A rare manual printed for the use of officers serving in the Mesopotamian Campaign of the First World War. It largely concerns lower Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), but also contains valuable information on Kuwait, Eastern Arabia and the Persian Gulf.
The first chapter encapsulates the recent history of the region: outlining how Britain won a monopoly over trade in the Gulf in the nineteenth century and stressing the challenge posed to her superiority by Turkish and German advances. It then details the political relations between the Ottoman Empire and Mesopotamia, Kuwait, Al Hasa, and Najd.
The following seven chapters — geography, population, resources, military, maritime, administration and communications (incl. routes) — primarily focus on Mesopotamia, giving a highly detailed account of a landmass covering much of present-day Southern Iraq and part of the Khuzestan Province of Iran. There are also important sections on the strength of the Turkish army and navy.
The book is a revised version of the manual prepared by the General Staff, India in February 1915. It retains all but one of the chapter headings (Chapter V is changed to ’Notes on the Turkish Army’) and only Chapter VIII has been significantly expanded — the section on routes comprising 121-269 pp. compared with 123-178 pp. in the 1916 edition. The other chapters contain a few minor additions and revisions. The final part of chapter V has been rewritten and a few sections, such as ’Expedition to Muhammerah, 1857’ have been omitted.
More significant changes have been made to the appendices, with the addition of B - ’Table of Distances’ and D - ’Some notes for Officers proceeding to Mesopotamia’ and the removal of Appendix A (’Notes on Qatar Peninsula and Doha’) of the 1916 edition.
This copy does not have the separately issued index, found with some examples.
