Road Through Kurdistan: The Narrative of an Engineer in Iraq (1942)

Road Through Kurdistan: The Narrative of an Engineer in Iraq. BY A. M. Hamilton.

Publisher: Faber & Faber, London, 1942, First edition, 3rd impression. SCARCE. Hardback with no jacket. Boards are bumped, faded and mottled at edges, spine is dulled down and foxed with a small tear to cloth at both ends. No inscriptions. Pages are in very good condition. 331 pages with photos and 2 fold out maps in very good condition.

Archibald Milne Hamilton was born in 1898 in New Zealand. In 1928, he traveled to Iraqi Kurdistan, having been commissioned to build a road that would stretch from Northern Iraq, through the mountains and gorges of Kurdistan and on to the Iranian border. Now called the Hamilton Road, this was, even by today's standards, a considerable feat of engineering and remains one of the most strategically important roads in the region. In this colorful and engaging account, Hamilton describes the four years he spent overcoming immense obstacles--disease, ferocious brigands, warring tribes and bureaucratic officials--to carve a path through some of the most beautiful but inhospitable landscape in the world. Road Through Kurdistan is a classic of travel writing and an invaluable portrayal of the Iraqi Kurds themselves, and of the Kurdish regions of Northern Iraq. From the Foreword: "The Hamilton road runs from the Arbela of Alexander past the home of Saladin to the Persian Plateau. A wonderful engineering feat, it traverses on its way the gorges of Rowanduz & Berserini, two stupendous obstacles which might well have scared any adventurer even were he armed with the most modern appliances & supported by an army of trained & expert workmen.