The Land of the Two Rivers

Original staple-bound printed pink wraps 9 x 16cm. Printed at the Wesleyan Press, Mysore City. 48pp + (1)pp calendar for 1919 + 1 folding b/w map bound in. Wraps very good with short tears to the spine fold; interiors very good. Very rare - Worldcat and Jisc record only the 3rd edition c1917-18 with 4 locations (BL, Yale, Stanford, Acadia). This was prepared for members of the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force, and appears to have been for those based at Basra (another guide book, Baghdad, The City of the Caliphs, was published by The YMCA of India in 1918). The Foreword by W.H.M. states "Mesopotamia has been won back from the blighting misgovernment of the Turk by our now victorious arms, and the arms of our brothers who sleep by the old deserted camp grounds. It will rise again. The great rivers will be directed, harnessed, controlled for the service of its people. A great iron highway from the North to the South and to the East will link up the outer world. The will be a great harvest to be reaped from this seed of progress that England has sown". The contents include Notes on Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf (geographical, historical, political, and cities (Kuwait, Basra, Baghdad, Babylon, Samarra, Mosul, Kermanshah, Hamadan, Tikrit, etc); The Operations of the IEF "D" in Mesopotamia 1914-18 (this chronology runs from the capture of Fao Fort up to the reoccupation of Baku); Types seen in Basra, by J.V.E. (Muhammadans, Christians, Jews, Sabaeans); and Useful Arabic Words and Phrases. The Map of Eastern Turkey in Asia, Syria, and Western Persia shows international boundaries, railways and major settlements. "WHM" may be William Hepworth Mercer (1855-1932), Crown Agent for the Colonies.…