A Field Study on Foreign Travelers Writings in the Ottoman Era in Kurdistan Iraq

Abstract

The writings of foreign travelers are important sources for studying the history of Iraq during the Ottoman era and the history of modern Iraq. Our knowledge of these trips is still limited, and although some studies have appeared that relied on them or translated some of them into Arabic, there is no doubt that the goals and objectives of European travelers were diverse and multiple, but they certainly reflect the European interest in Iraq since the beginning of the sixteenth century, as the writings of foreign travelers were a vital and important source for studying the history of modern and contemporary Iraq, especially in the Ottoman era, and the Kurdistan region of Iraq in the Ottoman era based on what was written by most travelers, especially foreigners. The Kurdistan region, which the Ottomans adopted as a military base, formed a major station on the transportation routes for movement in northern Iraq and was distinguished by its castles, especially Erbil, which formed the center of the city (the region) and in which the population settlement settled. Like the rest of the cities of Iraq, the economic and social aspects formed the true image of the region, and what was associated with them of means of transportation that the residents used, which the travelers divided into two sections: means of transportation in the center of the region, including river and land. All of these matters were covered by the study based on what was written by travelers who passed through the city in the center of the region, which is Erbil, and what this city possesses of many economic and commercial privileges, including the writings of foreign travelers, which are important sources for studying the history of Iraq during the requirements of the Ottoman era and what it contains of importance for this study, and that the region and what it has of interest from the Ottomans and what it possesses of commercial economies in modern Iraq. While Longrigg mentioned more than ninety-six voyages, most of which were European (1: 337-347), some Iraqi writers, researchers and historians estimated them at nearly three hundred voyages (2: 217-227). Therefore, there is no doubt that the aims and objectives of most foreign travelers, including Europeans, were diverse and different, and that the expansion in the Arab-Islamic world, which was initiated by the Dutch and Portuguese, and then the English and French as naval powers that were able to reach different regions of the Ottoman Empire, including Mesopotamia, providing - i.e. travelers - detailed, accurate and important information to their governments, contributed to a great extent in directing and shaping the policy of those countries towards the region (3: 156-173). This study is concerned with clarifying the social, economic and military conditions of the region throughout the Ottoman era, which lasted for about four centuries, relying in its scientific material on the information that foreign travelers transmitted about the city to form a historical picture of its general conditions.