'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎235v] (475/862)

PEOPLE
348
Villages consist of a huddle of 30-300 mud huts surrounded by a
mud wall, a fence of camel thorn, and a few palm-trees, and may
contain a mud tower for the shaikh, and a small mud building with
a courtyard which acts as the mosque. Small domed buildings,
gubba, are the shrines of holy men and contain a stone tomb which
is visited by pilgrims; these shrines are very common in the agri
cultural regions.
Northern Iraq. In the mountains, because of the scarcity of land,
villages are usually built on the side of a steep hill of no agricultural
value. Hill-top positions are apparently not in favour, villages
usually being just above the ploughland; for security against attack
they are frequently in positions guarded by deep ravines on either
side. The hill villages, which are usually quite small (p. 357), may
be either a huddle of houses, forming what is almost a solid block, or
a group of isolated clusters. Houses are usually built one above the
other, so that the roof of one house forms the terrace in front of the
house above (photo. 153).
Kurdish houses are quite different from Arab houses and reflect
a different form of society. They are simple rectangular buildings
usually of one or two stories with narrow windows on the first floor in
the outside walls. In peaceful times and places there may even be
windows on the ground floor. When strengthened by towers at the
corners these houses make admirable forts for the aghas; at night
when the door is barred the sense of isolation is complete. Building
materials are rough-cut stone set in mud plaster or else sun-dried
mud-brick. The roof is flat and is supported by wooden beams and is
made of a local compost of lime, ashes, and rubble, which in wet
weather does not remain hard but needs rolling. The beams are the
most valuable part of the building and are carefully removed when
a house decays. Wealthy shaikhs and aghas convert these houses into
comfortable homes by the use of glass windows, wooden floors, and
hinged doors, and by adding a vent for the smoke above the fire
place, which is a pit in the floor (photos. 40, 155, 156).
In the plains mud huts often replace stone houses, though the
latter occur, excellently built, in some Christian villages of the Mosul
plain. In the plains village sites are determined by the presence of
wells, and villages are much larger than on the mountains, sometimes
containing up to 5,000 people.
Nomadic tribes live in tents similar to those of the Arab beduin,
but the semi-nomads on their summer migration often erect huts of
wattle instead of tents.