"تقارير إدارة أقسام ومناطق الأراضي المحتلة في بلاد الرافدين لسنة ١٩١٨. المجلد I" [ظ‎‎٢‎٢‎٤] (٤٧٠/٤٥٣)

Administrative Report, Kirkuk District, period October 26th—
December 31st, 1918.
1. Political and Tribal: {a) Military .—During May P)18 British forces
entered Kirkuk and remained in possession for 18 days, before withdrawing to Suz
Khormatu. Capt. R. W. Bullard, C J.E., Political Officer, Kirkuk, during this period
established touch with some tribal leaders, secured order in the town, distributed
food, and was building up a staff and an administration when the work was broken
off by the retirement. Jewish and Christian refugees were evacuated to the occupied
territories. Upon our withdrawal, Turkish forces immediately reoccupied the town
and the district as far south as the Tauq Chai.
British forces again occupied the town on October 26th, and passed immediately
through it, leaving a single company as garrison. An Assistant Political Officer,
Capt. S. H. Longrigg, had accompanied the column, and assumed his duties
immediately.
(6) -Kirkuk was, under the Turks, the headquarters of a mutasarriflik,
including the qadhas of Rowanduz, Rania, Arbil, Qoi Sanjaq, and Kifri. Under the
British distribution it became the headquarters of a division, with A.P.O.s at Kirkuk,
Altun Keupri, and Kifri. The officer, however, appointed as political officer, Kirkuk
Division, did not assume charge of the area except in direction of the broadest
policy, and in administrative matters A.P.O.s were under the direction of the Civil
Commissioner direct. Capt. Hay, A.P.O., Altun Keupri, reached his headquarters
town on November 2nd. Under this arrangement A.P.O., Kirkuk, administered the
three Turkish nahiyahs of Kirkuk (strictly speaking, a “liwa”), Tauq, and Gil;
and A.P.O., Altun Keupri, the nahiyahs of Altun Keupri, Malhah, and Shuan.
Subsequently, A.P.O., Altun Keupri, removed to Qoi Sanjaq (December 15th).
leaving the six nahiyahs to A.P.O., Kirkuk. These constitute the present Kirkuk
district.
(2) Its boundaries are: on the north the lesser Zab, with the villages of the Luk
tribe beyond it; east, a line from Tak-tak on the Zab to Ibrahim Khanji westward to
strike the Jabal Hamrin; and west, a shadowy line needless to delimitate, running up
the Huwaijah to touch the Zab at Tall ‘Ali It embraces thus five to six thousand
square miles of land, all cultivable, and none wholly unpopulated. There are hills
west and south-west of Altun Keupri, and the flatness of the Huwaijah is broken by
the Jabal Hamrin; otherwise, the main Kifri-Irbil road is the boundary of hill and
plain, as well as of Kurd and Arab.
(c) Communications. These are the main Baghdad-Mosul road running up the
middle ; the Kirkuk-Sulaimaniyah road, barely passable for wheels; desert tracks to
Tikrit and t athah, a road following the Zab from Altun Keupri to the Tigris ; mule-
paths from Tauq to Chamchamal, and from Kirkuk to Qoi Sanjaq. The lesser Zab,
bridged at Altun Keupri, is a formidable barrier, deep and rapid, and quickly
responsive to floods. Its commercial use is as the route of laden kelleks to Baghdad.
The “ Golden bridge ” was broken by the retiring Turks the day before the Armistice,
leaving a span of 60 feet missing and still unrepaired. Generally speaking, com
munications are made difficult in winter by the easy flooding of the numerous streams
which run westward from the fringe of the Kurdish hills; by the softness of the
ground which a sprinkling of rain turns to soft mud; by abrupt and irregular hills
of steep giadients and destructive torrents. Nowhere, however, is the country
impassable for pack animals.
(2) lelegiaph lines followed the Kifri-Irbil and the Kirkuk-Sulaimaniyah
roads, with offices at Tauq, Kirkuk and Altun Keupri.
W Population.—'Vhfi Western flank of the district is populated by Arabs only,
nomadic vithin limits, ihe pre\ailing tribe, the c Ubaid, are not cultivators, but
breeders of flocks and camels; a small minority live in houses; the bulk in tents,
wandeiing in quest of the best grass and water over all the country between the Zab
Tigris, and ‘Adhaim. Only along the Zab, where excellent flat lands are watered by
charaids, and on the western outskirts of Kirkuk and the Malhah nahiyah, is cultiva
tion largely practised. In these areas the land is owned mainly by Kirkuklis, whose