'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎320r] (642/862)

CHAPTER XII
PORTS AND INLAND TOWNS
T here are only three cities in Iraq which are of any size by European
standards. These are the capital Baghdad with a population of
about 300,000, Mosul, sometimes called the capital of the north, and
the group of small towns collectively known as Basra, which is the
sole port. These three are described in some detail in alphabetical
order. The Gazetteer which follows contains briefer descriptions of
the small country towns, ‘holy cities’, and places of administrative or
economic importance, throughout the country, some of them being
large villages rather than towns (p. 356). All information about
numbers of inhabitants is extremely uncertain, and depends upon
estimates made by local officials at different dates during the last ten
years; it is intended simply as a general guide to comparative sizes.
Material for the compilation of town plans is extremely inadequate
except for Baghdad; hence these have been limited to Baghdad,
Mosul, Erbil, Karbala, and the port of Basra.
Baghdad. 33 0 20'N., 44°25'E.; alt. c. no feet. Pop. 300,000
(est. 1940). National and Liwa cap. King’s Palace. Meteorological
Station (R.I.A.F.). H.Q. Southern Command.
Baghdad (fig. 79) lies in level plains of the upper delta on both
banks of the Tigris above the confluence of the Diyala, at the point
where the land routes from Syria and Persia converge on the water
way from Mosul to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . It is the centre of a district
which has been heavily cultivated by irrigation in the past and is now
again coming under the plough. The main city, on the east bank, is
very liable to flooding, particularly in the east and north, where it is
protected by a double line of great banks (new East bund and Nadhim
Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. bund). The west-bank city, Karkh, lies between the river and
the Aqarquf marshes and is protected from flooding by smaller works
and by the railway embankment.
The Moslem inhabitants are about equally divided between Shia
and Sunni. There are large Jewish and Christian elements and
numerous minor groups of Kurds, Persians, and Indians.
History
Nothing is known for certain of any settlement of importance on
the site of Baghdad until the Abbasid Caliph Mansur built a new