To Mesopotamia and Kurdistan in disguise

A traveler's journal recounts a journey from Constantinople across Mesopotamia and southern Kurdistan to Baghdad, blending itinerary and historical sketch. Traveling under a Persian guise to gain local access, the writer describes cities and ruins along the Euphrates and Tigris—Edessa, Amid, Mosul, Arbela, Kirkuk—and records encounters with Kurdish tribes, Jaf chiefs, Yazidis, and Chaldean communities. Chapters combine on-the-ground ethnographic observation, daily life and encampment scenes, maps and illustrations, and collected oral histories and correspondence that illuminate tribal organization and regional past. An appendix lists Kurdish tribes and a bibliography documents sources.