Iraq

The Kingdom of Iraq issued a booklet of 32 pages in French and Arabic side by side, the Arabic first on the right, in the name of His Majesty the King of Iraq. It is offered from the King's accession on 23 August 1921.

A leaf faces page 1 with the King's name, "à tous ceux qui ces présentes verront : salut !", the request to the Royal Government's officials and to foreign authorities, the day written out in words in both languages, and the signature of the Chief of the Passport Bureau. Page 1 carries the royal arms, the number, the bearer, the wife, the number of children and the nationality.

Read on the booklet issued at Baghdad on 28 June 1934, used up to 1939 for Europe and Palestine. The pages after the first have not been found: Bearer prints them in the League's French with Arabic labels, and says so on the paper.

Bearer makes an investigator's papers for Call of Cthulhu and any 1920s or 1930s tabletop campaign: the passport a consul would have filled in, with the visas and frontier stamps a campaign leaves in it, and the permits, certificates and tickets of the period, to print or to share.

An example

Open this example in the office

The passport

The description of the bearer

• Profession
• Lieu et date de naissance
• Domicile
• Visage
• Couleur des yeux
• Couleur des cheveux
• Signes particuliers
• Nom du porteur, en arabe
• Délivré à, en arabe

The same paper elsewhere

• Passports by country

Still to be confirmed

• the booklet read was issued in 1934; the type is offered from the proclamation of the Kingdom on 23 August 1921, its earlier forms not found. What would settle it: Iraqi passports of the twenties.
• the booklet opens from the right, as an Arabic book does; Bearer lays it out left to right, the King's leaf inside the cover and the particulars on page 1. What would settle it: a whole Iraqi booklet, to confirm which leaf is page 1.
• the Arabic months are the Iraqi names (حزيران on the booklet read, as on the permit to excavate). What would settle it: Iraqi passports issued in other months.
• pages 2 to 4 (the description, the photographs, the validity) have not been found; they are printed in the League's French, which page 1 follows line for line. What would settle it: pages 2 to 4 of an Iraqi passport.
• the term of validity and the number of renewals are the League's. What would settle it: page 4 of an Iraqi passport.

Sources

• Gertrude Bell, Honorary Director of Antiquities, for the Minister of Communications and Works; accepted by C. Leonard Woolley. Original in the British Museum; photograph published by the Penn Museum, Expedition magazine, 'Archaeology in the Digital Age', Antiquities Department of the Government of 'Iraq, Permit to Excavate No. 1: the joint Expedition of the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania at Tall al Muqaiyir (Ur) and Tall al 'Ubaid, valid until 31 March 1928, typed in English on the left and in Arabic on the right, line for line: the department and the permit's number; clause 1, the expedition permitted to excavate for antiquities at (a) and (b), two mounds, and (c) the area round them defined on a map attached; clause 2, valid until a date and subject to the Antiquities Law, 1924 and to any law or regulations the 'Iraq Government issues meanwhile; the Minister of Communications and Works (a revenue stamp over his line); the Honorary Director of Antiquities, signed in English and in Arabic; accepted on behalf of the two institutions in accordance with article 9 of the Antiquities Law, 1924. The Arabic writes its figures in Arabic-Indic digits and the month as اذار. (read directly)
• Royaume d'Irak; photograph on Wikimedia Commons ('1934 Iraqi passport used up to 1939 for Europe and British Palestine', CC BY-SA 4.0), Passport of the Kingdom of Iraq no. 1220, issued at Baghdad on 28 June 1934 to Rosa Abraham Haim, widow of David Murad, the leaf with the King's name: Royaume d'Irak, PASSEPORT, au nom de Sa Majesté le Roi d'Irak, à tous ceux qui ces présentes verront: salut !, the request to the Royal Iraqi Government's officials and representatives and to foreign authorities, in French and Arabic side by side, délivré à … le … (the day in words) … 19.., the Chief of the Passport Bureau; the facing page: the royal arms, the count of 32 pages in Arabic, PASSEPORT, Royaume d'Irak, the number, the bearer's name, his wife's name, the number of children, nationality, the labels in Arabic above French at the right, the values written on the lines in both scripts. (read directly)
• League of Nations, Advisory and Technical Committee for Communications and Transit, Resolution adopted by the Conference on Passports, Customs Formalities and Through Tickets in Paris on October 21st, 1920 (Passport Conference, Preparatory Documents II), C.641.M.230.1925.VIII (read directly)

Open the passport office · MGS Toolbox