The Gate of Asia —— A Journey From the Persian, Gulf to the Black Sea

-----

ISBN: 9781330568569 出版年：2016 页码：485 William Warfield Forgotten Books

This book gives an account of a journey through Mesopotamia and Kurdistan made by two Americans in 1913. The travellers covered more or less well-known ground. From the Persian Gulf they went up to Baghdad by river, paid a flying visit to the German excavations at Babylon, and then took the road to Mosul that leads along the edge of the hill country by Kirkuk and Erbil. From Mosul they went by Zakho to Jeziret-ibn-Omar, and thence up the Tigris and Bohtan valleys to Sairt and Bitlis. From Bitlis they turned eastwards, and after'a stay in Van rode by Khoshab and Bashkala over the Persian frontier to Dilman, Urmia, and Tabriz. The last chapter brings them from Tabriz to Batum by way of Tiflis. The author tells us that the object of the expedition was "to pursue certain scientific studies " (especially, it seems, to investigate the geology of Kurdistan), but this book has been put together for the benefit of the general reader only. It is, first of all, a record of what the author saw by looking about him as he travelled rapidly through the country. Secondly, it is sprinkled with anecdotes about the inhabitants and the authorities?stories collected for the most part from European or American residents, consuls, archaeologists, and missionaries. Thirdly, there are many scraps of general information, differing very much in value, about the history of the country, its politics as they were in 1913 and the preceding years, its religions, and races, and so forth. The description of the sights that were seen on the way has been carefully done. At Erbil the author takes the opportunity to preach with some fervour the disputed doctrine of climatic changes, using as his text the Persian army that fought at the Battle of Arbela; and the climatic interpretation of history crops up elsewhere (p. 23, pp. 361-363) in a rather entertaining way. There are forty-eight illustrations. The book has no map and no index. C. G. S.