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A Dweller in Mesopotamia — Donald Maxwell | English Illustrated EPUB
A Dweller in Mesopotamia — Donald Maxwell | English Illustrated EPUB
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تعذر تحميل معلومات توفر الاستلام
Read the opening
There is an unenviable competition between places situated in the region of Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf as to which can be the hottest. Abadan, the ever-growing oil port, which is in Persia and on the starboard hand as you go up the Shatt-el-Arab, if not actually the winner according to statistics, comes out top in popular estimation. Its proximity to the scorching desert, its choking dustiness and its depressing isolation, are characteristics which it shares with countless other places among these mud plains. But it can outdo them all with its bleached and slime-stained ground in which nothing can grow, its roaring furnaces and its all-pervading smell of hot oil.
Across the broad waters of the Shatt-el-Arab there stretches a lonely strip of country bounded by a wall of palm-tops. Like all the land here it is cultivated as long as it borders the river and thickly planted with date groves. Then lies a nondescript belt that just divides the desert from the sown, and then, a mile or so inland, scorched and unprofitable wilderness.
Four original illustrations from inside the book
Journey through Mesopotamia with Donald Maxwell, a British official artist whose 1921 account follows the rivers, ports, palm groves and old streets of Iraq and the Persian Gulf. From Abadan and Basra to Babylon, Baghdad and the upper Tigris, his observations combine travel narrative, sketches, humour and reflections on the ancient past.
- Complete English text: preface, all ten chapters, original captions, footnotes and publisher advertisements.
- All original illustrations retained: 28 listed plates (16 colour and 12 monochrome) and 34 listed line sketches. One compound plate uses two images; with 15 additional drawings and ornaments, the edition contains 78 original image assets.
- Reflowable EPUB with linked contents and illustration lists, plus a new cover using Maxwell’s original frontispiece.
- English-language edition; the Arabic translation is available separately.
Historical context: this early twentieth-century account contains colonial assumptions, stereotypes and dated interpretations. The original viewpoint is preserved as historical evidence and does not represent the publisher’s views.
Digital EPUB download only; no printed book or audiobook. Original book images have modest historical resolution and are not modern high-resolution restorations.
The edition uses the original 1921 text and book illustrations, with a documented US/UK public-domain basis. No worldwide rights certification or museum endorsement is claimed.
