Kurds, Arabs and Britons

The Memoir of Col.W.A.Lyon in Kurdistan, 1918-1945

W.A. Lyon

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2001
• Print ISBN:
  9781860646133
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780857714138
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern History
• Index: History

Wallace Lyon was Provincial Administrator and Administrative Inspector in northern Iraq - an area known unofficially as 'Kurdistan' - between 1918 and 1945. His job was to administer what at the time was a fairly wild and remote province, while protecting the Kurds from a predatory and unstable Iraq and safeguarding British imperial interests in the area. The pushing would have been impossible but for an in-depth understanding of natural respect for the family, tribal and religious ties that defined the area's complex social structures. Nor would it have been possible without Lyon's personal courage and immediate empathy for the people of the region. Lyon's work was an exemplar of the qualities that the British Empire hoped to breed in its servants. As the Empire waned the Kurdish north - so vital in geopolitical manoeuvring provided Lyon with the perfect vantage point from which to watch its decline.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• A Note on Spelling
• The Background: Iraq 1918–44
• Mosul, Dohuk and the 1920 Rising, 1918–20
• Arbil: The ‘Election’ of King Faisal, 1921
• Arbil and Kirkuk: Tribal Risings and the Campaign against the Turks, 1922
• Sir Henry Dobbs, 1923–24
• The Visit of King Faisal and the League of Nations Commission, 1924–25
• Bringing Sulaimani under Iraqi Rule, 1925–26
• Sulaimani: Shaikh Mahmud and Local Society, 1926–29
• Kirkuk: People and Locusts, 1929–30
• Mosul: The Frontier Commission and the End of the Mandate, 1930–32
• Baghdad: Land Settlement in Kut and Kirkuk, 1932–33
• Kirkuk: The Army Coup and Revolution, 1934–41
• Political Adviser to the Indian Army in Iraq and the End of Service, 1941–44
• Select Bibliography: Iraq 1914–44
• Index