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'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [44v] (93/862)
The record is made up of 1 volume (430 folios). It was created in 1944. 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.
50 GEOLOGY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE LAND
approximately in the position of Kut al Imara and that in Abbasid
times the Nahrwan canal rejoined the Tigris close to it. The river
then flowed approximately along the course of the present Shatt al
Gharraf, past the city of Wasit into the Great Swamp (p. 31).
Arab geographers and historians record that the Tigris took this
course as its main channel about a.d. 635, having abandoned a more
easterly bed, and that it was able to maintain this new course in the
confused years following the Arab conquest. Wasit was founded in
a.d. 703 on its banks and remained throughout the Abbasid period
one of the most important cities of Iraq. The Tigris reached the
Great Swamp by five navigable waterways below the city, and there
was a navigable channel through a succession of lagoons to the Shatt
al Arab. Unfortunately, the exact site of Wasit is not known, though
it was probably in the neighbourhood of Kut al Hai. The Tigris
is known to have again changed its main channel during the first
part of the sixteenth century, and to have then taken its present
course to the east.
It seems therefore that the chief channel in pre-Abbasid times
must have been the Shatt Dujaila, and it would be interesting to
know the exact site of Madharaya, and who built the high Sinn
canal banks near the first bend of the Shatt Dujaila. Are they the
terminals of the Nahrwan canal? How long did the Shatt Dujaila
form the principal channel of the Tigris? It must be emphasized
that when a river changes its main course in delta lands it does not
immediately take a defined bed, unless it breaks into an existing
channel, natural or artificial; on the contrary, it spreads over the flat
land and forms marshes, which are gradually drained to lower ground
by channels working upwards and cutting beds into the soft alluvium.
This process has already been mentioned when describing the river
changes on the Euphrates below Musaiyib (p. 36), and a glance at
the map (fig. 9) shows how it has operated here on the Tigris.
The Euphrates channel for most of the way from Nasiriya to Samawa
is probably an illustration of the same process on a grand scale, the
Great Swamp having been drained southwards during the last 500
years, after the Tigris at Kut broke into its present eastern course
and ceased to supply the Great Swamp except in high flood. Since
that time the Tigris waters have been dispersed in the low ground on
either side of its new course, an operation that is now taking place
near and below Amara (p. 52).
The Tigris at Kut al Imara is only 39 - 6 feet (la^oS m.) above sea-
level in the low-water month of October, but it rises in April to a
About this item
- Content
The volume is titled Iraq and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. (London: Naval Intelligence Division, 1944).
The report contains preliminary remarks by the Director of Naval Intelligence, 1942 (John Henry Godfrey) and the Director of Naval Intelligence, 1944 (E G N Rushbrook).
There then follows thirteen chapters:
- I. Introduction.
- II. Geology and description of the land.
- III. Coasts of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
- IV. Climate, vegetation and fauna.
- V. History.
- VI. People.
- VII. Distribution of the people.
- VIII. Administration and public life.
- IX. Public health and disease.
- X. Irrigation, agriculture, and minor industry.
- XI. Currency, finance, commerce and oil.
- XII. Ports and inland towns.
- XIII. Communications.
- Appendices: stratigraphy; meteorological tables; ten historical sites, chronological table; weights and measures; authorship, authorities and maps.
There follows a section listing 105 text figures and maps and a section listing over 200 illustrations.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (430 folios)
- Arrangement
The volume is divided into a number of chapters, sub-sections whose arrangement is detailed in the contents section (folios 7-13) which includes a section on text-figures and maps, and list of illustrations. The volume consists of front matter pages (xviii), and then a further 682 pages in the 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 430; 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/17/15/64
- Title
- 'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 2r:253r, 254r, 255r:429v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence