Enemy on the Euphrates (63 page)

9.
   Philby Papers, PH VI/3/107–9, copy of letter from Gertrude Bell to Arnold Wilson, 3 June 1920.

10.
  
Intidab
, cognate with the verb
nadaba
, to appoint. See Cowan, p. 1116.

11.
  Luizard, p. 387, renders the Islamic date 15 Sha’ban 1338 as the Gregorian date 3 May 1919. Atiyyah dates the meeting as ‘middle of Sha’ban’ – 4/5 May. Unfortunately there are a number of different algorithms for converting the Islamic lunar system into the Gregorian. Throughout we have used the convertor available at
www.oriold.uzh.ch/static/hegira.html
, which gives a one-day difference from some of the conversions which appear to have been used by authors referred to in the text.

12.
  al-Hasani,
Al-‘Iraq fi dawra al-ihtilal wa al-intidab
, p. 80. Al-Bazirgan gives the date of the establishment of the party as ‘the end of 1917’ (Hasan al-Bazirgan,
Min ahdath Baghdad wa al-Diyala ithna al-thawra al-‘ishrin fi al-‘Iraq
[Concerning the Events in Baghdad and the Diyala during the Revolution of 1920 in Iraq] new edn, Bayt al-Hikma, Baghdad, 2000, p. 27n,) but such a relatively early date seems unlikely.

13.
  Husayn Jamil,
Al-‘Iraq: shahada siyasiyya, 1908–1930
(Iraq, Political Witness, 1908–1930), Dar al-Laam, London, 1987, p. 51.

14.
  al-Darraji, p. 76 and note; see also Batatu, p. 221.

15.
  Nakash, p. 52. See also Eric Davis,
Memories of State: Politics, History and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq
, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2005, pp. 35–6.

16.
  al-Darraji, p. 76.

17.
  Muhsin, pp. 112, 118.

18.
  al-Darraji, p. 82.

19.
  al-Bazirgan, p. 27n.

20.
  al-Darraji, p. 82.

21.
  Gertrude Bell Project, letter to Hugh Bell, 7 June 1920.

22.
  al-Darraji, p. 82.

23.
  They were recognised as such by Gertrude Bell. See Cmd. 1061, p. 140.

24.
  al-Bazirgan, p. 28.

25.
  Quoted in Atiyyah, p. 281.

26.
  Batatu, p. 1139.

27.
  Quoted ibid., pp. 1137–8.

28.
  FO/371, The National Archive, London,
Personalities, Mosul, Arbil and Frontier
, Government Press, Baghdad, 1921. Priya Satia,
Spies in Arabia: The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain’s Covert Empire in the Middle East
, Oxford University Press, 2008, gives strong emphasis to this British fear of ‘Bolshevism’ in the Middle East.

29.
  Lyell, p. 177.

30.
  Cmd. 1061, p. 144.

31.
  al-Hasani,
Al-‘Iraq fi dawra al-ihtilal wa al-intidab
, pp. 79–80; see also, Atiyyah, p. 275.

32.
  al-Hasani,
Al-‘Iraq fi dawra al-ihtilal wa al-intidab
, p. 80.

33.
  al-Darraji, p. 78.

34.
  Abu Tabikh, p. 123.

35.
  al-Darraji, p. 84.

36.
  al-Hasani,
Al-thawra al-‘Iraqiyya al-kubra, sana 1920
, pp. 98–100. See also Atiyyah, p. 334, and Luizard, p. 387.

37.
  Batatu, p. 1142.

38.
  Cmd. 1061, pp. 144–5.

39.
  al-Hasani,
Al-thawra al-‘Iraqiyya al-kubra, sana 1920
, p. 99. Al-Hasani mentions by name only eight sheikhs, sada and clergy but the passage suggests these were only a few of those attending.

40.
  Ibid., p. 100.

41.
  Jamil, p. 51.

42.
  Sheikh Habib al-Khayizran, paramount sheikh of the ‘Azza, quoted in Muhammad Husayn al-Zubaydi,
Al-siyasiyyun al-‘Iraqiyyun al-munfiyyun ila jazira hinjam sana 1922
, (The Iraqi Politicians Exiled to Henjam Island, 1922), Al-Maktaba al-Wataniyya, Baghdad, 1989, p. 136.

43.
  The precise date of the first joint maulud is uncertain. Al-Darraji (p. 87), gives ‘at the end of the month of
Sha’ban
’ (19 May); however, Muhsin (pp. 125–6) puts it as early as 8 May.

44.
  Muhsin, p. 126.

45.
  Cmd. 1061, p. 140.

46.
  Philby Papers, PH VI/3/20, copy of Memorandum J.S. 420, Judicial Secretary Baghdad to Civil Commissioner Baghdad, 29 May 1920.

47.
  IO/MSS/EUR/F462, The British Library, London, Correspondence of Major General G. A. J. Leslie, Major General Leslie to his wife, Baghdad, 25 May 1920.

48.
  Atiyyah, p. 316; however, Sheikh Habib al-Khayizran, quoted in al-Zubaydi, p. 137, states that the poem was delivered on 25 May and the name of the young poet was ‘Isa ‘Afnadi while Muhsin (p. 126) gives the man’s name as ‘Isa Effendi al-Raizali’.

49.
  al-Zubaydi, p. 137.

50.
  IO/MSS/EUR/F462, Major General Leslie to his wife, Baghdad, 28 May 1920.

51.
  al-Zubaydi, p. 137.

52.
  al-Rahimi, appendix 15, p. 306.

53.
  Kadhim,
Al-haraka al-Islamiyya fi al-‘Iraq
, p. 255.

54.
  With respect to the relationship between the British and one particular Jewish family, see the first two chapters of Marina Benjamin,
Last Days in Babylon: The Story of the Jews of Baghdad
, Bloomsbury, London, 2007.

55.
  al-Rahimi, p. 307. According to Muhsin (p. 128), the proclamation was issued on 1 June.

56.
  Quoted in Muhsin, p. 129.

57.
  Quoted in Wilson,
Mesopotamia, 1917–1920
, p. 339.

58.
  Philby Papers, ‘Mesopotage’ (unpublished manuscript, 1946?), ch. 11, p. 13.

59.
  Wilson,
Mesopotamia, 1917–1920
, p. 256.

60.
  al-Hasani,
Al-thawra al-‘Iraqiyya al-kubra, sana 1920
, p. 71.

61.
  Philby Papers, ‘Mesopotage’, ch. 11, p. 16.

62.
  Philby Papers, PH VI/3/107–9.

63.
  Philby Papers, PH VI/3/56, copy of telegram 6791, Civil Commissioner Baghdad to Secretary of State India Office, London, 7 June 1920.

64.
  Gertrude Bell Project, Bell to her father, 7 June 1920.

Chapter 19: General Haldane’s Difficult Posting

1.
   As described by Haldane,
The Insurrection in Mesopotamia
, p. 4.

2.
   Douglas S. Russell,
Winston Churchill, Soldier
, Brassey’s, London, 2005, p. 260.

3.
   Sir Aylmer Haldane,
A Soldier’s Saga
, William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1948, p. 3.

4.
   Ibid., p. 391.

5.
   Martin Gilbert,
World in Torment: Winston Churchill 1917–1922
, Minerva, London, 1975, p. 370.

6.
   John Darwin,
Britain, Egypt and the Middle East
, Macmillan, London, 1981, p. 74.

7.
   CAB/24/106, The National Archive, London, CP 1320: Mesopotamian Expenditure. Memorandum by the Secretary of State for War, 20 May 1920.

8.
   Haldane,
The Insurrection in Mesopotamia
, p. 325. The book is an expanded version of Haldane’s official report on the revolution published in War Office,
Supplement to the London Gazette
, HMSO, London, 5 July 1921.

9.
   In the British Army a brevet rank was a temporary and honorary promotion attached to some particular duty meriting it (in this case being acting civil commissioner).

10.
  Haldane,
A Soldier’s Saga
, p. 372.

11.
  Colonel H. C. Wylly,
History of the Manchester Regiment
, vol. 2:
1883–1922
, Forster Groom & Co., London, 1925, p. 214.

12.
  Haldane,
The Insurrection in Mesopotamia
, p. 9.

13.
  Haldane,
A Soldier’s Saga
, p. 371.

14.
  Cmd. 1061, p. 122. In 1920 one rupee was worth about ten pence at today’s values. The calculation of current sterling value is based on the historical UK Retail Price Series: see
www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/

15.
  Philby Papers, ‘Mesopotage’, ch. 11, p. 7.

16.
  Ibid., p. 4.

17.
  Re. Leachman’s cut-down polo stick see Bray,
A Paladin of Arabia
, p. 338.

18.
  Haldane,
The Insurrection in Mesopotamia
, p. 29.

19.
  Ireland, p. 126.

20.
  Ibid., p. 116.

21.
  Atiyyah, p. 234.

22.
  Ibid., p. 252.

23.
  Revd J. T. Parfit,
Marvellous Mesopotamia: The World’s Wonderland
, S. W. Partridge & Co., London, 1920, p. 251.

24.
  Haldane,
The Insurrection in Mesopotamia
, p. 325.

25.
  Ibid., p. 12; Wilson,
Mesopotamia, 1917–1920
, p. 272.

26.
  Colonel E. B. Maunsell,
Prince of Wales’s Own, The Scinde Horse
, Naval and Military Press, Uckfield, 2005, p. 256.

27.
  Ibid., p. 251.

28.
  Ibid., p. 253.

29.
  Haldane,
The Insurrection in Mesopotamia
, p. 92.

30.
  Wilson,
Mesopotamia, 1917–1920
, p. 273.

Chapter 20: Trouble on the Frontiers

1.
   David Garnett (ed.),
The Letters of T. E. Lawrence
, Jonathan Cape, London, 1938, pp. 280–82.

2.
   Ibid., p. 291.

3.
   Ibid., pp. 290–91.

4.
   Quoted in Marlowe, p. 183.

5.
   Quoted ibid., p. 177.

6.
   Quoted in Sluglett, p. 31.

7.
   The whole question of the relevance of Britain’s continuing involvement in Iraq to what one historian has referred to as ‘The Imperial Quest for Oil’ has been much debated, with a number of historians minimising or actually denying any such relevance. I leave the final answer to this matter to Peter Sluglett: ‘British concern for Iraqi oil was more profound in the early days of the mandate than has been thought and denials by statesmen that oil played any major part in British calculations [Sluglett is referring principally to a denial by Lord Curzon] seem to have been given exaggerated credence.’ Sluglett, p. 75.

8.
   Eliezer Tauber, ‘The Struggle for Dayr al-Zur: The Determination of Borders between Syria and Iraq’,
International Journal of Middle East Studies
, vol. 23, no. 3, 1991, p. 366.

9.
   Ibid., p. 371.

10.
  Philby Papers, ‘The Legend of Lijman’ (unpublished manuscript, 1928), pp. 174–5.

11.
  Bray,
A Paladin of Arabia
, pp. 397–8.

12.
  Philby Papers, ‘The Legend of Lijman’, p. 177.

13.
  Ibid., p. 178.

14.
  CAB/24/111, The National Archive, London, CP 1801: Report on the Attack at Tel Afar, 25 June 1920.

15.
  It was customary for Ottoman officers of middle or lower class origin, like Jamil, to adopt a name signifying their military profession; thus Jamil al-Midfa‘i’s name refers to
midfa‘
(Arabic for gun, or field gun). See Batatu, p. 320.

16.
  al-Hasani,
Al-thawra al-‘Iraqiyya al-kubra, sana 1920
, p. 53.

17.
  FO/371.

18.
  Ibid. According to the anonymous
Personalities
document (the work of Gertrude Bell) it was Muslat Pasha ‘who really made the Tal ‘Afar coup possible. He led his tribesmen to Tal ‘Afar.’

19.
  CAB/24/111, CP 1801.

20.
  F. F. Raskolnikov,
Tales of Sub-Lieutenant Ilyin: The Taking of Enzeli
, available at
www.marxists.org
. See also CAB/24/106, CP 1356: Bolshevik Aggression in Persia. Copy of correspondence between Persian Foreign Minister and Secretary General League of Nations, 19 May 1920.

21.
  Raskolnikov.

22.
  Gilmour, p. 516.

23.
  Gertrude Bell Project, letter to Hugh Bell, 1 June 1920.

24.
  Ibid., letter to Hugh Bell, 7 June 1920.

25.
  Atiyyah, p. 305. What precisely occurred at Tel ‘Afar is unknown. The only witness was an Arab servant of one of the British officers killed. The description of the events which follows is based Haldane,
The Insurrection in Mesopotamia
, pp. 39–42 and Wilson,
Mesopotamia, 1917–1920
, pp. 273–4, supplemented by FO/371 and CAB/24/111, CP 1801.

26.
  FO/371.

27.
  CAB/24/111, CP 1801.

28.
  According to al-Hasani,
Al-thawra al-‘Iraqiyya al-kubra, sana 1920
, p. 54, the armoured cars were put out of action by ‘disabling their wheels’ – presumably referring to their tyres.

29.
  Gertrude Bell Project, Gertrude Bell to Hugh Bell, 7 June 1920.

30.
  Wilson,
Mesopotamia, 1917–1920
, p. 274.

31.
  CAB/24/107, The National Archive, London, CP 1467: Appendix D. From Civil Commissioner, Baghdad, 15 May 1920.

32.
  Philby Papers, PH VI/3/20.

Chapter 21: The Drift to Violence

1.
   IO/L/PS/11/175, The British Library, London, Telegram 6948, Civil Commissioner Baghdad to India Office, 9 June 1920.

2.
   Ibid.

3.
   Ibid., War Office, London to India Office, London, 3 July 1920.

4.
   Ibid., Secretary of State India to Civil Commissioner Mesopotamia, 10 July 1920.

5.
   Ibid., Secret, Memorandum C/29/235, Office of the Military Governor and Political Officer, Baghdad to D.C. Police, 9 June 1929.

6.
   Ibid., Secret no. 4256, Political Serai, Samarra to Civil Commissioner, 11 June 1920.

7.
   Ibid., Confidential, No. 131-e, Military Governor & Political Officer, Basra to Civil Commissioner Baghdad, 12 June 1920.