'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎220] (229/568)

220
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
it is bi'ought from the Dizful, Shushtai*, and Ramuz districts, and
exported to Europe, if in good order ; otherwise it is sent im
pressed to India. Wool is exported from Arabistan in a manu
factured condition in the form of carpets, which are brought from
up-country, and sent to the United Kingdom, and of cloth, which is
exported to Turkey.
Mohair is clipped from Angora goats in the Kurdish hills; the
buyers pay a fee to the headmen of the tribes, who in return help
them by fixing the price of mohair in their tribe, and look after their
interests generally. Mosul is the principal centre to which mohair is
brought, and from which it is exported Baghdad and Basra; the
annual value of the export from Mosul in recent years has been about
£11,000; in 1912 it was estimated at £11,500. Mohair from the
Diarbekr vilayet is of fair quality ; it comes chiefly from the Jezlret-
ibn-'Omar district; the export in 1910 was valued at £10,000, in
1907 at £15,000. The price of mohair in Baghdad market was
in 1912 19s. to 20s. per 28 lb. The export of mohair is through
Basra; it has been sent almost entirely to the United Kingdom,
where there is usually a good demand; a certain amount has gone
to Germany, France, and Turkey. In 1913 the failure of Bradford
spinners to support the market caused a fall in prices, and the exporters
suffered loss ; in that year 1,509 bales of mohair were exported from
Basra, valued at £12,072.
Hides and Shins. —The export of hides and skins forms a con
siderable part of the trade of Mesopotamia; not all those exported,
however, are produced locally, but a large number are brought in
from Persia in years when the caravan-routes are open. The trade
from the highlands of Kurdistan and from Persia is liable to be
interfered with by severe weather or floods, as well as by raids and
insecurity generally; on the other hand in years when the grain
crops fail a larger number of animals is slaughtered, with a corre
sponding increase in the export of skins. Baghdad is the centre of
the trade in hides and skins. The most important branch of the
trade is the export of sheepskins. Raw sheepskins have been occa
sionally exported both with and without wool to England and Europe,
but prices of the tanned article have lately been so high that the
trade in raw skins decreased ; tanned skins have been turned out in
large quantities in recent years from the tanneries at Mo'adhdham,
a suburb of Baghdad. In 1906 one firm alone shipped 800 bales of
sheepskins tanned here, i. e. 240,000 skins representing a value of
about £17,000 ; this was probably about a quarter of the total export.
Tanned sheepskins in 1912 were worth from 2s. to 2s. 8d. per oke
(2-83 lb.) in Baghdad. The great majority of these skins have gone