Enemy on the Euphrates (65 page)

7.
   Haldane,
The Insurrection in Mesopotamia
, p. 195.

8.
   al-Zubaydi, p. 139.

9.
   Quoted ibid., pp. 140–41.

10.
  Ibid., p. 141. The same incident is recorded in Fariq al-Mizhar al-Fira‘un,
Alhaqa’iq al-nasi‘a fi al-thawra al-‘Iraqiyya, sana 1920
(The Clear Facts About the Iraqi Revolution of 1920), n.p. Baghdad, 1952, p. 322, as ‘I did not intend to
sell my country or my people for money’. It would be easy to dismiss this as some post-rebellion attempt to boost his ‘nationalist’ credentials, except that not only did Sheikh Habib go on to take part in the uprising but after the 1921 Amnesty, he continued to be a thorn in the side of the British authorities (when many other sheikhs had accommodated themselves to neo-colonial rule) and in 1922 was arrested and imprisoned in Henjam island along with Ja‘far Abu al-Timman and five other nationalist politicians.

11.
  Quoted in al-Zubaydi, p. 142.

12.
  Admiralty, p. 292.

13.
  al-Zubaydi, p. 143.

14.
  al-Rawdan, vol. 2, p. 115.

15.
  al-Hasani,
Al-‘Iraq fi dawra al-ihtilal wa al-intidab
, p. 95; see also CAB/24/110, CP 1796: Telegrams relating to the Mesopotamian Situation: Civil Commissioner Baghdad to India Office, n.d.

16.
  al-Zubaydi, p. 143.

17.
  Philby Papers, PH/VI/3/84, copy of telegram from Civil Commissioner Baghdad to India Office, 12 September 1920.

18.
  Atiyyah, p. 325.

19.
  CAB/24/110, CP 1796: Civil Commissioner Baghdad to India Office, 17 August 1920.

20.
  Ibid., 12 August 1920.

21.
  Zetton Buchanan,
In the Hands of the Arabs
, Hodder & Stoughton, London, c.1921, pp. 35–6.

22.
  Ibid., p. 51.

23.
  Haldane,
The Insurrection in Mesopotamia
, p. 165. However, Mrs Buchanan gives a different version in which two of the levies were sent out to parley with a white flag but were shot down by the rebels. I am more inclined to accept General Haldane’s version.

24.
  Buchanan, pp. 57–8.

25.
  Wilson,
Mesopotamia, 1917–1920
, p. 284.

26.
  IO/MSS/EUR/F462, Major General Leslie to Acting Civil Commissioner Wilson, HQ 17th Division, Ba’quba, 17 September 1920. In the original Leslie refers to the abandonment to their fate of the officials at ‘Ba’quba’ but it is clear that this is simply a mistake and it is Shahraban to which he is meaning to refer.

27.
  Alois Musil,
The Middle Euphrates
, AMS Press Inc., New York, 1978 (reprint of original 1927 edn), p. 127.

28.
  Philby Papers, ‘The Legend of Lijman’, pp. 179–80.

29.
  Ibid., p. 181.

30.
  Winstone,
Leachman
, p. 219.

31.
  Wilson,
Mesopotamia, 1917–1920
, p. 292.

32.
  Winstone,
Leachman
, pp. 218–19.

33.
  Press cutting (no date) accompanying manuscript of Philby Papers, ‘The Legend of Lijman’.

34.
  Even Bray’s hagiographical
Paladin of Arabia
(p. 266) speaks of ‘Leachman’s methods … his violent fits of berserk rage … his beatings and abuse of wild Arabs’.

Chapter 28: The Structures of Insurgent Power

1.
   CAB/24/110, CP 1790: Note on the Causes on the Outbreak in Mesopotamia, n.d.

2.
   House of Commons Debates, 9 August 1920, vol. 133, cols 51–2.

3.
   CAB/24/110, CP 1790.

4.
   Kadhim,
Al-haraka al-Islamiyya fi al-‘Iraq
, p. 297.

5.
   Tu’ma, p. 60.

6.
   al-Hasani,
Al-thawra al-‘Iraqiyya al-kubra, sana 1920
, p. 210.

7.
   Ibid., p. 211.

8.
   Kadhim,
Al-haraka al-Islamiyya fi al-‘Iraq
, p. 298. Also al-Hasani,
Al-thawra al-‘Iraqiyya al-kubra, sana 1920
, p. 211.

9.
   al-Hasani,
Al-thawra al-‘Iraqiyya al-kubra, sana 1920
, p. 211; Kotlov simply refers to it as the ‘High Council’, L. N. Kotlov,
Thawra al-‘ishrin al-wataniyya al-taharuriyya fi al-‘Iraq
(The Iraq National Liberation Revolution of 1920), translated from Russian into Arabic by Karam, ‘Abd al-Wahid, Baghdad, 1985, p. 227. Other sources, e.g. Luizard (p. 404), refer to five senior clerical members.

10.
  The second committee was called by al-Hasani ‘
al-majlis al-milli
’ (
Al-thawra al-‘Iraqiyya al-kubra, sana 1920
, p. 211). However, the exact name remains something of a mystery. According to al-Rahimi (p. 223), it was ‘
al-majlis al-‘ilmi
’ (Committee of Scholars), while Kadhim (
Al-haraka al-Islamiyya fi al-‘Iraq
, p. 298) also refers to ‘
al-majlis al-‘ilmi
’ but attributes this name to the first committee while the second committee is referred to as the ‘local council’ (
al-majlis al-mahalli
). A literal translation of al-Hasani’s
al-majlis al-milli
would be ‘the religious council’ or ‘denominational council’ (hence Turkish
millet
, the denominational communities into which the Ottoman Empire divided its inhabitants). Presumably it is for this reason that Luizard (p. 404), himself citing al-Hasani, refers to this particular committee as the
Conseil Communautaire
and I have followed Luizard in this respect.

11.
  al-Hasani also refers to two other committees in Najaf, a Management Committee and a Committee of Executive Power, but their precise role and relationship to the City Council and Higher Religious Committee are unclear. See al-Hasani,
Al-thawra al-‘Iraqiyya al-kubra, sana 1920
, pp. 209–10.

12.
  Luizard, p. 405.

13.
  Abu Tabikh, p. 157. The date on which the flag of independence was first raised is shrouded in mystery. Although Abu Tabikh mentions 18 Dhu al-Hijja (2 September 1920) (conversion to Gregorian using the algorithm in
www.oriold.uzh.ch/static/hegira.html
), it is unclear from this passage whether this was the actual date on which he was installed as governor and the flag was raised.
According to Kadhim,
Reclaiming Iraq
, p. 93, the most likely date was 10 October 1920.

14.
  See Batatu, p. 174.

15.
  In this respect it is difficult to accept the general thesis of Kotlov that the uprising was a ‘peasants’ revolt’. It is true that in many cases that pressure to join the movement came from the peasantry and minor sheikhs but the role of some of the greater sheikhs and senior clergy was also a powerful factor in the mid-Euphrates.

16.
  al-Hasani,
Al-thawra al-‘Iraqiyya al-kubra, sana 1920
, p. 212.

17.
  al-Darraji, p. 76; See also Luizard, pp. 182, 282, 321, 355, 390, 403.

18.
  Quoted in al-Hasani,
Al-thawra al-‘Iraqiyya al-kubra, sana 1920
, pp. 215–16.

19.
  Ibid., p. 214. However, Kadhim,
Reclaiming Iraq
, p. 106, states that
Al-Furat
first appeared on 7 August 1920 and 15 September was its last edition. I think this is probably a mistake.

20.
  al-Hasani,
Al-‘Iraq fi dawra al-ihtilal wa al-intidab
, pp. 117–18.

21.
  Kotlov, p. 218; see also al-Darraji, p. 119; Muhsin (p. 139) mentions only
Al-Furat
in connection with Abu Timman’s journalism.

22.
  al-Hasani,
Al-thawra al-‘Iraqiyya al-kubra, sana 1920
, p. 214.

Chapter 29: Trouble on the Home Front

1.
   
The Times
, 9 July 1920.

2.
   
The Times
, 12 July 1920.

3.
   House of Commons Debates, 13 July 1920, vol. 131, cols 2161–2.

4.
   See Satia,
Spies in Arabia
, p. 292.

5.
   House of Commons Debates, 23 June 1920, vol. 130, cols 2223–85.

6.
   Ibid.

7.
   For an exposition of the legal concept of ‘eminent domain’ and its history in relation to mineral and extractive industries see Bernard Mommer,
Global Oil and the Nation State
, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies & Oxford University Press, 2002.

8.
   Calculation made by the author based on Mikdashi, pp. 102, 106.

9.
   Quoted in John A. DeNovo, ‘The Movement for an Aggressive American Oil Policy Abroad, 1918–1920’,
American Historical Review
, vol. 61, no. 4, 1956, p. 860.

10.
  Darwent Collection, MR4/25/48/1.

11.
  Ibid., MR4/25/48/3.

12.
  Garnett, p. 313. It is unfortunate that some journalists have quoted this phrase about using poison gas without realising its deliberate irony. This can only be put down to laziness, since anyone reading the paragraph as a whole – in particular the reference to ‘getting’ the women and children – could not fail to understand that Lawrence was writing deliberately in the style of Jonathan Swift’s ‘A Modest Proposal’.

13.
  Ibid., p. 317.

14.
  Reproduced in CAB/24/111, CP 1871: Secretary of State for India to Cabinet. Copies of Indian newspaper articles, 16 September 1920.

15.
  Ibid.

16.
  Gilbert, p. 494.

17.
  Quoted ibid., pp. 495–6.

18.
  CAB/24/111, CP 1814: Secretary of State for War to GOC-in-Chief Mesopotamia, 26 August 1920.

Chapter 30: The Siege of Samawa

1.
   Hingston, pp. 3–4.

2.
   Ibid., p. 4.

3.
   Haldane,
The Insurrection in Mesopotamia
, p. 344.

4.
   Thomas, p. 96.

5.
   Anon, ‘The Story of the Siege of Samawah’,
Blackwoods Magazine
, January 1922, p. 103. For some reason Haldane refers to a 13-pounder gun.

6.
   Ibid., pp. 108, 111.

7.
   Quoted in Haldane,
The Insurrection in Mesopotamia
, pp. 326–7.

8.
   Anon, ‘The Story of the Siege of Samawah’, p. 115.

9.
   IO/MSS/EUR/F462, Major General Leslie to his wife, Hilla, 28 August 1920.

10.
  Ibid., Major General Leslie to Acting Civil Commissioner Wilson, Hilla, 17 September 1920.

11.
  Ibid.

12.
  Hingston, p. 5.

13.
  IO/MSS/EUR/F462, Major General Leslie to his wife, Hilla, 27 October 1920.

14.
  Ibid., 28 October 1920.

Chapter 31: Defeat

1.
   Haldane,
The Insurrection in Mesopotamia
, p. 328. According to Haldane, the cumulative total of enemy combatants by the end of August was 131,020 of whom 16,630 were armed with modern rifles and 43,175 with ‘old but serviceable’ rifles.

2.
   CAB/24/111, CP 1815: GOC-in-chief Mesopotamia to Secretary of State for War, 30 August 1920.

3.
   Maunsell,
Prince of Wales’s Own
, p. 291.

4.
   Abu Tabikh, p. 161. For a discussion of the post-revolutionary accusations and antagonisms dividing the former leaders of the uprising see Kadhim,
Reclaiming Iraq
.

5.
   al-Darraji, p. 122.

6.
   Abu Tabikh, p. 162.

7.
   Maunsell,
Prince of Wales’s Own
, pp. 291, 294.

8.
   Abu Tabikh, pp. 162–3.

9.
   Gertrude Bell Project, letter to her father, 7 November 1920.

10.
  al-Darraji, p. 122.

11.
  Quoted in al-Hasani,
Al-‘Iraq fi dawra al-ihtilal wa al-intidab
, pp. 117–18.

12.
  See the testimony of a British private soldier in Anon, ‘A Prisoner with the Arabs, from July–October 19, 1920’,
Manchester Regiment Gazette
, vol. 2, no. 4, October 1921, pp. 185–8.

13.
  Haldane,
The Insurrection in Mesopotamia
, p. 312; Wilson,
Mesopotamia, 1917–1920
, p. 299.

14.
  Darwent Collection, MR4/25/48/1.

Chapter 32: A Death on the Baghdad Road

1.
   Not to be confused with the Al Bu Muhammad of the southern marshes.

2.
   FO/371.

3.
   Sir Percy Cox,
‘Iraq, Report on Iraq Administration’, October 1920–March 1922
, HMSO, London, 1922, p. 3; see also Tauber, ‘The Role of Lieutenant Muhammad Sharif al-Faruqi’, p. 50.

4.
   Lady Bell, vol. 2, p. 568.

Chapter 33: The Punishment

1.
   al-Darraji, p. 123.

2.
   Abu Tabikh, p. 202.

3.
   For example, according to Charles Tripp (
A History of Iraq
, Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 44), ‘by the end of October, and, with the surrender of Najaf and Karbela’, the rebellion was over’. See also Christopher Catherwood,
Winston’s Folly: Imperialism and the Creation of Modern Iraq
, Constable, London, 2004, p. 89: ‘by 12 October … the rebellion had been totally crushed’. The error is probably partly accounted for by the fact that Haldane’s statement of British and Indian casualties in the uprising only covers the period up to 17 October 1920 (Haldane,
The Insurrection in Mesopotamia
, p. 331). Jamil (p. 53), draws attention to officially recorded British and Indian casualties occurring
after
this date, although even he states that the insurrection ‘lasted until the end of November’. Haldane himself states that combat operations did not cease until 3 February 1921 and that military operations against the insurgents ‘had been in constant progress for seven months’ (p. 297).

4.
   Gertrude Bell Project, Gertrude Bell to Hugh Bell, 17 October 1920.

5.
   Haldane,
The Insurrection in Mesopotamia
, p. 256.