'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎190v] (385/862)

270 HISTORY
the adjoining Persian provinces of Shushtar and Arabistan and at
points along the Turko-Persian frontiers. Abadan, the terminal of
the pipe-line (p. 152), became the oil-port on which British naval
squadrons in the Indian Ocean relied for fuel. British interests had
also gained control of the Turkish Petroleum Company, formed to
exploit the oil of the Mosul area, although no workings had begun;
the rest of the shares were in German hands.
The War of 1914-1918
The war brought to an end the long period of Ottoman sovereignty;
it illustrated and emphasized many fundamental facts of geography
and history; and it laid the foundation of many new problems, both
political and economic.
The Arab Attitude
The British invasion was the first in history to come to Iraq by
sea. In the past the country had often been a battleground between
the races and peoples of Arabia, Persia, and Asia Minor, whose
cultures had been generally assimilated. In 1914, however, the
Arabs of Mesopotamia, though Moslem subjects of the Ottoman
Empire, were antagonistic to it; though recruited into the Ottoman
armies, they had no heart for the Ottoman cause, and fought reason
ably well only for so long as there was likelihood of a German victory.
On the other hand, no important Arab tribe of Iraq ever actively
threw in its lot with the British invaders, none rose against the Turks
to fight for independence, and the Arab revolt in the Hejaz produced
little echo in Iraq, though a few individual Arabs from Iraq fought
for the Allies in the Hejaz and Syria.
The Anaiza, the great beduin confederation of the Syrian desert,
were an exception. They were under the influence of Colonel Leach-
man, the remarkable Political Officer for the Desert, whose power
with the beduin throughout the war not only rivalled that of Lawrence
in the Hejaz but was built up simply on force of character unaided
by the ample subsidies which Lawrence so liberally dispensed. The
Anaiza never undertook any major military operations, but they
helped to blockade the desert. Their efforts did not affect the course
of events in Mesopotamia but were directed against caravans sent
between the Turks and the pro-Turkish Emir of Hail, Ibn Rashid,
in northern Arabia. In Nejd overtures from Ibn Saud for a treaty
with the British came to nothing, partly through delay in reaching
a decision on policy, partly because of the death of Major Shakespear,