Great Britain. Army. Royal Engineers. Field Survey Company

1918

Damascus. Scale 1 : 10,000

printed by the field survey coy RE E.E.F

Separate Map

71

47

10,000

Syria

Damascus )Syria)

Damascus. Scale 1 : 10,000. From a captured enemy map (dated June 1918) ... Printed by the Field Survey Coy RE E.E.F 7-10-18.

13589.000

Great Britain. Army. Royal Engineers. Field Survey Company

1918

Damascus. Scale 1 : 10,000. From a captured enemy map (dated June 1918) ... Printed by the Field Survey Coy RE E.E.F 7-10-18.

British Library: Cartographic Items Maps 48855.(11.) / OCLC: 557017180.

Survey map of Damascus, Syria. "From a captured map (dated June 1918) with additional detail of Kadem Station from aeroplane photographs taken by R.A.F., and some additional names from the "Handbook on Northern Palestine and Southern Syria" ist. ed. Includes "Note: The inset in the top let hand corner shows a continuation of the railway south of this sheet edge". Map shows settlements, landmarks, rivers, roads and railways. "Exceedingly rare and highly important – the first issue of the first map of Damascus published by the British Forces in the immediate wake of the Fall of Damascus, drafted by the Royal Engineers’ Field Survey Coy unit from a “captured enemy map”, printed in the field, probably in Damascus – the present example featuring intriguing contemporary manuscript additions of the names of local people, perhaps being British intelligence assets. Damascus was one of the greatest and final prizes taken by the Entente Powers in World War I. The venerable ancient city was long a great cultural centre; the head of the Syrian Hajj Road, one of the World’s greatest pilgrimage routes; and more recently the northern terminus of the Hejaz Railway and the headquarters of the Ottoman-German forces in the Middle East during World War I. In the latter period of the war, British Imperial forces met stiff resistance in Palestine, and it was only near the end of the conflict that they managed to break into Syria. British forces and their allies, the army of Emir Faisal of Hejaz, captured the Damascus on October 1, 1918, just after Ottoman German forces beat a hasty retreat northwards. Lawrence of Arabia, who was part of the conquering force, was disappointed not to have been amongst the first Allied troops to enter the city, especially as he envisaged Damascus as the future capital of an independent and unified Arab state. The British Imperial occupying force, commanded by General Edmund Allenby, was suddenly in control of city of which they only possessed dated information. To ensure public order in a place with a famously restless population, to allocate military resources and to deliver vital public sieves to civilians, the British command was in urgent need of an accurate, up-to-date map of Damascus. Fortunately, the British Army in the Middle East, the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF), well prepared to ameliorate the situation. Throughout the war the EEF deployed highly trained field teams of Royal Engineers to conduct reconnaissance of battle theatres and to survey newly captured territories. The engineers, many of whom had pre-war training in places such as India, were by 1918 well versed on the unique surveying environment of the Middle East, and were able to rapidly draft excellent maps in the field under very difficult conditions. In the case of Damascus, a unit of the Royal Engineers’ Field Survey Coy unit was part of the EEF force that took the city and was able to quickly draft the present excellent map; the note below the title reveals their sources, as the map was derived “From a captured enemy map (dated June 1918) with additional detail of Kadem Station form aeroplane photographs taken by R.A.F., and some additional names from the “Handbook of Northern Palestine and Southern Syria” (1st. ed.)”. The map features the imprint “Printed by the Field Survey Coy R.E. E.E.F. 7.10.18”, meaning that it was published under the surveyors’ supervision in the field on October 7, 1918, only a week after the Capture of Damascus, which importantly makes it first map of the city printed by Entente forces after it fell into their possession. The present example is of the first printing of the map, and was likely issued in Damascus by a portable press carried by the Field Survey Coy unit. That being said, map printing by the Entente forces in the field in the Middle East during World War I is not a well-researched subject, and it is possible that the maps could have instead been printed in Palestine, where the engineers were known to have published other maps of the Levant during this period. Either way, the present map was almost certainly issued in the field, as while competently printed, is cruder in style and printing quality to maps published by the Survey of Egypt at their press in Giza, where the EEF engineers sent their maps to printed if they when not under tight time constraints. The present map would have been rushed out, and so there would not have been time to have it printed in Egypt. Notably, the second edition of the present map of Damascus was printed in 1919 by the Survey of Egypt (an example is held by the British Library). The present map of Damascus is similar in the circumstances of its production to the Field Survey Coy’s first editions of their maps of Beirut; Aleppo; and the Ludd Depot (Palestine), all done to the scale of 1:10,000, and published in the field in 1918 (with examples of each held by the British Library). Turning to the present map itself, it reveals all of Damascus and its immediate environs in large scale and impressive detail, and is amongst the best historical records of the city from a critical juncture. The Old City of Damascus appears in the right-centre, with its ovoid shape contained within its ancient walls, while the newer neighbourhoods occupy the plain to the west. The Old City the bisected by ‘Strait Street’, while the Jewish Quarter occupies the southeast section and the Christian Quarter takes up the northeast quadrant; the western half is the government and commercial centre. In the northwest, is the Citadel containing the ‘German Bank’, which until recently was a prime source of financing for the Ottoman-German war effort in the Middle East. Further to the east is the great ‘Mosque of Omaiyade’ (Umayyad Mosque), and marked all across the Old City are named souks, churches, mosques and schools. In the new city, to the west, northwest and southwest of the Old City, is ‘Hedjaz Station’, the northern terminus of the famous Hejaz Railway, which was completed as far as Medina in 1908 to transport Hajj pilgrims towards Mecca and the solidify the Ottoman Sultan’s claim to being the Caliph of Islam; another rail line branches west towards Beirut. Also notable is the ‘Town Hall’ and hotels, such as the ‘Victoria Hotel ‘ and the ‘Hotel d’Orient’. Further out is the ‘Hamidiye Barracks’, former epicentre of the Central Powers’ war effort in the Levant. Beyond that, the countryside features orchards, small named villages, historical ruins and the cemeteries of various denominations. To the far northwest is the ‘Es Salahiya’ (Al-Salihiyah) neighbourhood, at the base of the ‘Jebel Kasiun’ (Mount Qasioun). The large inset in the upper-left corner details Kadem Station, along the Hejaz Railway, and is described: “Note – This inset in the top left hand corner shows a continuation of the railway south of this sheet edge”. Interestingly, the present example of the map shows signs of contemporary field use by British officers. Beyond the light wear and tack marks to the corners (indicating that it was perhaps pinned to the wall at military headquarters), in the left margin it features a list of Arabic names of people. This may very well refer to British contacts or intelligence assets in Damascus. Further research may uncover something of the backstory. Additionally, a few details have been added to the map in and near the Old City, plus a part of the course of the Barada River has been contemporarily coloured in blue crayon. All maps printed by Entente forces in the field in the Middle East during World War I are extreme rarities. The present map would have been issued in a only very small print run for the use of senior British Imperial officers, and printed on fragile paper in a large format, its survival rate would have been very low. We have handled another example of the present first issue of the map originating from the same collection; beyond that we can trace only a single other example, held by the British Library. The second issue, printed by the Survey of Egypt in 1919, is also extremely rare." (Alexander Johnson and Dasa Pahor, 2021)

13589.000

Separate Map

71

47

13589000.jp2

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Great Britain. Army. Royal Engineers. Field Survey Company