CONTENTS
| CHAP. | PAGE | |
| I.— | In Stamboul | [1] |
| II.— | From Constantinople to Hierapolis | [16] |
| III.— | From the Euphrates to the Tigris, Edessa (Urfa), and Amid (Diarbekr) | [34] |
| IV.— | Down the Tigris to Mosul | [60] |
| V.— | Mosul, the Cities of the Assyrians, the Yazidis | [89] |
| VI.— | The Zab Rivers, Ancient Assyria and Adiabene, Arbela, Kirkuk | [106] |
| VII.— | Chaldeans | [140] |
| VIII.— | By the Hamavands to Sulaimania | [163] |
| IX.— | Sulaimania | [184] |
| X.— | Shahr-i-Zur | [210] |
| XI.— | Shahr-i-Zur and Halabja | [248] |
| XII.— | Life in Sulaimania | [273] |
| XIII.— | Life in Sulaimania (continued) | [294] |
| XIV.— | To Kirkuk | [325] |
| XV.— | To Bagdad | [351] |
| XVI.— | Of Kurds and their Country | [367] |
| Appendix—Kurdish Tribes | [405] | |
| Bibliography | [409] | |
| Index | [411] |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| A Jaf Chief, S. Kurdistan | [Frontispiece] |
| To face p. | |
| Bab-ul-top and Auchon Market, Mosul | [92] |
| On the Persian Frontier, S. Kurdistan | [160] |
| Aorahan | [184] |
| The Kurdish Frontier Mountains | [336] |
| Encampment of Jaf Kurds in Shahr-i-zur | [380] |
TO MESOPOTAMIA AND
KURDISTAN IN DISGUISE
CHAPTER I
IN STAMBOUL
When I descended from the train one dismal morning in Constantinople, in a bleak terminus just like a hundred others of its kind all over the Continent, it was with the intention of staying in the Ottoman capital for some time. A long residence in the Middle East had rendered me susceptible to the magnetism it certainly exerts, and at the same time had given me a very thorough appreciation of the comforts and conveniences of the Occident. As I was quite ignorant of the western parts of the Turkish Empire, and entertained the same ideas regarding them as I suppose do most people at home, it seemed that Constantinople must furnish a delectable resting-place, a point from which to look out upon East and West with equal facility, choosing from each the features necessary to a pleasant life that should be within reach of books and libraries, and afford equally a way of escape among Oriental people and surroundings, without necessitating a long journey and longer bill.
Unfortunately I knew neither Constantinople nor its winter climate, nor its inhabitants. I had never had dealings with Turks, and had left out of my calculations the Greeks, who make up thirty-five per cent. of the population of this capital, once theirs by right of sovereignty, and still almost theirs in all that concerns the world of commerce.
As a matter of fact, the sum total of my knowledge at the moment I arrived was that Constantinople consisted of three quarters or districts, Pera, Galata, and Stamboul, and possessed an hotel called the Pera Palace, the expenses at which were far too grand for my cottage style of purse.
By some person of doubtful nationality, I had been advised to go to a French pension in Galata, which I was assured was cheap, clean, and comfortable. As French pensions in other parts of the world may be, and often are, all these three, the scheme seemed an excellent one; so having escaped from a weary and bored Customs official at the station, I piled my belongings upon a victoria, and we started to clatter over the knobs of stone, and through the mud-pits that are the roads of Constantinople. Through mean streets we rolled and banged our way where horse trams clanked and crawled, between rows of shops whose wares were just those of the cheap streets of any continental city, to the floating bridge over the water called the Golden Horn, a most perfect misnomer in December, suggesting the crowning sarcasm of some disappointed tourist.