.
5. Memorandum 27190, Acting Civil Commissioner to Political Officers, Baghdad, 30 November 1918, quoted in Ireland, p. 162.
6. Ireland, p. 253.
7. The date of this fatwa is something of a mystery. Both al-Rahimi (p. 204) and Luizard (p. 373) state that the date according to the Islamic calendar was 20 Rabi‘ al-Awal 1337, which Luizard’s conversion to the Gregorian date is given as 23 January 1919. However, using the conversion algorithm in http://www.oriold.uzh.ch/static/hegira.html the correct Gregorian date would be 24 December 1918. That the December date seems correct is supported by Atiyyah, Iraq: 1908–1921, who states that the fatwa was issued in ‘December 1918’ (p. 330). However, it should be noted that unfortunately there are a number of different algorithms for converting the Islamic lunar system into the Gregorian calendar.
8. al-Rahimi, pp. 203–4.
9. Quoted in Ireland, p. 171.
10. Lady Bell, vol. 2, p. 464.
11. Wilson, Mesopotamia, 1917–1920, pp. 117–18.
Chapter 17: The Oil Agreements
1. Roskill, vol. 2, pp. 28–9.
2. William Stivers, Supremacy and Oil: Iraq, Turkey and the Anglo-American World Order, 1918–30, Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 1982, p. 26; see also Kent, p. 141, and David Gilmour, Curzon, John Murray, London, 1994, p. 519. However, it should be noted that according to Tardieu, the principal French source for this secret agreement (see H. W. V. Temperley, History of the Peace Conference, Oxford University Press, London, 1920–24, vol. 6, p. 182), what Lloyd George offered was the ‘mandate’ for Syria, if the mandate system were adopted. This is not the same thing as saying he offered to continue the Sykes–Picot Agreement with respect to Syria. Unfortunately, the whole incident is so obscure that it is impossible to know exactly what Lloyd George promised to Clemenceau. I have therefore adopted the most frequently repeated account.
3. Stivers, pp. 62–74.
4. See Salman Hadi Tu’ma, Karbela’ fi thawra al-‘ishrin (Karbela’ in the Revolution of 1920), Beirut, 2000, Appendix p. 30.
5. Quoted in al-Rahimi, appendix 12, pp. 303–4.
6. Quoted in Kent, p. 143.
7. Busch, p. 308.
8. Benjamin Schwadran, The Middle East, Oil and the Great Powers, Atlantic Press, London, 1956, p. 204n.
9. Kent, pp. 172–3; Wilson, Mesopotamia, 1917–1920, p. 125.
10. For a good example of the kind of anti-British propaganda emanating from these sources see Dr George-Samne, La Syrie, Editions Bossard, Paris, 1920.
11. My explanation of this episode is based largely on Stivers, but it is fair to say that the event is still clouded in mystery. Most recently, Sluglett, in the second edition of his classic Britain in Iraq, is himself reduced to stating, in relation to the oil agreements, that ‘the causes of the seemingly interminable wranglings and procrastinations are still not entirely clear’, asking (rhetorically), ‘Exactly what was the nature of the Anglo-French dispute over Mosul that the Berenger–Long agreement of 1919 did not resolve?’ See Sluglett, pp. 21–2.
12. IO/L/PS/10/815, Geological Report (Mesopotamia no. 1) District of Qaiyara, Government Press, Baghdad, 1919, p. 6.
13. Memorandum of Agreement between M. Philippe Berthelot … and Professor Sir John Cadman, 24 April 1920, attached to CAB/24/108, The National Archive, London, CP 1524: Memorandum by the Minister in Charge of Petroleum Affairs, 21 June 1920.
Chapter 18: The Independence Movement in Baghdad
1. Philby Papers, Middle East Centre, St Antony’s College, Oxford, PH VI/3/37, copy of memorandum no. 11947, Civil Commissioner Baghdad to Judicial Secretary Baghdad, 11 April 1920, and copy of memorandum G-101/2, Judicial Secretary Baghdad to Civil Commissioner Baghdad, 21 June 1920.
2. Zeine, p. 139. Ireland, p. 255, gives the date of the announcement as 8 March (not 6th) as does Marlowe, p. 180.
3. Tauber, ‘The Role of Lieutenant Muhammad Sharif al-Faruqi’, p. 49.
4. al-Rahimi, appendix 8, p. 299. However, according to Abbas Muhammad Kadhim, ‘it is noted that since from beginning of the popular movement and then the Islamic uprising until the end of the revolution none of the leadership of the revolt or the ‘ulama or the masses called for an Emirate of the of one of the sons of the Sharif Husayn’. (Kadhim, Al-haraka al-Islamiyya fi al-‘Iraq, p. 262). This view appears to reflect the author’s strongly Shi‘i Islamist perspective, although it seems inconsistent with the correspondence related above.
5. See al-Rahimi, appendix 9, p. 300.
6. Quoted in Nakash, p. 68.
7. Wilson, Mesopotamia, 1917–1920, pp. 248–9.
8. Wisaya, cognate with the verb wasa, meaning to entrust. See J. M. Cowan (ed.), The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Arabic, Spoken Language Services, Inc., Ithaca, 1994, p. 1260, and Atiyyah, p. 315. However, it is also possible that the word ‘mandate’ was also being translated in the Arabic press as amr, equally offensive and meaning (among other things) ‘supreme power’, ‘authority’. See Wilson, Mesopotamia, 1917–1920, p. 248n. Shirazi translated it as himaya (protectorate).
9. Philby Papers, PH VI/3/107–9, copy of letter from Gertrude Bell to Arnold Wilson, 3 June 1920.
10. Intidab, cognate with the verb nadaba, to appoint. See Cowan, p. 1116.
11. Luizard, p. 387, renders the Islamic date 15 Sha’ban 1338 as the Gregorian date 3 May 1919. Atiyyah dates the meeting as ‘middle of Sha’ban’ – 4/5 May. Unfortunately there are a number of different algorithms for converting the Islamic lunar system into the Gregorian. Throughout we have used the convertor available at www.oriold.uzh.ch/static/hegira.html, which gives a one-day difference from some of the conversions which appear to have been used by authors referred to in the text.
12. al-Hasani, Al-‘Iraq fi dawra al-ihtilal wa al-intidab, p. 80. Al-Bazirgan gives the date of the establishment of the party as ‘the end of 1917’ (Hasan al-Bazirgan, Min ahdath Baghdad wa al-Diyala ithna al-thawra al-‘ishrin fi al-‘Iraq [Concerning the Events in Baghdad and the Diyala during the Revolution of 1920 in Iraq] new edn, Bayt al-Hikma, Baghdad, 2000, p. 27n,) but such a relatively early date seems unlikely.
13. Husayn Jamil, Al-‘Iraq: shahada siyasiyya, 1908–1930 (Iraq, Political Witness, 1908–1930), Dar al-Laam, London, 1987, p. 51.
14. al-Darraji, p. 76 and note; see also Batatu, p. 221.
15. Nakash, p. 52. See also Eric Davis, Memories of State: Politics, History and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2005, pp. 35–6.
16. al-Darraji, p. 76.
17. Muhsin, pp. 112, 118.
18. al-Darraji, p. 82.
19. al-Bazirgan, p. 27n.
20. al-Darraji, p. 82.
21. Gertrude Bell Project, letter to Hugh Bell, 7 June 1920.
22. al-Darraji, p. 82.
23. They were recognised as such by Gertrude Bell. See Cmd. 1061, p. 140.
24. al-Bazirgan, p. 28.
25. Quoted in Atiyyah, p. 281.
26. Batatu, p. 1139.
27. Quoted ibid., pp. 1137–8.
28. FO/371, The National Archive, London, Personalities, Mosul, Arbil and Frontier, Government Press, Baghdad, 1921. Priya Satia, Spies in Arabia: The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain’s Covert Empire in the Middle East, Oxford University Press, 2008, gives strong emphasis to this British fear of ‘Bolshevism’ in the Middle East.
29. Lyell, p. 177.
30. Cmd. 1061, p. 144.
31. al-Hasani, Al-‘Iraq fi dawra al-ihtilal wa al-intidab, pp. 79–80; see also, Atiyyah, p. 275.
32. al-Hasani, Al-‘Iraq fi dawra al-ihtilal wa al-intidab, p. 80.
33. al-Darraji, p. 78.
34. Abu Tabikh, p. 123.
35. al-Darraji, p. 84.
36. al-Hasani, Al-thawra al-‘Iraqiyya al-kubra, sana 1920, pp. 98–100. See also Atiyyah, p. 334, and Luizard, p. 387.
37. Batatu, p. 1142.
38. Cmd. 1061, pp. 144–5.
39. al-Hasani, Al-thawra al-‘Iraqiyya al-kubra, sana 1920, p. 99. Al-Hasani mentions by name only eight sheikhs, sada and clergy but the passage suggests these were only a few of those attending.
40. Ibid., p. 100.
41. Jamil, p. 51.
42. Sheikh Habib al-Khayizran, paramount sheikh of the ‘Azza, quoted in Muhammad Husayn al-Zubaydi, Al-siyasiyyun al-‘Iraqiyyun al-munfiyyun ila jazira hinjam sana 1922, (The Iraqi Politicians Exiled to Henjam Island, 1922), Al-Maktaba al-Wataniyya, Baghdad, 1989, p. 136.
43. The precise date of the first joint maulud is uncertain. Al-Darraji (p. 87), gives ‘at the end of the month of Sha’ban’ (19 May); however, Muhsin (pp. 125–6) puts it as early as 8 May.
44. Muhsin, p. 126.
45. Cmd. 1061, p. 140.
46. Philby Papers, PH VI/3/20, copy of Memorandum J.S. 420, Judicial Secretary Baghdad to Civil Commissioner Baghdad, 29 May 1920.
47. IO/MSS/EUR/F462, The British Library, London, Correspondence of Major General G. A. J. Leslie, Major General Leslie to his wife, Baghdad, 25 May 1920.
48. Atiyyah, p. 316; however, Sheikh Habib al-Khayizran, quoted in al-Zubaydi, p. 137, states that the poem was delivered on 25 May and the name of the young poet was ‘Isa ‘Afnadi while Muhsin (p. 126) gives the man’s name as ‘Isa Effendi al-Raizali’.
49. al-Zubaydi, p. 137.
50. IO/MSS/EUR/F462, Major General Leslie to his wife, Baghdad, 28 May 1920.
51. al-Zubaydi, p. 137.
52. al-Rahimi, appendix 15, p. 306.
53. Kadhim, Al-haraka al-Islamiyya fi al-‘Iraq, p. 255.
54. With respect to the relationship between the British and one particular Jewish family, see the first two chapters of Marina Benjamin, Last Days in Babylon: The Story of the Jews of Baghdad, Bloomsbury, London, 2007.
55. al-Rahimi, p. 307. According to Muhsin (p. 128), the proclamation was issued on 1 June.
56. Quoted in Muhsin, p. 129.
57. Quoted in Wilson, Mesopotamia, 1917–1920, p. 339.
58. Philby Papers, ‘Mesopotage’ (unpublished manuscript, 1946?), ch. 11, p. 13.
59. Wilson, Mesopotamia, 1917–1920, p. 256.
60. al-Hasani, Al-thawra al-‘Iraqiyya al-kubra, sana 1920, p. 71.
61. Philby Papers, ‘Mesopotage’, ch. 11, p. 16.
62. Philby Papers, PH VI/3/107–9.
63. Philby Papers, PH VI/3/56, copy of telegram 6791, Civil Commissioner Baghdad to Secretary of State India Office, London, 7 June 1920.
64. Gertrude Bell Project, Bell to her father, 7 June 1920.
Chapter 19: General Haldane’s Difficult Posting
1. As described by Haldane, The Insurrection in Mesopotamia, p. 4.
2. Douglas S. Russell, Winston Churchill, Soldier, Brassey’s, London, 2005, p. 260.
3. Sir Aylmer Haldane, A Soldier’s Saga, William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1948, p. 3.
4. Ibid., p. 391.
5. Martin Gilbert, World in Torment: Winston Churchill 1917–1922, Minerva, London, 1975, p. 370.
6. John Darwin, Britain, Egypt and the Middle East, Macmillan, London, 1981, p. 74.
7. CAB/24/106, The National Archive, London, CP 1320: Mesopotamian Expenditure. Memorandum by the Secretary of State for War, 20 May 1920.
8. Haldane, The Insurrection in Mesopotamia, p. 325. The book is an expanded version of Haldane’s official report on the revolution published in War Office, Supplement to the London Gazette, HMSO, London, 5 July 1921.
9. In the British Army a brevet rank was a temporary and honorary promotion attached to some particular duty meriting it (in this case being acting civil commissioner).
10. Haldane, A Soldier’s Saga, p. 372.
11. Colonel H. C. Wylly, History of the Manchester Regiment, vol. 2: 1883–1922, Forster Groom & Co., London, 1925, p. 214.
12. Haldane, The Insurrection in Mesopotamia, p. 9.
13. Haldane, A Soldier’s Saga, p. 371.
14. Cmd. 1061, p. 122. In 1920 one rupee was worth about ten pence at today’s values. The calculation of current sterling value is based on the historical UK Retail Price Series: see www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/
15. Philby Papers, ‘Mesopotage’, ch. 11, p. 7.
16. Ibid., p. 4.
17. Re. Leachman’s cut-down polo stick see Bray, A Paladin of Arabia, p. 338.
18. Haldane, The Insurrection in Mesopotamia, p. 29.
19. Ireland, p. 126.
20. Ibid., p. 116.
21. Atiyyah, p. 234.
22. Ibid., p. 252.
23. Revd J. T. Parfit, Marvellous Mesopotamia: The World’s Wonderland, S. W. Partridge & Co., London, 1920, p. 251.
24. Haldane, The Insurrection in Mesopotamia, p. 325.
25. Ibid., p. 12; Wilson, Mesopotamia, 1917–1920, p. 272.
26. Colonel E. B. Maunsell, Prince of Wales’s Own, The Scinde Horse, Naval and Military Press, Uckfield, 2005, p. 256.
27. Ibid., p. 251.
28. Ibid., p. 253.
29. Haldane, The Insurrection in Mesopotamia, p. 92.
30. Wilson, Mesopotamia, 1917–1920, p. 273.
Chapter 20: Trouble on the Frontiers
1. David Garnett (ed.), The Letters of T. E. Lawrence, Jonathan Cape, London, 1938, pp. 280–82.
2. Ibid., p. 291.
3. Ibid., pp. 290–91.
4. Quoted in Marlowe, p. 183.
5. Quoted ibid., p. 177.
6. Quoted in Sluglett, p. 31.
7. The whole question of the relevance of Britain’s continuing involvement in Iraq to what one historian has referred to as ‘The Imperial Quest for Oil’ has been much debated, with a number of historians minimising or actually denying any such relevance. I leave the final answer to this matter to Peter Sluglett: ‘British concern for Iraqi oil was more profound in the early days of the mandate than has been thought and denials by statesmen that oil played any major part in British calculations [Sluglett is referring principally to a denial by Lord Curzon] seem to have been given exaggerated credence.’ Sluglett, p. 75.
8. Eliezer Tauber, ‘The Struggle for Dayr al-Zur: The Determination of Borders between Syria and Iraq’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 23, no. 3, 1991, p. 366.
9. Ibid., p. 371.
10. Philby Papers, ‘The Legend of Lijman’ (unpublished manuscript, 1928), pp. 174–5.
11. Bray, A Paladin of Arabia, pp. 397–8.
12. Philby Papers, ‘The Legend of Lijman’, p. 177.
13. Ibid., p. 178.
14. CAB/24/111, The National Archive, London, CP 1801: Report on the Attack at Tel Afar, 25 June 1920.
15. It was customary for Ottoman officers of middle or lower class origin, like Jamil, to adopt a name signifying their military profession; thus Jamil al-Midfa‘i’s name refers to midfa‘ (Arabic for gun, or field gun). See Batatu, p. 320.
16. al-Hasani, Al-thawra al-‘Iraqiyya al-kubra, sana 1920, p. 53.
17. FO/371.
18. Ibid. According to the anonymous Personalities document (the work of Gertrude Bell) it was Muslat Pasha ‘who really made the Tal ‘Afar coup possible. He led his tribesmen to Tal ‘Afar.’
19. CAB/24/111, CP 1801.
20. F. F. Raskolnikov, Tales of Sub-Lieutenant Ilyin: The Taking of Enzeli, available at www.marxists.org. See also CAB/24/106, CP 1356: Bolshevik Aggression in Persia. Copy of correspondence between Persian Foreign Minister and Secretary General League of Nations, 19 May 1920.
21. Raskolnikov.
22. Gilmour, p. 516.
23. Gertrude Bell Project, letter to Hugh Bell, 1 June 1920.
24. Ibid., letter to Hugh Bell, 7 June 1920.
25. Atiyyah, p. 305. What precisely occurred at Tel ‘Afar is unknown. The only witness was an Arab servant of one of the British officers killed. The description of the events which follows is based Haldane, The Insurrection in Mesopotamia, pp. 39–42 and Wilson, Mesopotamia, 1917–1920, pp. 273–4, supplemented by FO/371 and CAB/24/111, CP 1801.
26. FO/371.
27. CAB/24/111, CP 1801.
28. According to al-Hasani, Al-thawra al-‘Iraqiyya al-kubra, sana 1920, p. 54, the armoured cars were put out of action by ‘disabling their wheels’ – presumably referring to their tyres.
29. Gertrude Bell Project, Gertrude Bell to Hugh Bell, 7 June 1920.
30. Wilson, Mesopotamia, 1917–1920, p. 274.
31. CAB/24/107, The National Archive, London, CP 1467: Appendix D. From Civil Commissioner, Baghdad, 15 May 1920.
32. Philby Papers, PH VI/3/20.
Chapter 21: The Drift to Violence
1. IO/L/PS/11/175, The British Library, London, Telegram 6948, Civil Commissioner Baghdad to India Office, 9 June 1920.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid., War Office, London to India Office, London, 3 July 1920.
4. Ibid., Secretary of State India to Civil Commissioner Mesopotamia, 10 July 1920.
5. Ibid., Secret, Memorandum C/29/235, Office of the Military Governor and Political Officer, Baghdad to D.C. Police, 9 June 1929.
6. Ibid., Secret no. 4256, Political Serai, Samarra to Civil Commissioner, 11 June 1920.
7. Ibid., Confidential, No. 131-e, Military Governor & Political Officer, Basra to Civil Commissioner Baghdad, 12 June 1920.
8. Ibid., Judicial Secretary Baghdad to Civil Commissioner Baghdad, 16 June 1920.
9. CAB/24/107, CP 1475: Secretary of State (India) to Civil Commissioner Baghdad, 7 June 1920.
10. Philby Papers, PH VI/3/102, copy of telegram 3279, Political Officer Dulaym Division to Civil Commissioner Baghdad, 18 June 1920.
11. The numbers of fighting men attributed to each of these tribal confederations are taken from IO/L/PS/20/235. However, even this detailed source (presumably compiled by Gertrude Bell) is not always consistent as to the numbers of tribesmen, and in the case of the Khaza’il (2,500) is certainly too small since in a list of sixteen tribal sections giving the number of tribesmen in each section, there are three sections where the number is missing.
