A Photographic Tour of Iraq in 1906 By a Britisher

‘Mosque and minaret of colored tiles at Basra’.

In November 1906, Willfred Malleson  a British military intelligence officer, departed from Simla in British India on an intelligence-gathering tour of the Persian Gulf and what British officials then termed ‘Turkish Arabia’ (the south of modern Iraq, then part of the Ottoman Empire). Britain was already the dominant imperial power in the Gulf and was keen to ascertain the situation in those territories to its north that remained under the sway of the Ottomans. Malleson’s report of the Journey – that included stops in Muscat, Kuwait, Basra, Baghdad and Mohammerah – provides a fascinating snapshot of the region at this time.

A Street in Bagdad’

Cafe and mosque near the North Gate, Bagdad’.

House of the dragoman [translator] of British Consulate Basra’, 1906

Our conveyance across the desert to Babylon

The arch of Ctesiphon’.

The only arch so far discovered in Babylon’

View in Baghdad

‘Bahreini pilgrims on board the Khalifa’.

 

‘Near the big mosque, Bagdad’ Medieval Baghdad,

‘The British Consulate and Messrs Lynch’s offices Basra; Showing 4,000 tons of merchandise awaiting shipment to Bagdad’