Review The Ins & Outs Of Mesopotamia

Lyell, Thomas, The Ins & Outs Of Mesopotamia, Washington DC: Westphalia Press, 2016

 

Thomas Lyell was a magistrate during the British Mandate in Iraq. The Ins & Outs Of Mesopotamia gives his views on Shiite Islam and why he believed that England should maintain its occupation of Iraq after World War I. On the one hand he was impressed by the devotion shown by Iraqi Shiites and dismissed Western criticisms of Muslims. On the other hand he was full of negative stereotypes about Muslims and argued that they were incapable of self-rule which was why the Mandate should continue.

 

The first half of Lyell’s book is about his thoughts on Shiite Muslims and his reading of the Quran. On the positive side he was impressed by the devotion he saw during Muharram which celebrates the death of Hussein Ali the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed and while people fasted for Ramadan. He derided Westerners who dismissed these acts and said that Muslims were far more religious than many Christians were.

 

His overall view however was negative. First he thought Islam was incompatible with self-rule. That was because he felt the religion was impervious to change due to the fact that it believed the Quran was the written word of God. Second he disliked the power the leading clerics had over the community. Lyell saw them as hypocrites. While they lived a life of poverty they actually collected a huge amount of money through donations and their religious charities. While the author was in Iraq one cleric died and it was revealed he bought a large tract of land, founded a bizarre there and put his relatives in charge. Shiism also had temporary marriages so men could sleep with a woman and then divorce. He didn’t think any of that was moral or religious. He was also just talking about Shiites but seemed to believe their sect represented all Muslims overall even though they were a minority.

 

This was matched by his general bad view of Arabs. He thought they were untrustworthy, lazy and selfish. He wrote that they only cared about making money by any means necessary. In court he heard so many stories it made him believe that Arabs rarely told the truth. This was a common colonial outlook of British officials throughout the world. They believed they were meant to rule the world because so much of it was inhabited by people that could not rule themselves.

 

That leads to the book’s last main point that England needed to run Iraq. He argued that if the British withdrew there would be chaos. He warned of a Wahabi invasion from Arabia, Kurdish unrest in the north and Bolshevik intervention. He therefore rejected calls for Iraqi independence and was greatly angered by an Anglo-French declaration saying former Ottoman subjects would be able to determine their own future. The only future he saw was one where Iraq would be under British control. He truly believed in the civilizing mission of London and only under its mentorship would Iraqis eventually learn how to run their own country.

 

The Ins & Outs Of Mesopotamia is important to understand how Iraq was administered under the British Mandate. All the English officials were from India and wanted to run Iraq like that colony. The people of both countries were seen as inferior and having various fatal flaws that would preclude any thought that they should be independent. What’s ironic is that while Lyell was writing his book the 1920 Revolt happened which led London to set Iraq towards the path of independence because it was decided a long occupation would be too costly. 

 

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