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BAGDAD. 
By Sir Thomas Holdich. 
AGHDAD (wliicli is the generally accepted 
spelling of the name) is some two lumdred 
miles bv river, and probably half that distance 
bv road, from the most advanced position held 
by the British field force at Kiit al Amara, on 
the Tigris, ^'niil recently it was supposed to be a 
)5urely -Mohammedan city, founded by the Caliph Al 
Mansur about the year 762 a.d., near to the site of the 
ancient capital of the Sassanids, Ctesiphon. It was 
discovered, however, to occupy the position assigned to 
a yet more ancient city, of which the Bab\ Ionian records 
apparently preserve the name as Bagdad, and there 
seems no good reason for adopting any variation of that 
name. It was undoubtedly the centre of the civilised 
world as long as the Caliphate lasted. The early history 
of Bagdad is the history of the 1-last. The city has 
changed hands many limes, and has suffered many 
things from Mongol, Tartar, and Persian, only falling 
finally into the hands of the Ottoman Turk in the year 
i()jt8 A.D., when most of its inhabitants were massacred. 
This was nearly two centuries after the Turks had estab- 
lislied a European nationality and Constantinople 
s:ttained supremacy as the capital of the Turkish Empire. 
Constantinople is now but a frontier town, and Bagdad, 
which has never parted with its halo of special sanctity 
in the eyes of the Asiatic Moslem, is of rising impor- 
tance as a possible future capital should Constantinople 
be lost to Islam. 
Architeclure. 
Bagdad is a much spread out city occupying 
both banks of the Tigris, the area of the city on 
the left bank being about five times that on the right. 
A bridge of boats connects the two parts. A brick wall, 
in various stages of disrepair, surrounds the whole city, 
and is by way of serving the purposes of defence over 
a length of five miles. There are towers and gates at 
intervals, and there may possibly be by this time a 
certain number of useful guns emplaced in them. What 
the exact dispositions for defence may be is, of course, 
known only to our enemies, but the brick wall is, 
in itself, no useful defensive feature, in spite of the 
fact that parts of it consist of most excellent masonry. 
'J"he main streets, or bazaars, are wide and full of the 
business of the Turks, Arabs, Persians, Indians, Jews, 
and Christians who crowd the thoroughfares ; and there 
are so many gardens that from a distance trees seem 
jilmost to predominate over buildings. And jet, with all 
its wealth of ancient history and romantic tradition, 
there is hardly an architectural feature in Bagdad that 
is worth looking at. The tomb of Zobeide, the wife of 
Mansiir, is by far the most impressive object on the right 
banjc of the river, where its conical dome is ever con- 
spicuous in the landscape; but amongst the palaces, 
residences, masjids, and public buildings there is 
nothing that rises above the commonplace, and much 
that is absolutely ugly. 
Chequered History. 
This, no doubt, is due to the chequered nature 
of Bagdad's history, which has not tended to 
architectural embellishments of a public character, 
although many of the private residences are charm- 
ing in their adaptations of simple Oriental design. 
European life in this Arabic centre is more than toler- 
able ; there is a delightful sociability in an admixture 
of nationalities where all are dominated by the same 
love of the artistic. European ladies must be veiled 
when they move abroad, but the veil is often but a flimsy 
subterfuge, and merely brings them into line with the 
gimple, sober^ and almost dull appearance that distin. 
guishes the restless people of this town of Kright sui4* 
shine and deep shadow. The Tigris rolls a wide red 
stream between its banks at Bagdad, and carries a 
local traffic indicated by Arab craft, with ill-con- 
structed rafts, round coracles of gophir wood, " pitched 
within and without " (most difficult to navigate by the 
unpractised hand), and the few flat-bottomed steamers 
that a Turkish firm runs from Basra. These are laden", 
for a great part, with the corpses of good Persians of the 
Shiah sect who desire to be buried at Kerbela, seventy 
miles south of Bagdad and to the west of Babylon. 
There are the tombs of Hassan and Hosein, and the ulti- 
mate hope of everlasting peace is to rest within sight of 
tlie dome-covered mausoleum of these worthy martyrs. 
Along the great high road from Bagdad to Kerbela long 
caravans of camels and ponies tread deep ruts into the 
sandy soil as they jolt their unconscious burdens to their 
last journey's end. It is a weird form of traffic, but most 
remunerative. There is also to be seen on the bosom of 
the ruddy stream the smart official launch of the British 
Resident lying off the Residency landing-place. There 
is nothing to prevent a well-ecjuipped force of 15,000 
to 20,000 men, supported by armoured motor-cars and a 
light-draught flotilla, from occupying Bagdad wiUiout 
serious opposition, provided, of course, that strong 
Turkish reinforcements are not sent to the assistance of 
the original Mesopotamian garrison of about 50,000 
Turks (now considerably reduced) which is all that 
Turkey can afford to detach from the field of action in 
Europe and Asia Minor. All such assistance would 
have to be sent from Constantinople, and Constantinople 
is about as far from Bagdad for military purposes as is 
Bombay. 
The Railway. 
At least 1,300 miles of indifferent communications 
intervene between the two cities, passing by mountains, 
rivers and plains, and encountering serious obstacles 
over the greater part of this distance. Railway develop- 
ment has overcome them on some sections of the route — 
the beginning of tliat through line which, by linking up 
Constantinople with the head of the Persian Gulf, ishere- 
after to serve as the German highway to India. From 
Constantinople the railway service may be accepted now 
as complete for military purposes for 500 miles, as far as 
the foot of the Taurus Mountains. Here tunnel-driving 
has hardly commenced, and the southern foot of the 
range is only to be reached by a road which passes over 
8,000 feet of altitude. Such a road may be blocked for 
months by snow. Through Cilicia the line is open again 
to the Amanus Mountains. The tunnel here is driven half- 
way through (according to the estimate of Mr. D. G- 
Hogarth, who read an interesting paper on the subject 
before the Royal Geographical Society on April 26 last), 
but the hard nature of the rock lately encountered has 
reduced progress in boring so considerably that it can 
only now be reckoned by inches, and will certainly not 
be completed before the end of the w-ar. There are two 
roads across the Amanus, by both of which the Turks 
are reported to have transported big guns, stores, and 
ammunition. From near Aleppo the main line bears - 
north-east to the Euphrates at Djerabis. A steel bridge 
now spans the river, and it is probable that by this time 
the line is laid for 100 to 150 miles do.vn the river valley^ 
From this point to Bagdad it would be impossible to 
follow the Euphrates (which is only twenty-five miles 
distant from the Tigris opposite Bagdad) on account of ■ 
swamps and cultivation, and a much easier route is ' 
presented by the two-luindred-mile trek across the hard 
sand and gravel of Mesopotamia to Mosul, on the Tigris. 
From Mosul the Tigris waterway can be utilised by 
rafting, and this is the route by which Bagdad is now. 
supplied with stores, ammunition^ and guns. Before 
15 
