"العراق والخليج الفارسي" [ظ‎‎١‎٦] (٨٦٢/٣٧)

INTRODUCTION
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foothills’ cover the region north of the Jabal Hamrin, east of the
Tigris and bounded on the north-east by Iraqi Kurdistan. The term
has been chosen because the three plains of Mosul, Erbil, and Kirkuk
and the low folded foothills in their neighbourhood were the heart
of the ancient Assyrian Empire. It thus has no connexion with the
so-called Assyrian Nestorians of modern times. ‘Kurdistan’ is a term
that first occurs after the Moslem conquest and belongs to the
mountain region of the Kurds, north and north-east of the Assyrian
plains and foothills, and reaching far into Turkey and Persia. That
part of it within Iraqi boundaries is properly Iraqi Kurdistan, but
Kurdistan alone is used when the meaning is clear.
The Persian Gulf
In Chapter II a brief account of the recession of the head of the
Persian Gulf in historical times is given. To-day the Karun is push
ing its delta seawards at the rate of about 2 miles a century, while
most of the sediments carried by the rivers of Iraq are being deposited
behind the Karun delta. For a correct understanding of the references
by classical authors and of early history, an attempt has been made
to deduce the position of the gulf-head at different periods (fig. 14).
The northern and southern shores of the gulf do not belong to
Iraq, but the strategic position of Iraq is so dependent on this sea and
air corridor, and British interests in Iraq are so interwoven with those
in the Persian Gulf, that a short account of its shores has been given
(Chapter III).
History
Mesopotamia, situated on the flanks of the great land-masses of
western Asia and of the Arabian peninsula, yet with easy access
to the Mediterranean through Syria and with a direct sea-exit to
the Persian Gulf, has played a double part in the general history of
mankind. It has provided a route of passage for great empires and
a breeding-ground of civilization by cross-fertilizing their racial and
national cultures. The myth which places Eden within the lands of
the two rivers is justified by the remarkable development of civiliza
tion in Babylonia from the fourth millennium b.c. onwards. Meso
potamia, thanks to its peculiar and central situation, has a better
claim than Egypt to be regarded as the ancestor of Mediterranean
and hence of European civilization. The civilization which arose on
the banks of the Euphrates was spread far and wide by the empires,
first of Babylon, and later of Assyria and Persia, of which Babylon
remained the spiritual and intellectual centre. Through Syria and