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File 4722/1918 Pt 8 'Mesopotamia: Situation' [90r] (190/995)
The record is made up of 1 volume (491 folios). It was created in 28 Jun 1920-11 Feb 1921. 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.
against any Government intending to stop ills time-honoured livali-
hood of rohoery and exaction,is purely a nostile one,smouldering whei
things are quite ,fanning up at a breath of disturbance from without*
The ilgha who lives on the peasantry,and the nulla who lives on the
Agha, have alike everything to gain from a break-up of law and order,
and are both therfore constantly active in leading and misleading the
tribe*
Briefly,the social structure of most tribes is such that the
few self-seekers and influential parasites can lead the wdiole mass;
and the Government rnajs usually count on the hostility of these few.
(d) The logic of the propagandist and the feudal leader were
too well supported by that of facts. Baqubah fell,Shahrabari,Qizil m't
Bobat,Khaniqin followed. At Q,izil Bobat.only a few hundred yards
from Qarah Tappah Eahiyah, the tribesmen gained easy loot and many
rifles. The authors of the disturbances in Biyalah Division (Karkhi-
yah, Ban! Tamxm,Dilo) have close connections with the Karwiyah,Dilo,
and lesser tribes of this Division; and the Diyalah is no obstacle.
From village to village,by letters and messages and meetings, in one
place religious, in another political, or merely greedy, or inspired
by private ends of malice,or personal spite,sufficient impulse
spread rapidly over the well-suited ground to implicate in a week
the whole Kifri District and to unsettle the Tauq. and Qarah Hasan
areas* Successful and easy robberies,entry into towns,the flight of
Government officials therdfron,soon made explicit a feeling that the
Government - apparently powerless and everywhere unresisting and the
subject of wild rumours - had indeed ceased to oe.
(e) it will be enough to touch in a few words on those causes
always liable to estrange a Western Government from Dastern peoples*
The insistence on honesty,puntuality,truth,sanitation; the equality
of treatment of all classes; the discouragement of sinecu*es,^oboery
, - •' i X
nepotism; fairness and sommon-sense talking predieence of favouritism
and bribes - these components of the western attitude so habitual t^
most English administrators are (quite generally speaking)irritating
and uncongenial to a Kurd or an Arab. We ofier material prosperity
he can better it if allowed to loot two caravans a year; we oifer
justice - he perhaps prefers a verdict of known price; we offer
About this item
- Content
The volume consists of correspondence, memoranda, drafts, and departmental notes relating to rebellion against British mandatory rule in Mesopotamia [approximately corresponding to present-day Iraq], later known as the Iraqi Revolt of 1920.
The volume covers the period from the start of unrest in May 1920 to British imposition of control in October of the same year. The majority of the volume comprises reports from political officers across Mesopotamia on the situation in their respective divisions and districts.
Other matters discussed within the volume include:
- The suspected causes of the uprising, including fears of ‘Bolshevik’ and pro-Turkish influence
- Settlement of the border between Syria and Mesopotamia
- Military strategy and operations, including the need for reinforcements
- The severing of British lines of communication, particularly rail
- The efficacy and principles of the use of armoured cars and air raids as means of control following numerous cases of misidentification and disproportionate force that resulted in the deaths and injuries of innocent people
- Political and civil policy in the region
- Identification and arrest of some of the leaders of the rebellion
- The prominence of events in Mesopotamia in the British press
- The question of disarming the tribes following the suppression of the rebellion.
Principal correspondents include officials at: the 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. ; the Office of the Civil Commissioner in Mesopotamia (from November 1920, the High Commissioner); the War Office; General Headquarters of the military in Mesopotamia; and the Government of India, Foreign and Political and Army departments.
The volume contains cuttings from several publications, including: The Times , The Statesman , The Observer , The Daily Herald , The Daily Mail , The Baghdad Times , and The Near East .
The volume includes a divider which gives the subject number, the year the subject file was opened, the subject heading, and a list of correspondence references by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence. A second divider is included, for File 4722/1918 Part 7, entitled ‘Mesopotamia: Sir A. Wilson’s invitation to Syrian Baghdadis’. This was transferred to File 5268/20 Parts 1 and 2 (see IOR/L/PS/10/913).
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (491 folios)
- Arrangement
The volume is arranged in approximate chronological order, from the rear to the front.
The subject 4722 (Mesopotamia) consists of ten volumes, IOR/L/PS/10/755-764. The volumes are divided into twelve parts, with parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11 and 12 comprising one volume each. Part 10 is missing. Part 7, entitled ‘Mesopotamia: Sir A. Wilson’s invitation to Syrian Baghdadis’, was transferred to File 5268/20 Parts 1 and 2 (see IOR/L/PS/10/913).
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1 and terminates at the last folio with 489; 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. Multiple intermittent additional foliation sequences are also present. The foliation sequence does not include the front and back covers, nor does it include the leading and ending flyleaves. The sequence contains one foliation anomaly, f 89a.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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File 4722/1918 Pt 8 'Mesopotamia: Situation' [90r] (190/995), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/761, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100137804985.0x0000bf> [accessed 9 June 2026]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/10/761
- Title
- File 4722/1918 Pt 8 'Mesopotamia: Situation'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, i-r:i-v, 1r:89v, 89ar:89av, 90r:113r, 114v, 118v:120r, 121v, 127v:169v, 173r:192v, 194r:211v, 213r:223v, 225r:227r, 229r:261v, 262v:263v, 266r:279v, 280ar, 280r:293v, 294v, 295v:317v, 318ar, 318r:333v, 334v:341v, 342v:359v, 360v:400v, 404r:424v, 425ar, 425r:489v, ii-r:ii-v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence