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'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [342r] (686/862)
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.
PORTS AND INLAND TOWNS
533
Communications
Land: A good tarred motor-road [8c] goes north past Khurmal to join
the Sulaimaniya-Penjwin road at Serao; but it may be unreliable in winter.
An alternative track leads north to Penjwin. Mountain tracks lead east to
Nausud in Persia and west to Shaikh Maidan on the Diyala.
Air: Landing-ground north-west of the town.
Hilla. 32 0 29' N., 44 0 26' E.; alt. c. 90 feet. Pop. 20,000. Liwa cap.
Rainfall station (Rlys).
Hilla is on the eastern or Hilla branch of the Euphrates, 60 miles by road
south of Baghdad. The town is on both sides of the river, and is surrounded
by extensive date-gardens. Most of the inhabitants are Shia Arabs, the
remainder Sunni Arabs and a certain number of Persian and Indian Shias.
The town is a river port and the largest grain centre of the ‘Middle
Euphrates’ area. The ruins of Babylon are 4 miles north of Hilla.
The original town in Abbasid times, called A 1 Jamian, the two mosques ,
was on the left bank of what was then becoming the main stream of the
Euphrates. A 1 Hilla or ‘the settlement’ was built on the right bank by an
Arab shaikh in a.d. 1102 to control a great bridge of boats which became
the main crossing of the Euphrates. Then as now it was a large and pros
perous provincial town and its inhabitants were devout Shias. This rule
was relatively undisturbed by the tribal warfare of the Ottoman period or
by the advent of the Zubaid tribe to the district, who eventually began to
settle down as
fellahin
Arabic for ‘peasant’. It was used by British officials to refer to agricultural workers or to members of a social class employed primarily in agricultural labour.
during the nineteenth century (photo. 130). The
gradual diversion of the Euphrates waters from the Hilla to the Hindiya
channel was a catastrophic blow to local cultivation, which was only saved
by the construction of the Hindiya barrage in 1913 (p. 35). During the
Great War Hilla was sacked by the Turks, in 1916, as punishment for
a rebellion, and the district was disturbed during the Arab revolt of 1920,
though the British never lost control of the town.
General Description
The major part of the town is on the right bank and was formerly sur
rounded by a wall 16 feet high, now much destroyed. The quarter on the
left bank, called the Jazira, was open. Many of the older buildings were
made with bricks taken from the ruins of Babylon. A road 20 feet broad
traverses both quarters which are connected by two bridges, a timber
trestle bridge for heavy traffic and a strong pontoon bridge for light traffic.
The principal public buildings, mostly around a central square on the right
bank, are the sarai, the police barracks, and civil jail. There are several
government and private schools, a public library, a civil hospital of 50 beds,
eye and jail hospitals of 12 beds. Hilla is a great cereal market; the grain
History
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