when an epidemic is prevalent, and in 1919 it was a valuable means
of arresting an epidemic of plague amongst the native populations
of Basra, 'Amara and Bagdad.
Oriental sore (Bagdad boil) is very common in Mesopotamia, and few of the native population escape infection. It is a chronic ulcer caused by inoculation of a protozoal organism known as Leishmania tropica by means of an insect bite, probably the sand- fly. The latent period may be several months. It is a slowly healing sore, lasting often a year or more, and leaves a scar. Usually exposed parts of the body are affected and the scars are known as date-marks.
Eye diseases such as conjunctivitis, trachoma, etc., are exceedingly common amongst the natives of Mesopotamia and cause a great amount of blindness. They are spread by dust, dirt, flies and infec- tion from one person to another. There is an immense field of much- needed work open to specialists in eye diseases in Mesopotamia, since most of these are preventable and many curable.
Tuberculosis in all its forms is a fairly common disease amongst the native population. Leprosy is also fairly common and no at- tempts have been made in the past to isolate affected persons. Smallpox is of frequent occurrence and every resident should be protected by repeated vaccination. Typhus fever is also of fre- quent occurrence in Bagdad and the northern areas of Mesopotamia. It is a disease carried by infected lice, and is introduced into the country annually by lice-infected persons along the caravan routes from the cooler countries adjoining, viz. Persia and Asia Minor. Typhus is of rare occurrence in the southern parts of Mesopotamia, the intense heat destroying lice. Venereal diseases, such as syphilis and gonorrhoea, are common amongst the native population.
Diarrhoeal diseases are very common, and are due to infection of food and drink by dust, flies, and contaminated water. The Arab children are severely affected, and infantile mortality is high.
Deficiency diseases, such as scurvy and beri-beri, were prevalent to a great extent during the early part of the \Yorld War amongst the British troops in Mesopotamia. This was due to the difficulty of transport of fresh vegetables and fruit on account of their perisha- bility owing to the intense heat. These diseases are not likely to occur during peace conditions and they do not appear to occur amongst the native population, who can obtain fresh and whole- some food, dates, vegetables, corn and meat, etc., in abundance.
Though this account of the diseases occurring in Mesopotamia may appear somewhat alarming to those contemplating residence there, nearly all of the diseases are preventable by simple precau- tions, such as care of food and drink, protection at night from insect bites, avoidance of unnecessary exposure to heat, and the ordinary habits of personal cleanliness. Under proper precautions Mesopo- tamia is a healthy country, especially north of 'Amara and Nasiriya, and for 8 months in the year the climate is perfect. There is no reason why white races resident there should not experience excellent health, but it is advisable that residence in a cool climate during July and Aug. should be arranged for as often as possible.
(W. H. W.)
Population. According to a census taken in 1920 the pop. of Mesopotamia is nearly three millions. The figures, according to religions, are given in Table I.
The population is Arab, with the following exceptions: (l) A strong Turkish element in a string of towns stretching N. from Mandali near the Persian border, through Kifri and Kirkuk to Altun Koprii and Erbil. Tall Afar, some 40 m. W. of Mosul, is a Turkish town, and there are Turkish villages in the plain of Mosul. These Turks are not Osmanlis but descendants of earlier Turkish invasions and of mercenaries brought in by the Abbasid caliphs to guard the borders of their realm. (2) The Kurds, who inhabit, to the almost complete exclusion of other races, the country E. of the line of Turkish towns. (3) The Jews, most of whom live in Bagdad,
Basra and Mosul. They are supposed to be descended from those Jews of the Babylonian captivity who disregarded Nehemiah's summons to return to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. (4) The Christians, who are confined to the big towns, except in the Mosul area where there are several thriving Christian villages which live by agriculture. Most of the Christian population are Chaldeans (i.e. Nestorians who have become Roman Catholics), but there are some Syrian Catholics and a few Jacobites (or old Syrians) and Armenians; and during the war thousands of Nestorians drifted to Mesopotamia as refugees from the country between Lake Van and Lake Urumia, and some of these have settled in villages to the \.E. and E. of Mosul. (5) A considerable Persian population living in the Shiah towns of Najaf (Nejef), Karbala and Kadhimain, and in Bagdad. (6) The Yezidis (the so-called devil-worshippers), who inhabit the Sinjar and also certain villages E. of Mosul. (7) The Sabeans (Mendaites), a curious people, now reduced to a handful, who live in Lower Mesopotamia, mainly at Qal at Salih and Suq ash Shuyukh. They hold John the Baptist in great reverence and there are traces of star-worship in their cult.
The Arabs, who by reason of their numerical predominance give the character to the country, range from the partly Europeanized ' notables " of Bagdad to the almost Bedouin population of desert "ports" such as Zobeir and Kubaisa; from sections of ancient tribes, famous in pre-Mahommedan verse, such as Bani Tamin and Khasraj, to the wild " Marsh Arabs " of Lower Mesopotamia, who are hardly recognized as Arabs by the rest of the population ; from sheep-rearing tribes, nomad or semi-nomad, to men who have culti- vated the same date-gardens for generations and have long lost all their tribal characteristics.
Religion. Except for the insignificant proportion which is com- posed of Jews, Christians, Yezidis and Sabeans, the people of Meso- potamia are all Mahommedans. They are, however, split into Shiahs and Sunnis. South of a line drawn roughly from W. to E. through Bagdad, the population, except for the big towns, is almost exclusively Shiah (Shi'ah) while N. of it few Shiahs are found. All the Turks, and with very few exceptions all the Kurds, are Sunnis.
Language. The Turks of the Erbil-Kirkuk-Mandali line talk a tongue that is akin to Azerbaijani rather than to Ottoman Turkish. The Kurds and the Yezidis talk Kurdish, which is closely allied to Persian and, indeed, is maintained by some to be only a Persian dia- lect. It may be said, however, that south and west of the Turkish towns only Arabic is spoken. There are considerable variations in vocabulary and pronunciation. Everywhere there is found an ad- mixture of Turkish, Persian and in the south English words, but the Arabic of Mesopotamia is generally pure and homogeneous.
Agriculture. The most important occupation is agriculture. The winter crops are wheat and barley, barley predominant in the Bagdad and Basra areas, wheat in the Mosul area. In the north the winter crops are grown on the rain ; but in the south, where the rainfall is less than seven inches, no crops are grown (except, occa- sionally, scanty catch crops) without assistance from irrigation. For summer crops, even in the north, irrigation is required. The chief summer crop is rice, which is grown chiefly in the marsh lands of the middle and lower reaches of the Tigris and the Euphrates. Most of this rice is red rice of common quality. Better kinds, but in very small quantities, are grown in the Kurdish hills. Millet also is grown, and a little maize. In the Kurdish hills large quantities of cigarette tobacco are produced, and the coarse tobacco used for water-pipes (tumbak) is grown on a small scale in the Hilla area. Before the war cotton was grown in very small quantities for local use. The silk industry had been started, but on a small scale.
A very important product is the date. It is grown mainly in the tidal stretches of the Shatt al "Arab. From Fao to Qurna, a dis- tance of about a hundred miles, there is an almost continuous grove
TABLE 1. Population.
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Division
Sunni
Shiah
Jewish
Christian
Other Religions
Total
Bagdad Samarra Diyala Kut . . . . Diwaniya Shamiya Hilla Dulaim
130,000 66,455 . 54.953 8,578
1,000
445 15-983 247,000
54,000
14-215 46,097 98,712 192,300 189,000
155,897 200
50,000 300 1,689 381 6,OOO 530 1,065 2,600
15,000
397 127 5,000
20
27 200
1,000 900
200
5 28
250,000 80,970 104,036 107,798 204,500 190,000 173,000 250,000
Total vilayet of Bagdad
524.414
750,421
62,565
20,771
2,133
1,360,304
Basra 'Amara Muntafiq
24,408 7,000 11,150
130,494 284,700 306,220
6,928 3,000 1 60
2,221 300 30
1,549 5,000 2,440
165,600 300,000 320,000
Total vilayet of Basra .
42,558
721,414
10,088
2,551
8,989
785,600
Mosul Erbil Kirkuk _ Sulaimani
244.713 96,100 85,000 153,900
17,180 5,000
7,635 4,800 1,400 1,000
50,670 4.IOO 6OO IOO
30,180
1,000
350,378 106,000 92,000 155,000
579.713
22,180
14.835
55,470
31,180
703,378
Grand Total
1.146,685
1.494,015
87,488
78.792
42.302
2,849,282
