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‘Military Report on ’Arabistan (Area No. 13).’ [52v] (109/366)
The record is made up of 1 volume (179 folios). It was created in 1924. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
94
but the Sabaeans are deserving of comment if only because they
had their origin on the borders of ’Arabistan.
For the past fifteen hundred years the Sabaeans have lived
in the vicinity of ’Arabistan. For many years they were settled
in Persia but were driven out by the Sun and Fire worshippers
of that country and settled in Chehar Riz, which lies between
Band-i-Bazurgan on the left bank of the Teeb and the Pusht
i-Kuh Here the Persians again molested them and they fled,
some to Hawizah and some to the Euphrates marshes in the
district of Suq-al-Shuyukh. The Persians endeavoured to
obliterate all traces of their religion and burnt all holy books,
which they found at Chehar Riz. About 500 years later one of
these books was discovered there and from this their present
books all trace their origin.
The number of Sabaeans have greatly declined in recent
years, and are still dwindling. The exact nature of their religion
and its affinities with Star-worship, Judaism, Christianity and
Muhammadanism have not been ascertained accurately. The
modern Sabaeans possess scriptures of their own and a book of
ritual; baptism is one of their principal rites, and water enters
into all their important ceremonies; they respect Yahia, or John
the Baptist, as a prophet, regarding him as a re-incarnation of
Seth, but they consider both Christ and Moses to have been
false teachers; their paradise is in the North Star. They
are an uncircumcised race and not monogamous.
In dress they are indistinguishable from the Arabs, though
all Sabaeans wear a red ‘ chefiyah,’ whilst in appearance it is
im possible to mistake a Sabaean, all of whom are remarkable
for their handsome features. The whole race display a special
aptitude for working in gold and silver, and in ’Iraq many of
them are canoe builders and carpenters.
The head of their religion is Shaikh Dakhil, who lives at
Suq-al-Shuyukh, having left ’Amarah on account of a quarrel
with his family, who still remain there. The Sabaeans *of
’Amarah claim that their headquarters is at ’Amarah, where
their local chief is Shaikh Jodah.
languages. The language of the Northern province is formed from the
various dialects of Arabic and Luri besides the patois of Dizful
About this item
- Content
Confidential military report on Arabistan [Khūzestān] compiled by Air Headquarters, Iraq, and printed by the Government of India Press, 1924.
The report contains nine chapters (numbered I-IX) and seven appendices (A-G) as follows:
- chapter I – history (general, ancient, modern, political attitude);
- II – geography (boundaries, area, general description, altitude, mountains, rivers and fords, towns and villages, tracts of land, islands, fortified places, political divisions);
- III – climate (general, temperature, winds, rainfall, mirages, general medical and sanitary conditions, principal diseases, conditions affecting aviation and military operations);
- IV – economic resources (general, labour, agriculture, livestock, manufacture, power, commerce, customs, banking, revenue, tables of imports and exports);
- V – ethnography (general, population, races, religions, languages);
- VI – tribes (general, armed forces, tribes in relation to possible centres of disturbance, political attitudes, military considerations, tribal action, punitive measures, recapitulation, lists of tribes);
- VII – personalities;
- VIII – communications (general, communications by sea, inland waterways, railways, telegraphs and telephones, post, aerodromes and possible aerodromes, wireless and visual communication, principal routes by land, sea and river);
- IX – administration (general, government establishments, northern province, southern province);
- appendix A – bibliographical notes;
- B – weights and measures, coinage and time;
- C – glossary of topographical terms;
- D – Karun river [Rūd-e Kārūn] regulations;
- E – concession granted to the “Nasiri Company”;
- F – customs schedule;
- G – Anglo-Persian Oil Company.
The volume contains a single map in a pocket attached to the inside back cover (folio 180).
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (179 folios)
- Arrangement
A contents list (ff 4-5) and index (ff 171-177) reference the report’s original pagination system.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 181; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.
Pagination: the file also contains an original printed pagination sequence.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/MIL/17/15/16
- Title
- ‘Military Report on ’Arabistan (Area No. 13).’
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 2r:163v, 168r:168v, 171r:179v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence