Saif al-Arab
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21 Stunning Vintage Portraits Of A Diverse Iraq
Iraq was once a thriving home for many different communities, including Yezidis, Jews, Chaldeans, Assyrians, and more. These unintentionally artistic portraits were captured by an American anthropologist in 1934, preserving their old-timey hotness for a time when it's sorely needed.
Posted on August 27, 2014, at 10:12 p.m.
noamsienna
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1. A Dulaimi Arab, age 30.
Henry Field travelled to Iraq on a series of expeditions to record physical measurements for the study of racial and ethnic groups in Central Asia. The photographs were taken in 1934 by Field himself as well as by his assistants Richard Martin and Winifred Smeaton.
2. A Kurdish Muslim, age 21
Field's pseudo-racial classification labels this man an example of the "Mongoloid type" based on his facial features. Today most anthropologists reject the desire to create scientific classifications of racial identity, but these mugshots double as wistful portraits of bygone Iraqi society.
3. An Assyrian Christian, age 30
This man is a member of the Iraq Levies, a military force which was established by the British colonial administrators.
4. A Bedouin Man, age 45
Field notes that this man was a member of the Ba'ij tribe and had already been married twice. Obviously.
5. A Kurdish Jew, age 35
Field and his team visited a number of Jewish communities in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq. Because he was an anthropologist in the 1930s, and so a little bit racist, he was particularly interested in recording the physical differences between Jews and non-Jews. Nothing suspicious about that...
6. A Mandaean Elder, age 50
This man is a Subba (Mandaean - a Semitic people), a follower of a small Gnostic religion that today is facing massive challenges from the sectarian violence in Iraq.
7. A Turkmen Villager, age 20
The Turkmen people are spread throughout Central Asia; today they make up 5% of the population of Iraq, the third largest ethnic group in the country. Field writes approvingly that "many Turkomans [sic] could pass for Europeans." Again, nothing suspicious there...
8. A Young Yezidi Man, age 20
The Yezidis are a Kurdish ethno-religious group, whose monotheistic faith shares similarities to Zoroastrianism, Gnosticism, and Sufi Islam, but who are today accused of being "devil worshippers" and heavily targeted by ISIS forces in northern Iraq.
9. An Assyrian Christian, age 45
Although originally comprised of Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, and other ethnic groups, by the end of the 1920s the Iraq Levies had become entirely Assyrian Christians.
10. A Kurdish Jew, age 40
Someone decided to give the photographer a little sass, apparently.
11. A Kurdish Muslim, age 30
Field records that this man had lost his right thumb to a bullet wound... But he's lost none of his charm.
12. An Arab Soldier, age 19
This young man, originally from An-Najaf, was serving in a military camp in Hillah. Field notes that he had a gazelle design tattooed on his inner forearm.
13. A Mandaean Boy, age 16
One of the youngest participants in Field's data collection, this young man's suit and tie suggests that he attends a missionary school.
14. A Turkmen Villager, age 35
Rural Turkmen farmer? Or hipster Calvin Klein model?
15. A Yezidi Elder, age 90
This is actually not the oldest participant in Field's study — he recorded measurements from several men who claimed to be over 100.
16. A Mandaean Child
In Field's report there is a plate of images of Mandaean children but he does not record any information about them, not even their ages.
17. A Yezidi Man, age 40
According to one of Field's informants, this hairstyle (shaved with one forelock in front) was reserved for unmarried men. So this means that he's single, folks...
18. A Kurdish Muslim, age 35
Apparently this man felt it was important to be photographed wearing his ammunition bandolier.
19. A Kurdish Jew, age 24
Kohl was commonly worn by men in Iraq of all religions to protect the eyes from sun and disease and to get that perfect smoky eye look. Field records that one of the Kurdish rabbis kohled his eyes because of "eye strain from reading the sacred books."
20. A Yezidi Man, age 35
This man is from Sinjar, the location where many Yezidis have recently been suffering from sectarian violence — a pain seemingly reflected anachronistically in his portrait.
