Evening Post. SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 1921. HISTORIC EVENT

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 50, 27 August 1921, Page 4

Evening Post. SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 1921. HISTORIC EVENT

The accession of Emir Feisul to the kingship of Irak, which was reported fr,om Bagdad on Thursday, is one of the most picturesque events of history. Since the lamented Sh\ Stanley Maude entered Bagdad in March, "1917, we have had nothing to compare with it except Lord Allenby's entry into Jerusalem in December of the same year. The restoration of Constantinople to Christendom after nearly six centuries of Turkish misrule I would have been a more striking incident still, but Christians do not yet love one another sufficiently to be able even in the hour of victory j to combine for the ejectment of this detestable trespasser from one of the most magnificent of the world's historic and strategic sites. Though the Turk retains Constantinople, he is fortunately not to be restored to Bagdad. Historic justice is being executed there; and executed with a speed and a precision which 'exceed the original designs of the 'conquerors. The capture of Bagdad, which was one of the memorable feats of the Great War, was also distinguished, by the publication of one of its most memorable documents. General Maude's proclamation "To the People of Bagdad Vilayet," of which Sir Mark Sykes is said to be the author, was' admirable in its literary form, its, historical allusions, its genuine sympathy^ with Arab aspirations, and its", promise of freedom. But it may be doubted whether even the King of the Hedjaz, who telegraphed at the time that" it is onlyyneet that this city "should thank God Almighty for its liberation' from the criminal hand of the Turanians," expected to see the fruits of freedom ripen as rapidly under the inspiration of the commanding personality of his son as they have now done.' The pith of General-Maude's'his-torical retrospect and of his promises is contained in the following sentences from his proclamation: ■ Since-4he days of Halaka, your city and -your lands have been subjected to the tyranny of strangers; your palaces have fallen into ruins; your gardens sunk into desolation; and your forefathers and yourselves have groaned in bondage. Your sons have been carried off to wars not of your seeking; your <\vealth has been stripped from youl by unjust men and squandered in distant places. Since the days of Midhat the Turks have talked of reforms, yet do not the ruins and wastes of to-day testify the vanity of these promises? It is the wish not only of my King and his peoples, but it is also the wish of the great nations with whom he is'in alliance, that you should prosper, even as in the past, when your lands were fertile, when, your ancestors gave to the world literature, science, and art, and since when" Bagdad City was one of, the wonders of the world. . . , It is the^hope of the British Government that the of your philosophers and writers shall be realised, and that once again the people of Bagdad shall flourish, enjoying their wealth and substance under institutions which are in consonance with their sacred laws and their racial ideals. It is the reputation won by the Emir Feisul as the leader of his father's armies that has made,his new enterprise possible, and he enters upon a supremely difficult task under the brightest possible auspices. The result of the referendum is that he becomes King of Irak by a unanimous vote. The occasion was to be " celebrated in' Bagdad on the 21st on a scale of magnificence recalling the stories of the Arabian Nights." Three hundred thousand people had arrived to^take part in the celebrations, and hostile tribes were testifying their submission and loyalty. B,y instinct, by environment, by tradition, and by habit, the genius of the Arab for disobedience has been developed to such' a pitch that this wholesale submission is a marvel of very happy omen, and a great pageant would help to confirm the effect of power upon an impressionable race. But it is to be hoped that a country which is not overflowing with wealth has-not really been attempting to emulate the scale of its great days. What that scale was may be niore safely illustrated from the pages of a French historian than from thei fables of the Arabian Nights. Writ-! ing of the Abbasid Dynasty, which ruled in Bagdad from its foundation in 762 till it was sacked by the Mongols almost exactly five centuries later, M. Sedillot says:— Sole depositaries of the natural wealth of many^md vast provinces, and without ft permanent airmy to support, they disposed freely of enormous revenues, which were oxpended in a truly fabulous manner. Gold and precious stones ware fairly strewn through palaces, mosques, and gardens, and the gifts lavished on friends and . favourites reached a stupendous amount. It is said that Al-Mahdi expended six millions of dinars during a fiingle pilgrimage to Mecca, and that Zobaida, the wife-of Hawin, made use of no utensils save gold ones set with gems, and wore no stuffs save those woven with silver threads. In Al-Ma-inun's .palace were sixty thousand rugs •and pieces of tapestry, many of which w.ere. embroidered ia gold; and on ihs.

occasion of the receptkm of a Greek ambassador, lie caused to be erected a tree •of solid gold, bearing pearls to represent, iruit. Mulasim's stables in Samara were said to contain accommodation for a hundred thousand horees, and when he. founded that city he had the entire site artificially constructed, without regard to tho cost' of so gigantic an undertaking, „

Those were great days.'in Bagdad, when its only rival was Cordova, the Arab capital in the West; when the Arabs led the world not merely in wealth and luxury,vbut in letters and philosophy, in astronomy and chemistry, in agriculture and industry ; when, as Gibbons records, " a private doctor refused the invitation of the Sultan of /Bochara,! because the carriage of his books would have required four hundred camels " ; and when the passion for learning is said to have exceeded that, of Europe during the Renaissance. But with their learning and their luxury, the caliphs and their subjects forgot the art of war, and the State degenerated much, as the Eastern Roman Empire did about the same time. It was extinguished by a Mongol invasion in the middle of the thirteenth century, and about a century later Timour celebrated his victory over the Mongols by piling up a pyramid of 90,000 skulls on the ruins of Bagdad. Some four centuries of Turkish rule have since been a more terrible blight to both Bagdad and Mesbpo-^ tamia. Nearly seven hundred years after the extinction of the Abbasid Dynasty, the people are now given another chance under a ruler of their own blood and their own j choice. ..■'.,