"العراق والخليج الفارسي" [و‎‎٢‎٢‎٧] (٨٦٢/٤٥٨)

PEOPLE
335
Antioch, lives at Beirut in Syria, where Syrian Catholics are more
numerous. Their villages are interspersed with those of the Jacobites,
and they have a remarkable monastery at Mar Behnam in the Mosul
plain north of the junction of the Great Zab with the Tigris.
The Armenian Gregorian Church, the national Armenian Church,
founded by St. Gregory the Illuminator (a.d. 255-326), adopted the
monophysite doctrine in the sixth century. The Armenians of Iraq
are a scattered and mostly urban people whose chief colonies are in
Baghdad and Basra, where they are tradesmen, clerks, or mechanics
and include some wealthy merchant families. The Gregorians are
numerous enough to have received a modern communal organiza
tion, similar to the Jewish, in 1931. There are also some Armenian
Uniates or Catholics.
Way of Life
Arabs
Very diverse opinions have been formed by English travellers
about the virtues of the various inhabitants of Iraq, dependent mainly
upon the social and religious bias of the particular observer. Few
admire both Arabs and Kurds or Moslems and Christians. The
following notes seek not to strike a mean but to stress notable
characteristics, and are only of very general application.
Mental and Moral Characteristics
The Arab mind is lively, imaginative, and subtle, and Arabs of all
classes, beduin, fellahin, and townsmen alike, show remarkable
powers not only of discussing subjects within their experience but of
grasping new and difficult facts and theories. They are quick to follow
arguments and sensitive to vivid phrases, have a great love of oratory
and speechifying, and are generally talkative and genial. At their best
they make good hosts and amusing, though inquisitive, companions.
But they are non-inventive and slow to put theories into practice; as
craftsmen they find it very hard to depart from traditional methods.
They often seem to Europeans to be incompetent and lazy, lacking in
constructive ability, and skilful mainly in avoiding hard work.
Contempt for manual labour is common both to beduin and to towns
men, particularly of the effendi class. The ideal of Arab behaviour
held by the upper class of urban and tribal society includes courtesy,
dignity, hospitality, and generosity, and they admire actions dis
playing these qualities, but they will often evade the spirit while