[IRAQ & KURDISTAN.] &
UNIDENTIFIED PHOTOGRAPHER.
Photograph album complied by an RAF serviceman in Iraq and Kurdistan.
Kurdistan during the Ahmed Barzani revolt
An extensive album compiled by an RAF serviceman based in Iraq and Kurdistan during the interwar period. Several of the photographs document military camps and towns involved in the Ahmed Barzani Revolt, an important Kurdish uprising against the British-backed Iraqi Army. We have not been able to identify the compiler of the album but know he was attached to 30 (B) Squadron of the Royal Air Force, which had continuously served in the Middle East from its establishment in 1915, and primarily spent the interwar years in modern Iraq.
The present album records the activities of the Squadron in 1932, starting with a trip to the ruins of Babylon on the way to its base in Mosul. The Mosul images largely look beyond military matters to street life and views of the outskirts along the Tigris. Two show the arresting structure of the Mausoleum of Yahya Abu al-Qasim, distinctively buttressed on one side to avert its descent into the river.
The majority of the following leaves see the Squadron move North-East into Iraqi Kurdistan, showing various towns and landscapes along the Great Zab river valley. Only a few point directly to the surrounding context of the Ahmed Barzani Revolt, showing military encampments and a crashed RAF plane.
