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'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. II. 1917' [‎448] (459/542)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (269 folios). It was created in 1917. 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. .

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448 APPENDIX B
would increase if, and in proportion as, the volume of the river
increased in the time just before the dam was completed. It may,
therefore, be said that any damming operation would probably be
successful, if at all, only on condition of falling approximately in the
period June-October.
From Samarra to Diyaleh
For the first 12-15 m. below Samarra the Tigris flows over a bed
of shingle, sand, and clay, with occasional outcrops of conglomerate
forming small rapids. In the neighbourhood of Beled it breaks into
two or three channels past a group of islands, and thenceforward its
bed is of alluvium. Near the islands its current is very rapid in
flood. At Mansuriyeh it carries in very high floods a discharge ' out
of all proportion' to what can be discharged by the river-bed at
Baghdad. Down-stream navigation by helelts (rafts) is easy, though
sometimes^ very slow owing to contrary winds. Safinehs (large
native sailing-boats) of 8 tons burden can ascend to Samarra except
in high flood : in low water they might have to be got over shallow
places above Kazimain by unloading their cargoes. Steamers of 4 ft.
draught can apparently ascend to Samarra during the flood season,
though they would not be able to make head against a very violent
rise.
The Country on the Right [West] Barik.—Dovm to the head of the
Dujeil Canal, 9 or 10 m. below Samarra, the country on the right
bank is fairly high-lying, and is above high flood level, except at
a depression running away from the river at Istablat. Between the
head of the Dujeil and the Nahr Tarmlyeh (opposite Mansuriyeh),
there is a belt of more or less high ground, but to the south of this
belt the country is below high flood level, and a certain amount of
water finds its way in spring along the Dujeil and its branches.
From the Nahr Tarmlyeh down to the country opposite Diyaleh, the
land lying westward from the river (as far as the desert plateau north
of Lake 'Aqarquf, and, farther south, to within a few miles of the
Euphrates) is all below the high flood level of the Tigris with the
exception of a few isolated patches, tels, embankments, &c. The
Euphrates, W. of Baghdad, is some 16-20 ft. higher than the Tigris,
so that its flood levels here command practically all the country
between the rivers south of the main desert plateau that ends north
of Lake Aqarqtif. The chief exceptions are the island of high-lying
desert E. of Fellujeh, and a similar patch of desert between the
Latlfiyeh and Iskanderiyeh canals. A depression between the two
rivers runs in a SSE. direction from the southern end of e Aqarquf.
The line of its lowest levels is roughly parallel to the general course

About this item

Content

This volume is A Handbook of Mesopotamia, Volume II, Irak, The Lower Kārūn, and Luristan (Admiralty War Staff Intelligence Division, May, 1917), covering the regions of the Shatt el-‘Arab [Shaṭṭ al-‘Arab], Kārūn, Luristan, and the Tigris and Euphrates up to Baghdad and Fellūjeh [Fallūjah]. The volume was prepared on behalf of the Admiralty and War Office, and appears to be based on official and unofficial publications and maps which are cited in a bibliographical section in the volume.

The volume includes a note on confidentiality, a title page, 'Note', 'Abbreviations'. There is a 'Contents' which include the following sections:

  • Introduction;
  • River Routes (Shatt el-‘Arab, The Kārūn, The Tigris, The Euphrates, The Shatt el-Hai);
  • Land Routes (The Region of the Shatt el-‘Arab, The Tigris Valley, The Region of the Lower Kārūn River of Luristan, The Euphrates Valley, Connexions between the Tigris and Euphrates Valley, The Arabian Desert);
  • Railways;
  • Gazetteer of Towns;
  • Bibliographical Note and List of Maps;
  • Transliteration of Names;
  • Glossary;
  • Appendices (A: Notes on Weather on the Tigris, B: The Control of the Tigris Water, C: The Control of the Euphrates Water, D: Oil-Fields of the Mesopotamia and Persian Frontier, E: Note on Mules);
  • Index;
  • Plates;
  • Maps.

The volume includes eight plates that illustrate the volume. There are also three maps:

  • 'Baghdad';
  • 'City Map of Baghdad';
  • 'Mesopotamia: Outline Map Showing Routes'.
Extent and format
1 volume (269 folios)
Arrangement

The volume is arranged accourding to numbered routes. There is a table of contents at the front of the volume and an alphabetical index at the back. There is also a list of plates and two maps are house in a pocket and one is a foldout.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: The foliation sequence commences at the first folio and terminates at the last folio; 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 the folio.

Pagination: The volume also contains an original printed pagination sequence.

Written in
English in Latin script
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'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. II. 1917' [‎448] (459/542), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/MIL/17/15/41/3, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023662425.0x00003c> [accessed 6 April 2025]

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