'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎116] (125/568)

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INHABITANTS
population of Armenians in the northern part of the central Kurdish
highlands south of Lake Van, and on the south side of the eastern
Taurus in the country north of Diarbekr. The Armenians here
formed a southward extension of the main body of the race. There
were large Armenian elements in the population of Bitlis, Sairt,
Diarbekr, and Urfeh ; there was an Armenian colony at Mardln ; and
there were some thousands of Armenians in Baghdad.
The total number of Armenians in upper Mesopotamia in 1914
was probably something between one hundred and two hundred
thousand. On the massacres, deportations, and flight of Armenians
in 1915, and on the introduction of Armenian deportees into the
plains of the Jezlreh and the middle Euphrates valley see p. 88.
The Armenian villagers and cultivators who are (or were) to be
found in the highlands south of Lake Van, in the eastern Taurus
ranges, among the southern foot-hills of those mountains, and in
the lowlands of Diarbekr, were peasants. The urban Armenians
were merchants, shopkeepers, &c. The typical Armenian of the
towns was an astute man of business and an ardent nationalist, who
had an unfortunate faculty for making himself disliked by the
Government and his neighbours.
Jews. —There are Jewish communities in most of the towns,
notably at Baghdad, where they seem to form the largest racial
group.
The Jews are merchants, usurers, and shopkeepers. The rich
Jewish merchants at Baghdad form a very wealthy and influential
community, and have to a great extent eclipsed their Mohammedan
and Oriental Christian rivals. But the mass of Jews in the Meso-
potamian towns are poor and engaged in very petty business.
On Jewish places of pilgrimage in Irak see pp. 134-5.
Persians. There are Persian communities in the towns of
Arabistan. In Irak they are to be found in many of the towns,
but are concentrated especially at the Shiah holy cities: thus at
Kerbela they form the majority of the population, at Nejef about
a third. At Baghdad there are some thousands of them, and
they occur in the towns of Kurdistan, where the most important
Persian colony on the Turkish side of the border seems to be that
at Suleimaniyeh.
Yesidis. Their main strength is in the Jebel Sinjar, which they
have to themselves. They occur between the Jebel Sinjar and
Mosul. There are a good many Yezidi villages in the country
east and north of Mosul. At Sheikh Adi, some twenty-seven miles
north of Mosul, is the principal Yezidi shrine.
The Yezidis speak a dialect of Kurdish, and probably have more