From the summit of this we could see a long range of hills on the opposite side of an undulating plain about twelve miles broad, and far away to the east a great snow-capped wall, the Aoraman mountain, and Persia. This is the plain of Surchina, on the eastern border of which Sulaimania lies. At the foot of the pass the Hamavand escort indicated the spot where they had lately looted a caravan, killing all the military escort and destroying a large number of despatches and Government accounts. The scraps of these still lay about, and one could decipher upon them the tag-ends of sentences, a diversion which occupied some of the travellers for a considerable time. The recognised territory of the Hamavands extends a little way into this plain, and a large number were encamped by a stream in their black tents, and their flocks covered the hill-sides.
Approaching Sulaimania, we came to a region of hillocks where had originally been extensive gardens. Now they were but deserted patches of land where the few trees remaining were dying for want of water. Around Sulaimania the country is excellently watered by a river and a number of streams, but the terror of the Hamavands in troublous times, and of the Government and the shaikhs in days of peace, has effectually ensured the desertion of what was once a richly cultivated country. Right up to the outskirts of Sulaimania are the same melancholy relics of past prosperity. At present there are no gardens around the town, and it is supplied with fruit at exorbitant prices, from villages on the other side of the hills, which are out of the range of the Hamavands.
ARRIVE AT SULAIMANIA
Sulaimania lies on the lower slope of the hills between two spurs, between which an abundance of excellent water flows. The town is totally insignificant, possessing no large buildings nor anything conspicuous, except a minaret recently erected. From outside it appears but a homogeneous mass of flat mud roofs, relieved here and there by an upper room of a larger house. It possesses no walls nor fortifications, and one entered it abruptly from the desert, its outskirts being small one-storied houses, in the courtyards of which may be seen the idle, handsome women engaged in their constant and only occupation—smoking cigarettes.
The proximity of Persian Kurdistan is very evident here, the style of building in the poorer dwellings is that of Sina and Sauj Bulaq, and in the better houses that of any western Persian town. We threaded our way through some open bazaar streets to a caravanserai, where I had resolved to put up. This was constructed entirely in the Persian style: a row of rooms round a courtyard, which opened on to a low verandah.
I secured a room, and throwing into it my goods, dismissed the muleteer, who was demanding a present for having conducted me safely through the Hamavands to Sulaimania.
FOOTNOTES TO CHAPTER VIII:
[48] Kurdish “shuan”—a shepherd.
[49] In the opinion of the Sulaimania Kurds the word Bazian means in Kurdish “the place of defeats,” but they have overlooked the fact that the word “bazi” and “bazian” is a common one in Kurdistan, with the significance “prominent hills.”