"العراق والخليج الفارسي" [و‎‎٢‎١‎١] (٨٦٢/٤٢٦)

MODERN IRAQ 309
in the summer of 1922 stirred up the Hamawand, Jabbari, and
Pizhder tribes, sent small bodies of troops to Ruwandiz, Rania, and
Koi Sanjaq, and created a Turkish Committee at Kirkuk. The Levies
and the R.A.F. soon restored the situation, and Shaikh Mahmud
was brought back from exile in Kuwait (Sept. 1922) and reinstated
at Sulaimaniya, in the hope that he would rally Kurdish national
sentiment to the Anglo-Iraqi point of view. Instead, he intrigued
with the Turks, declared himself ruler of all Kurdish areas in Iraq,
and created a body of ministers and a council packed with wild tribal
chiefs from both sides of the border. But he offended many of his
followers, and military action in 1923 by Levies and R.A.F. recovered
Ruwandiz from the Turks and drove Mahmud temporarily out of
Sulaimaniya. He was allowed to return, but his authority was
restricted to the core of the Sulaimaniya division, excluding the out
lying districts of Rania, Qala Dizeh, Chemchemal, Halabja, and
Qaradagh, in all of which direct administration was established. He
was soon intriguing again and planning a grand attack on Kirkuk
in 1924. But a general defection of followers and vigorous air action
made him withdraw finally from Sulaimaniya (May 1924), by which
time its population had dwindled from 20,000 to 700 persons.
The misgovernment of the Shaikh and the persistent promises of
some form of local autonomy by the High Commissioner reconciled
the local population to the gradual incorporation of the region in the
framework of the Iraqi administration. A similar train of events led
to the assimilation of the Ruwandiz area with a local notable as
governor, which had been much disturbed by Turkish intrigues.
Mahmud was, however, left in control of a small frontier region
around the village of Penjwin, whence he was ejected in 1927, being
allowed to retain his estates provided that he resided across the
Persian frontier and did not intervene in politics. For three years
he kept the peace, but the disturbances attending the ending of the
mandate were too much for him, and in the autumn of 1930 he
attempted another unsuccessful rising. He never held more than
the localities of Penjwin and Surdash, though his raids reached
into the Kifri plain. On submission (May 1931) he was sent to live
in southern Iraq, whence with 300 followers he made his latest un
successful attempt to re-establish himself in Kurdistan during the
crisis of May 1941.
Shaikh Ahmad. The rebellion of Shaikh Ahmad of Barzan in
1931-1932 was equally characteristic of Kurdish shaikhs. Ahmad
had given much trouble at the time of Mahmud’s first rising in 1919