'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎93] (102/568)

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INHABITANTS 93
the plain of the north-western Jezlreh, which the old main route
avoided, and thus leaves Birijik, Urfeh, and Diarbekr a good way
to north.
Mosul (70,000) not only lies on the trade-route between Diarbekr
and Baghdad, but is the chief collecting and distributing centre for
the commerce with central Kurdistan. Here come the raw goods
exported from that hill-country, and its manufactured imports that
are sent from Aleppo or Baghdad—from the Mediterranean or the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . Moreover Mosul has had some decreasing caravan-trade
with north-western Persia through Eowanduz. Its proximity to large
quarries enables it to supply the southern plains with building-stone,
and its tanneries are supplied with the hides of Kurdistan, but its
weaving industry, once famous, has sunk into insignificance, and it
depends chiefly on the transit of commerce attracted to it by its
position as a route-centre.
Of the group of towns north, east, and south-east of Mosul only
the more important are mentioned here. Bitlis (30,000) in its gorge
occupies one of the main gates of Mesopotamia towards the Armenian
plateau, and to it come routes from Diarbekr and Jezlret-ibn-'Omar ;
these meet at Sairt (10,000) in the Bohtan valley, a place which.has
some small local industries and an export of salt. Van (30,000), in a
plain of great fertility, lies outside the limits of our area, but has been
a market for its north-eastern fringe and the administrative centre of
all the eastern part of centra] Kurdistan. Owing to disorders and
the insufficiency of communication, the trade of Van, in the years
before the war, was not flourishing. QaTah (5,000) lies on the
Van—Urmia caravan-route, and its position as a meeting-point of
local tracks made it an important military post from which the
tribes were watched. Amadiyeh (3,000), on the southern edge of
central Kurdistan, is a trading centre for the Hakkiari country.
In southern Kurdistan Bowanduz (5,000), as mentioned above,
lies on a caravan-route from Mosul to Tabriz, but the roads are bad,
and the trade is declining. Suleimaniyeh (12,000) is the chief market
of southern Kurdistan, and has a commercial connexion with Baghdad
in the first place and with Mosul in the second. Its plain is naturally
fertile, but the place has decayed owing to disorders within and
around it.
On the edge of the hills Erbil (6,000), Altun Kopru (3,000),
KirJcuJc (20,000), and Kufri (or Salahiyeh : 4,000) lie along the Mosul
—Baghdad road, and from these routes branch eastwards to the hill-
towns. Tuz Khurmatli (1,200) and Kufri have some small trade in
oil, and the former also in salt, the latter in coal. On the Tigris
Tekrit (3,000) lives mainly by the downstream raft traffic from
Mosul to Baghdad.