عجفت الغور

post-ottoman iraq/egypt irrigation paper proposal

Tags: classes, Post Ottoman Near East

Abstract

The opening of the Aswan Low Dam in 1902, as well as the Aswan High Dam in 1960 in Egypt has drawn significant scholarship in modernization theory and environmental history. Notions of modernity within Egyptian society were debated about within the context of both the Low and High dams. Yet curiously little is written about the dams of Iraq, specifically the Hindiya Barrage, opened in 1913, and the Kut Barrage, opened in 1939. These two Iraqi dams provide unique lenses against the scholarship of the Aswan dams within the notions of modernity and development, as the Low Dam and the Hindiya Barrage were constructed under the Ottoman Empire, while the High Dam and the Kut Barrage were constructed after both nations had technically achieved indpendence from the British state. This article examines the technical background, environmental impact, and the modernization trends that took hold in both Egypt and Iraq during these periods.

Outline

History of the Aswan Low/High Dam, Hindiya/Kut Barrage

Current discussions of modernity and current literature the Low and High Dams

Hindiya barrage

William Willcocks and his relationship to the Hindiya barrage and the Aswan Low Dam

Young Turks and their influence on the Hindiya barrage

Kut Barrage

Construction by Balfour Betty

Purposes of Irrigating the al-Gharraf Region and the Dujayla Projects

Importance of the Kut Barrage for King Ghazi’s last speech and President Barnam Salih’s 2019 visit

Similar pathways of modernity

Miscalculations of Willcocks in the Aswan Low Dam

  • Deprecation of the Hindiya Barrage

Orientialist narratives on actual effects of the Aswan Low Dam

  • The need to raise into the Aswan High Dam
  • Orientialist narratives during the al-Gharraf irrigation

Conclusion

Potential Bibliography

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