The image from the outside: European travellers and Kurdistan before the great war

This article examines the origins of some of the sources of information upon which the Great Powers relied when determining their policies regarding Kurdistan. The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were an unparalleled period in the European exploration and study of Kurdistan, and the volume of work was to inform European agents both during, and perhaps more crucially, after the First World War. The article examines some of the reasons for European interest in Kurdistan, the nature of research and intelligence gathering in the region, and the significance of the personalities involved. The personalities of writers, as well as their purposes, affected both their own views and also the ways in which those views influenced external policies towards the Kurds. The difficulties inherent in examining ‘British’ policy in the region are also explored, given that British policy was both fluid and multi‐faceted.