This volume is
A Handbook of Mesopotamia, Volume I, General(Admiralty War Staff Intelligence Division: August 1916). It is an introductory volume containing matter of a general nature giving an account of conditions in Mesopotamia. The volume includes a note on official use, title page and ''Note''. There is a page of ''Contents'' and includes the following chapters and sections:Chapter 1: Boundaries and Physical Features;Chapter 2: Climate;Chapter 3: Minerals;Chapter 4: Fauna and Flora;Chapter 5: Hygiene;Chapter 6: History;Chapter 7: Inhabitants;Chapter 8: Religions;Chapter 9: Administration;Chapter 10: Irrigation of Irak Iraq;Chapter 11: Agriculture;Chapter 12: Commerce and Industry;Chapter 13: Currency, Weights and Measures;Chapter 14: Communication and Transport;Transliteration of Arabic, Persian and Turkish Names;Vocabularies;Index.There is a List of Maps which includes:Map 1: Administrative Divisions and Chief Towns;Map 2: Racial Divisions;Map 3: Area Available for Irrigation.1 volume (186 folios)The volume is arranged according to numbered chapters. There is a page of contents and an alphabetically arranged index at the end of the volume. A list of maps appears following the table of contents.Foliation: The foliation sequence commences at the first folio and terminates at the last folio; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.Pagination: The volume also contains an original printed pagination sequence.
The second of two oblong duodecimo volumes containing abbreviated notes recorded by Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, during the course of a journey through Syria, Turkey and Iraq, from Damascus to Aleppo via Baghdad. The volume covers the period 19 April to 23 May 1911, covering the journey from the vicinity of Dara, in Turkey, to Bell’s arrival in Aleppo. The notes record: places passed or visited; times of arrival and departure; temperature and atmospheric pressure readings; some description of the topographic character of the places passed through; and copies of Greek, Syriac, and Nabatean tomb inscriptions.The volume also includes:drawings depicting two anthropomorphic figures, possibly of stone carvings from a tomb at Kermati [Kayabali], above a drawing of three arches. All three drawings have dimensions indicated (ff 3v-4)Folios 25-37 are blank.1 volume (37 folios)Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with i, and terminates at the inside back cover with 38; these numbers are written in pencil, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.
The fragment is cut from a larger piece of paper. Recto: liturgical excerpt of Psalm 1:1-2 from the Syriac Peshitta, though the beginning of each line is cut off. Verso: there is no text but a horizontal and a vertical line are drawn. Ca. 16th-17th century.Condition: CutLayout: 5 lines (recto); intersecting lines (verso)
Syriac homily on Palm Sunday, covering the restoration of sight to the blind, the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and the cleansing of the temple. Heading in Garshuni. Ca. 16th-17th century.Condition: Torn, stainedLayout: 17 lines (recto; verso is blank)
Incomplete and lacunose copy of a West Syrian theological treatise in 10 books, from creation to Paradise; missing beginning and end with some pages out of order. This copy includes headings for books 8, 7, 6, 9, and 10, in that order.
Compilation of liturgical hymns, most attributed to Khāmīs bar Qardāḥe; some attributed to Gīwargīs Wardā; missing beginning and end. Leaves are damaged and fragile; extensively repaired. Original leaves are a soft, unburnished paper with barely visible laid lines; replacement pages are machine made paper.
Recto: opening of a petition with a blessing on al-Hāfiẓ. Verso: unidentified Arabic.Condition: torn, holes, stainedLayout: 5 lines (recto); 3 lines (verso)
Book of Anaphora, pre-Anaphora preparatory rite and Liturgy of the Word (with a Gospel reading from Mt, Ch. 1). Ca. 16th-17th century.Condition: Torn, stainedLayout: 8-11 lines
F. 1r: writing exercise consisting of a Syriac hymn ‘The pure and exalted one’. The hymn can be found in the Book of Beth Gazo under the genre ‘Supplications of Rabula’, melody no. 2. The melody of this hymn is now presumed to be lost. F. 1v: writing exercise of a Syriac hymn ‘The Virgin gave birth to a wonder’. The hymn is copied on f. 1v, and again on f. 2r. This hymn is found in the Book of Beth Gazo and falls under the Qolo ‘I have examined everything,’ melody no. 1. The hymn occurs during the Nativity liturgy and is particularly practised at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem during Christmas celebrations. Ca. 16th-17th century.Condition: Torn, holes, rubbedLayout: 11 lines (f. 2v is blank)
Two works on grammar copied together in the same hand. The first is a metrical grammar and the second a grammatical homily in four chapters: 1. Nouns, 2. Verbs, 3. Particles, 4. Syntax.