Road through Kurdistan: The Narrative of an Engineer in Iraq [Paperback]

Archibald Milne Hamilton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 13, 2005

In 1928, Archibald Hamilton 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Independent on Sunday (4 stars out of 5): "It's full of derring-do, dynamite and splendid fellows smoking pipes."; Global Magazine: "a classic piece of travel writing by a man who is immersed in his surroundings...also serves as a poignant hstorical note about the Kurdish people and their region within northern Iraq"

About the Author

Archibald Milne Hamilton was an engineer, born in New Zealand, who worked for many years in the Middle East.

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Tauris Parke Paperbacks (January 13, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1850436371
• ISBN-13: 978-1850436379
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,295,954 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A FascinatingTrip Back in Time, October 17, 2005

By 

Gregory Farrand - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Road through Kurdistan: The Narrative of an Engineer in Iraq (Paperback)

The book "Road Through Kurdistan" is a fascinating first hand account of A.M. Hamilton, a civil engineer from New Zealand, who built roads in the mountainous Kurdish area of Iraq along the border with Iran. He provides a detailed description of the Iraqi and Kurdish peoples who he worked with in building the roads through incredibly steep and treacherous terrain. It was a formidable effort. I read a first edition (1928) of "Road Through Kurdistan" belonging to a Swedish geotechnical engineer who designed and built two dams in the 1950's for the Iraqi government in essentially the same region. One dam was located at Bekhme on the Greater Zab River north of Arbil and west of Rowanduz, very close to Mr. Hamilton's road. The other dam was at Derbendikhan on a tributary of the Tigris River, northeast of Baghdad. To pass his spare time in Iraq, my Swedish friend, Svante Hjertberg, read A.M. Hamilton's book with delight. Now I had the same joy reading the book and sharing Svante's experiences in Iraq. The fact is, Svante could have written the book himself because he had so many similar experiences, working and traveling in Kurdistan, as Mr. Hamilton. When Saddam Hussein came to power and began killing his enemies, the U.S. engineering companies working for the government of Iraq were forced to pull out. The book contains unique photographs and maps and is a great read for anyone wishing to learn about the terrain and peoples of Kurdistan and the issues of constructing public works facilities in remote, inhospitable countries using indigenous people.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Keeping a stiff upper lip in the mountains of Kurdistan, February 24, 2011

By 

Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Road through Kurdistan: The Narrative of an Engineer in Iraq (Paperback)

"Those rocks had stood there since before the birth of the first Kurdishman, would they not stay yet another thousand years? 'The ... engineer is just a little mad,' they said, 'but otherwise harmless; let him alone and see what happens.'" - the opinion of the local tribesmen on Hamilton's labors to build his road

"I looked and was satisfied that all was as it should be, and signaled to the men that it was done. And up from the depths of the canyon there arose the exultant roar of men's voices that reached almost to the mountain-tops." - Hamilton's recollection of the moment when the Rowanduz River Gorge was successfully bridged

After the First World War, the League of Nations assigned the subject territories and overseas colonies of the vanquished nations to the governmental administration of the victors. Such lands were known as "mandates." Mesopotamia (Iraq), formerly a province of the Ottoman Empire, was given to the United Kingdom as a Class A Mandate, and the U.K. administered the area from 1920 to 1932, when Iraq itself became a member of the League.

In 1927, New Zealand-born and trained civil engineer, Archibald Milne Hamilton, was sent to Mesopotamia as part of the Public Works Department. Soon after his arrival, he was given sole responsibility for completion of the Arbil-Rowanduz road through the mountains of Kurdistan, an area heretofore inaccessible by motor transport and barely so by animal caravan. The most daunting obstacle to the road's completion was the dramatically rugged Rowanduz River Gorge, through which the paved highway needed to be constructed. It took Hamilton four years to do it, but it was ultimately a miracle of contemporary engineering.

ROAD THROUGH KURDISTAN is Hamilton's personal account of the project's undertaking and achievement.

Written in the matter-of-fact, detailed, markedly lucid (and always engaging) style that one might expect from a trained engineer, Hamilton's narrative is of a job well-done with a multinational workforce drawn from historically antagonistic factions and amidst terribly difficult terrain and always-dodgy tribal support. Occasionally - and all too infrequently by my mind - the author displays a dry wit, as when he describes the process of calculating his workmen's pay:

"I sat in my little tent, and computed the amounts due to each man according to his attendance and his rate of pay, while scorpions and large brown beetles clinging to the sides of the tent took stock of my columns of figures."

Though arguments can and will rage over the benefits, or lack thereof, of imperialism in general to the lands and societies of the ruled, there can be little argument, I think, that Hamilton and his road represents British imperialism at its finest. The King could never have stood prouder than after the service of this fair-minded, generous, and extremely capable servant of the Empire. Honor is due.

ROAD THROUGH KURDISTAN contains thirty-three photographs and two maps.

And, for those so interested, the author's observations about the Kurdish people will perhaps serve as the beginning of an appreciation for the nature, strength, and resilience of their independent spirit which has proved so problematic for their neighbors - the Iraqis, Iranians and Turks - who even today would wish to bring them to heel, but can't.

4.0 out of 5 stars Inside view of Iraqi Kurds, October 18, 2009

By 

Morven C. Barwick (Granby, CT. USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Road through Kurdistan: The Narrative of an Engineer in Iraq (Paperback)

This is one of those rare books that one finds by someone "on the ground" who writes accurately as well as entertainingly. A story of road building through one of the most interesting "remote areas " of the region, building on both history as well as the culture, but especially the incredible feat of putting in a vital road, still in use today and using only local labor. For those of us (Westerners) who have lived there, it is difficult to find writers who resurrect our emotions so vividly of the people and cultural interrelationships as this Scottish road builder. It is a gem.