مناطق شبه الجزيرة العربية الخاضعة للحكم العثماني: بيان مفصل للرحلة الرسمية في بابل وأشور وبلاد الرافدين، في ١٨٨٦– ١٨٨٧ [ظ‎‎١‎٦] (٧٢/٣٢)

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the Dl^lah, the great river of Southern Kurdistan, oj: at Yassin-Tappa, the site of the
ancient city of Shahr-i-zur, would find itself really in virgin soil, where the most important
results might be anticipated.
Standing rather in a hollow about two miles from the foot of a range of low hills, with
the snow-capped Gudroon in the distance, Sulim&nia has
Products. enough of plain and garden land round it to grow its own
supplies. Many trade routes also pass through it, and its quaint old-world market place
must be one of the compactest and most densely crowded in all the East. Saddle-making
is perhaps its most flourishing craft. Its saddles are known wherever horsemen go—large
roomy structures containing but little wood, even less leather, and unlimited felt. A good
one weighs about a couple of stone. Even more than the English dragoon saddle, this kind
stretches the rider out, like a peg on a clothes' line; dividing his weight between the smal
lest possible surface in the middle of the horse's back and a pair of shovel stirrups. So far
this is very good, short stirrups and what is called a " hunting seat" being almost sure, in
a long day, to wring a horse's loins * All the English hunting saddles, except one ridden
in by a very light Arab groom, were here exchanged for Sulimanfa ones. The result
showed a decided gain so far as saving the horses' backs went, though from the biped's
view point it was less satisfactory. Perhaps the Sulim^nia saddle, as that of horsemen
who when on a journey ride every day and all day, and never think of a led horse, might,,
yield a hint or two towards the perfecting of our own cavalry pattern. Besides keeping
the rider straight, it (i) seldom takes harm from being rolled over on ; and (2) being an
affair of felt, requires no cleaning beyond now and then a good beating or brushing. The
two last advantages belonged to the native saddles, or khogtrs of Indian Irregular Cavalry;
but these have been discarded; and the saddle on which the 3rd Cavalry, Hyderabad Con
tingent, has lately been doing such remarkable service in Upper Burma—90 lancers keep
ing on the move on one occasion for nearly three months, and covering about 1,000 miles
of country, " without a single sore back, and only one or two slight girth-galls "—is the new
pattern one known as " Pattern, 1884," supplied by Ross &Co., Grange Mills, Bermondsay.
This saddle was the outcome of the Committee that sat for six whole years on saddlery,
with General Sir Frederick Fitzwygram as President. It is made in three sizes {seat of
same size in all) smallest size answering best for Eastern horses. It so far resembles the
Arab saddle as to be wholly without " stuffing," a matter of wood, leather, and pads or
rather " namda." Of this felt or namda every trooper carries two extra strips; which he
inserts, or takes out, as necessary, thus being his own saddler and stuffer. No saddle not
somehow thus providing for the almost daily changes in shape and outline of horse's back
and withers, due to changes in his condition, can ever stand the test of long marches every
day: and after all, the riding has almost as much to do with it as the saddle. Then there
are clever blacksmiths in Sulimclnia who dabble in the forbidden manufacture of arms of
precision, and what is even harder to procure, cartridges. A foreign subject, even if a
Consul, is unable just at present to get a pass at the Bussorah Customs House for a com
mon sporting gun, lest somehow such things should spread among the subjects of the
Porte. And yet, under the very shadow almost of the Pasha's palace, Suliminia workmen,
if rumour may be trusted, turn out fair imitations even of the Martini-Henry. Thus
demand creates supply. The mountaineer loves his gun as the Bedouin does his mare;
and the heaviest punishments can hardly prevent the Turkish soldier, at places like
Sulim&nia, from running off with rifles and selling them to the tribes. Another Sulimdnia
product is wine, the pure juice of a small purple grape. To the European this is a mere
curiosity. Only they who have acquired a taste for it are likely to prefer it to the clear
and sparkling water which runs over the pebbly beds of Kurdi brooks and rivers. But
kdfilas seldom leave Suliminia without a supply of it, in black naphtha flasks, for sale to
all who like it.
Section IX.—Sulimania to Mosul,
In August 1881, Mr. T. C. Plowden, in returning from Kirm&nsh&h, capital of the
To o a h so-called Persian Kurdist&n, striking at Suliminiathe route
now being traced, pursued it, through Kuye Sanjak f and
ArMl to Mosul, where falling ill he went down the Tigris on a raft to Baghdad, * His
V *
* During the last few years, several travellers belonging to the mounted branches of the army in India have
reached Baghdad from Persia or the Mediterranean, all using hunting saddles, their horses in every instance having
indurated galls on one or both sides of the loin, turning into sloughing wounds which took weeks to heal.
t Meaning Flag-town, i.e., seat of a superior Government official; Kcoye, a town (Persian and Turkish) being a
distinct word from Kdh (in Arabic Jabal) a mountain.