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Punks in Peoria
MUSIC IN AMERICAN LIFE

A list of books in the series appears at the end of this book.

 Punks in Peoria
Making a Scene in the American
Heartland

JONATHAN WRIGHT
AND
DAWSON BARRETT
© 2021 by the Board of Trustees
of the University of Illinois
All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Wright, Jon (Jonathan David) author. | Barrett, Dawson,
author.
Title: Punks in Peoria: making a scene in the American heartland /
Jonathan Wright and Dawson Barrett.
Description: Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2021. | Series:
Music in American life | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020053056 (print) | LCCN 2020053057 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780252043802 (cloth) | ISBN 9780252085796
(paperback) | ISBN 9780252052705 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Punk rock music—Illinois—Peoria—History and
criticism.
Classification: LCC ML3534.3 .w75 2021 (print) | LCC ML3534.3
(ebook) | DDC 781.6609773/52—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020053056
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020053057
It was about dreams of flying to spite a falling sky…
 Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

PART I. THE RISE OF PEORIA PUNK ROCK: 1956–1986

1 Heebie Mesolithic Eon Drizzle
2 Creating the Peoria Scene
3 Punks Live on Straight Edge
4 The Underground Goes Aboveground
5 I Was a Mutant Cornchip

PART II. BUILDING THE SCENE: 1986–1992

6 Great Loser Bands and Loosey-Goosey Backwash Gigs
7 What Played (and Didn’t Play) in Peoria
8 Public Enemy Number One
9 Montage of Madness
10 Nazi Punks Fuck Off

PART III. THE NEXT NIRVANA: 1992–1997

11 Teenage Airwaves
12 For God and Country
13 This Is Not a Fugazi Chapter
14 Rock Over London, Rock On Peoria

PART IV. TOLLING OF THE DIGITAL BELL: 1997–2007

15 Hidden by Cornfields
16 Our CBGB
17 Peoria Heights … and Lows
18 For God and Country (Alternate Take)

Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
 Acknowledgments

DIY punk is a subject near and dear to our hearts. As young people,
our involvement in the Peoria scene pushed us to be just a little
more daring than we might have been otherwise. Both of us have
played in bands, released our own records, and booked and
promoted shows. Each of us also left central Illinois as young adults
—Jon for Denver, Dawson for Portland—seeking to blaze our own
trails, right alongside our Peoria friends.
While this book engages a history far beyond our own
experiences, our proximity to it was an invaluable advantage—but a
hazard, as well. Much like the story it tells, this project has been
both heartwarming and heartbreaking. At times, it offered us the joy
of learning new things about our hometown, revisiting fond
memories, and interacting with friends old and new. But it also
haunted us with the occasional nostalgia for youth and longing for
those we have lost.
Examining these stories with decades of hindsight has been
illuminating—a reflection on the limitations of youth countercultures
but also an important reminder about why we found punk rock so
exciting and necessary at the time. In short, this book has given us
an opportunity to visit the past, but we are glad not to be living in it.
These pages reflect countless hours of interviewing, writing,
reading, editing, and e-mailing. Any errors are our own, but like the
community it documents, this book reflects the contributions of a
vast range of people. To that end, we would like to express our deep
gratitude to those who shared their photographs, flyer collections,
music, and memories with us, including Dustin Addis, Amber, Jeremy
Ross Armstrong, Todd Arnold, Jon Beattie, Tim Beck, Tim Beeney,
Chris Bennett, Sharon Berardino, Tim Boniger, Joe Borsberry, Julie
Bozman, Jeanette Brickner, Jarrod Briggs, Steve Byrne, Ed Carper,
Kyle Christians, Bart Todd Clifton, Mark Coats, Chuck Coffey, Chris
Cowgill, Colin Coyle, Sam Dantone, Dan Dirst, Jen Boniger Dixon,
Kevin Dixon, Stacey Donovan, Kate Dusenbery, Patrick Dwyer, Jeff
Eagan, Charlie Eberle, Erica, Josh Finnell, Charles French, Geoff
Frost, Brett Fugate, Paul Gentile, Brian Geurin, Jon Ginoli, Jay
Goldberg, Chris Golwitzer, Bob Gordon, Brian Gould, Jared Grabb,
Jeff Gregory, Jered Gummere, Josh Haller, Justin Hartman, Chris
Hauk, Jason Heller, Bob Herington, Joel Hess, Stephen Howeler, Bill
Hudnall, Todd Hueser, Jeff Hyde, Mike Isenberg, Greg Jaeger, James,
Dave Johnson, Lawrence Keach, Jeremy Kerner, Kelly Kilpatrick, Eric
Kingsbury, Bill Knight, John Koch-Northrup, Brad Krohn, Jeremiah
Lambert, Blair Landon, Tom Lane, Kami Tripp LaVallier, Rob
Lawrence, Ben Leitch, Sean Lervaag, Samantha Lester, Nick Lippert,
Doug Love, Kimberly “Sparky” Luft, Brody Maag, Julie Maag, Jared
Madigan, Joel Madigan, Mike Malin, Rocky Maple, Chasity Marini,
Tyson Markley, Beth Martin, Ryan Martin, Douglas McCombs, Drew
McDowell, Sam McIntyre, Tim Mead, Melissa, Bloody Mess, Dave
Moe, Craig Moore, Guthrie Moore, Jim Moran, Briggs Mushrush, Matt
Nieukirk, Tom Nieukirk, Gared O’Donnell, Mike “C. P.” O’Russa,
Brandon Ousley, Teresa Ozuna, Erin Page, Judy Page, Jason
Pellegrino, Mike “Rugg” Perveiler, Greg Peters, Eric Peterson, Bryan
Polk, Sean Pope, Chris Rice, Molly Miller Rice, Mike Ricketts, Chris
Riley, Nick Roseman, Ben Ruddell, Sandy, John San Juan, Marsha
Satterfield, Tom Satterfield, Mac Scarle, Brent Schlosser, Josh Shane,
Matt Shane, Jimmy Singleton, Becky Slane, Cliff Stanton, Barry
Stepe, Chopper Stepe, Jon Sterling, Joshua Stonewall, Rob Streibich,
James Strevels, Frankie Sturm, Amee Snyder Suydam, Leanna
Sweetland, Bruce Swigart, Jason Teegarden-Downs, Mike Theobald,
Gary Thomas, Melissa Uselton, David Harshada Wagner, Graham
Walker, Jeff Warren, Kyle Waters, Tracey Bettermann Wetzstein,
Brian White, Adam Widener, John Williams, Eric “Suit and Tie Guy”
Williamson, Jeff Wilson, Andrew Wisecarver, Marty Wombacher, Stan
Wood, and Ed Young. Given this project’s duration, it is inevitable
that we forgot to thank someone—we apologize and thank you now.
Doug Hoepker, Mae Gilliland Wright, and Zack Furness were
among those who read and critiqued early drafts of this project. The
book changed radically in its scope and content over the last five
years and benefited greatly from their thoughtful comments.
We also want to express our appreciation to Laurie Matheson,
Ellie Hinton, Julie Bush, and everyone at the University of Illinois
Press for sharing our vision and preparing our words for print.
Special thanks to Chris Farris at Peoria Public Library for research
assistance, to Chris Gilbert at Alona’s Dream Records for expanding
the scope of possibilities, to the Cretin for permission to use his
lyrics, and to Joe Biel at Microcosm Publishing for being an early
believer in this book’s potential.
***
Dawson: I do not have the words to adequately express my
appreciation for Jon’s willingness to embark on this adventure with
me. Working on this project with him has been an absolute pleasure.
In addition to my deep gratitude to Beth, Genora, and Henry for
keeping me happily grounded in the present, I would also like to
thank my mom and dad for letting me, at age thirteen, go see the
Jesus Lizard show that Jon put on. It changed my life—and led me
to some of my oldest friends, favorite bands, and most cherished
memories.
***
Jonathan: When I agreed to coauthor this book, I had no
concept of the time and energy it would entail. To that end, I owe
an eternal debt of gratitude to my love and life partner, Mae, for her
patience and understanding as I spent many evenings and weekends
alone at the keyboard. I could not have asked for a better
collaborator than Dawson, who talked me off the ledge more than
once and kindly extended free rein to my editorial micromanaging.
Finally, I’m forever grateful for the lifelong friends I’ve made through
music. This project has been significant in ways I cannot quite
define, and I hope others find meaning in it as well. Onward!
Punks in Peoria
 Introduction

Since its founding in postwar Peoria, Illinois, Exposition Gardens has

been a trailing indicator of conventional popular culture. With its
outdoor arena and pavilion, a 14,000-square-foot exhibit hall and
quaintly charming “Opera House,” half a dozen livestock barns and
parking for miles, the complex sprawls across eighty acres and hosts
a wide range of community events: gun shows, flea markets,
concerts, fundraisers, cat competitions, beer festivals … and the list
goes on.
Built to house the Heart of Illinois Fair, it opened in 1950—a
proud, ninecounty agricultural showcase of the fruits of Illinois’s rich
black soil. Back then, before urban sprawl pushed Peoria’s
boundaries northward, Expo Gardens was in a rural part of town.
The fair was timed to coincide with the Caterpillar Tractor Company’s
two-week summer shutdown, and hundreds of thousands of
Illinoisans flooded its gates every July for a nine-day extravaganza of
carnival rides, fried foods, tractor pulls, demolition derbies, and live
music. During the off-season, the facility’s various buildings were
available for the public to rent. With its traditional and innocuous
fare, Expo Gardens encapsulates Peoria’s midwestern identity in
aggregate—a microcosm within a microcosm.
As much as any other city, Peoria can credibly claim the title of
“Anywhere, USA,” the prototypical midsized industrial town, nestled
in the heart of the nation’s breadbasket. With a population of
115,000 (as of the 2010 census) and more than triple that number
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
 Two days later my plan was finished. I had turned one of the vaulted
rooms of the stable into a workshop, and spreading a couple of waterproof
sheets on the sand for table, had drawn it out to scale lying on the ground.
Sometimes an Arab came in silently and stood watching my pencil, until the
superior attractions of the next chamber, in which sat the muleteers and the
zaptiehs, drew him away. As I added up metres and centimetres I could hear
them spinning long yarns of city and desert. Occasionally Ma’ashî brought
me coffee.
“God give you the reward,” said I.
“And your reward,” he answered gravely.
The day we left Kheiḍir, the desert was wrapped in the stifling dust of a
west wind. I have no notion what the country is like through which we rode
for seven hours to Kerbelâ, and no memory, save that of the castle walls
fading like a dream into the haze, of a bare ridge of hill to our right hand and
the bitter waves of a salt lake to our left, and of deep sand through which we
were driven by a wind that was the very breath of the Pit. Then out of the
mist loomed the golden dome of the shrine of Ḥussein, upon whom be
peace, and few pious pilgrims were gladder than I when we stopped to drink
a glass of tea at the first Persian tea-shop of the holy city.

THE PALACE OF UKHEIḌIR

I do not propose to enter here into a detailed account of the palace of
Ukheiḍir, which must be reserved for a subsequent publication, but it is well
to give a short elucidation of the plan, and to consider briefly the theories
which have been formed with regard to the origin of the building.[82]
The palace consists of a rectangular fortification wall set with round
bastions, with larger round bastions at the angles, and of an oblong building
surrounded on three sides by a court, together with a small annex in the
eastern part of the court (Fig. 79). That part of the oblong building which
adjoins the northern fortification wall is three storeys high; the remainder of
the palace is one storey high. Outside the enclosing fortification wall there is
a structure composed of fourteen vaulted parallel chambers, with a small
open court at the southern end. To the west of the small court and of the first
five chambers lies a larger court with round bastions on its western side.
Between each of these bastions there is a door and either one or two groups
of windows, each group consisting of three narrow lights. I noticed
foundations of masonry which ran down from near the northern end of this

Fig. 91.—UKHEIḌIR, COURT D AND NICHED FAÇADE OF THREE-STOREYED BLOCK.

Fig. 92.—UKHEIḌIR, VAULT OF ROOM I.

Fig. 93.—UKHEIḌIR, ROOM I.
Fig. 79.—UKHEIḌIR, GROUND PLAN.
out-building towards the valley. To the N.W. of the palace there is another
small detached building called by the Arabs the Bath (Fig. 80). Near it the
surface of the ground is broken by low mounds which may indicate the
presence of ruins. The Arabs assured me that by digging here brackish water
could be obtained; there is also a well of brackish water in the western part
of the palace court, but it is not used for drinking purposes. The water supply
of Ukheiḍir is derived from the Wâdî Lebai’ah. It is obtained by digging
holes in the sandy bed of the valley.
The fortification wall is arcaded without and within up
to two-thirds of its height. These blind arcades support the
walls of the chemin de ronde. The outer arcade serves the
purpose of a machicoulis, a narrow space between its
arches and the outer face of the main wall enabling the
defenders in the chemin de ronde to protect with missiles
the foot of the wall below them (Fig. 83). The chemin de
Fig. 80.—
ronde could be reached from the uppermost floor of the
UKHEIḌIR, THE
three-storeyed block of the palace, as well as by means of
BATH.
four staircases, one in each of the angles of the court (Fig.
84). Two of these staircases have now fallen completely.
The chemin de ronde had been covered by a vault (Fig. 86). Arched
doorways led into outlook chambers hollowed in the thickness of the
bastions. Arched windows open on to the court. In the centre of each side of
the fortification wall there is a gate (Fig. 85), that which stands on the
northern side being the most important, since it communicates directly with
the palace (Fig. 87). It opens into a passage with a guard-room on either
side. The passage leads into a small rectangular chamber, A in the plan,
covered with a fluted dome (Fig. 88). From this chamber an arched doorway
communicates with a vaulted hall, B, which runs up to a height of two
storeys and is the largest room in the palace (Fig. 90). The vault, borne on
projecting engaged piers, spans seven metres. Beyond the hall vaulted
corridors, C C C C, C´ C´ C´ C´, surround an open
Fig. 94.—UKHEIḌIR, CUSPED DOOR Fig. 95.—UKHEIḌIR, VAULTED END OF P,
OF COURT S. SHOWING TUBE.

Fig. 96.—UKHEIḌIR, CORRIDOR Q. Fig. 97.—UKHEIḌIR, VAULTED CLOISTER O´.

 Fig. 98.—UKHEIḌIR, GROIN IN CORRIDOR C.

Fig. 99.—UKHEIḌIR, SQUINCH ARCH ON SECOND STOREY.

court, D, as well as a block of rooms lying to the south of the court. The
court D is set round with engaged columns forming vaulted niches (Fig. 91).
At the S.E. corner the vault of one of these niches is fluted (Fig. 89). The
bracketed setting of these small semi-domes over the angles is to be noted.
The block of chambers south of court D is more carefully built than any
other part of the palace. It consists of an oblong antechamber, E, leading into
a square room, F. On either side of the antechamber there are a pair of
rooms, the walls and vaults of those lying to the west, G´ and H´, being
finished with stucco decorations and small columned niches. On either side
of the square chamber, F, is a room containing four masonry columns which
support three parallel barrel vaults (Fig. 92 and Fig. 93). South of room F
stretches a cloister, J, which was covered with a barrel vault, now fallen. It
opens into an unroofed court, K. The corridor C C´ runs to the south of court
K, and still further to the south is another open court, L, with vaulted rooms
round it.
To east and west of the corridor C C, C´ C´, lie four courts, M M´ and N
N´. To north and south of each of these courts there are three vaulted rooms,
but in M and M´ small antechambers in the shape of a narthex separate the
rooms from the court, whereas in N and N´ the rooms open directly on to the
court. In every case there are traces of a vaulted cloister, O O and O´ O´,
between the court and the outer wall (Fig. 97). Behind each block of rooms
there is a rectangular space, P P P P and P´ P´ P´ P´, two-thirds of which are
vaulted, while the central part is left open (Fig. 95). Similar open spaces are
left in the corridor C C, C´ C´, which would otherwise be exceedingly dark.
To return to the north gate. On either side of the small domed chamber, A,
long vaulted corridors, Q Q´, lead to the outer court (Fig. 96). A door on the
south side of corridor Q communicates with a small court, R, with chambers
to north and south of it and vaulted cloisters to east and west. A group of
vaulted chambers is placed between court R and the great hall B. West of
hall B there is a smaller group of vaulted chambers. In the south wall of
corridor Q´, two doors lead into an open court surrounded on three sides by a
vaulted cloister, the vault of which has now fallen except for fragments in
the south-east and south-west corners. These fragments are adorned with
stucco decorations. I have suggested (in the Hellenic Journal, loc. cit.) that
this court may be a mosque of a primitive type. (See, too, Der Islâm, vol. i.
part ii. p. 126, where Dr. Herzfeld points out that a chamber somewhat
similarly placed in the palace of Mshatta may also be a mosque.)

Fig. 81.—UKHEIḌIR, SECOND STOREY.

 Fig. 82.—UKHEIḌIR, THIRD STOREY.

No difficulty will be found in following on the plan the arrangement of

the upper floors in the northern part of the palace. In the second storey, the
space marked B2 is occupied by the vault of the great hall B (Fig. 81). At A2
three windows open into the hall from the room in the second storey. R2 and
S2 correspond with the two courts R and S. In the third storey the rectangular
space A3 is unroofed, and the space B3, below which lies the vault of the
great hall, is also unroofed (Fig. 82). The eastern part of this storey is
completely ruined, but there would appear to have been rooms

Fig. 100.—UKHEIḌIR, NORTH SIDE OF COURT M.

Fig. 101.—UKHEIḌIR, SOUTH-EAST ANGLE OF COURT S.

Fig. 102.—UKHEIḌIR, WEST SIDE OF B3.

 Fig. 103.—UKHEIḌIR, DOOR LEADING FROM V TO W, SEEN FROM SOUTH.

round R3 similar to the rooms round R2. The chemin de ronde, T T´, is on a
level with this storey.
Between the main palace block and the eastern fortification wall there lies
a group of rooms which is clearly an addition to the original scheme. It is
interesting to observe that these rooms are in all essentials of their plan a
repetition of the group of rooms to the south of court D. Room U
corresponds with the antechamber E; room V with the square room F; W
with the cloister J; X, Y, and Z to G, H, and T. But the columns in I I´ are not
repeated in the small rooms, Z Z´; room V is covered with a groined vault
instead of the barrel vault of F, and the court A is not closed with a wall like
the court K. I make no doubt that both these groups of rooms, which are so
strikingly similar in arrangement, were intended for the same purposes, and I
conjecture that they were ceremonial reception rooms. Herzfeld has
compared E and F with the throne room of Mshatta (Der Islâm, loc. cit.).
All the rooms and corridors of the palace are vaulted. Some of the finer
vaults are built of brick tiles (for example, over the great hall B and over
rooms E, F, I, and I´), but as a rule the vaults are constructed with stones set
in mortar, the stones being cut into thin slabs so as to resemble bricks as
closely as possible. (Cf. the Sassanian palace of Firûzâbâd, Dieulafoy, L’Art
Ancien de la Perse, vol. iv.) All the vaults, whether of brick or stone, are
built without centering, and all are set forward slightly from the face of the
wall. (The same construction is found at Ctesiphon, see below, Fig. 109.)[83]
The groined vault occurs seven times in the corridor C C´ (Fig. 98), and it is
also found in room V. (See my article in the Hellenic Journal above cited.)
The fluted dome over room A is bracketed across the corners of the
rectangular substructure (Fig. 88). In several cases where a barrel vault
terminates not against a head wall, but against another section of barrel
vault, it is adjusted to the angles of the substructure by means of squinch
arches (Fig. 99). A noticeable feature of the vault construction of Ukheiḍir is
the presence of masonry tubes running between the parallel barrel vaults
(Fig. 100). The structural purpose of these tubes is to diminish the mass of
masonry between the barrel vaults. Whenever two barrel vaults lie parallel to
one another, a tube will be found between them, and similar tubes exist
between the vault of the cloister O O and O´ O´ and the outer wall. (See too
Fig. 95, which shows a tube between a barrel vault and a straight wall.) Over
the vaults of the rooms of the annex in the eastern part of the court, and also
over the vaults of the fourteen parallel chambers outside the enclosing wall
to the north, a false roof is laid (Fig. 103). It serves as a protection against
the heat of the sun. Under the eastern annex there are some much-ruined
subterranean chambers. A staircase at the south-eastern angle of court D
leads down into similar cellars (serâdîb).
The arches over the doorways are usually of an ovoid shape, sometimes
slightly pointed. When the door-jambs take the form of engaged columns,
the capitals of the columns, roughly blocked out in masonry, carry an arch
slightly narrower in width than the opening of the doorway beneath it. But
when the door-jambs are formed merely by the straight section of the wall,
the span of the arch is wider than the opening of the doorway (Fig. 102
illustrates both types). This set-back of the arch was doubtless employed in
order to facilitate the placing of centering beams. Three wide doorways with
round arches, b b´ and c, lead from the main block of the palace building
into the surrounding court. The arches are usually characterized by double
rings of voussoirs (cf. Ctesiphon and other buildings of the Sassanian and
early Mohammadan period), the inner ring laid so as to show the broad face
of the stones or tiles, while the narrow end shows in the outer ring. (See the
arch in Fig. 102.) The arch construction in the eastern annex is, however,
much rougher in style. The outer ring of voussoirs is omitted there, nor is it
invariable in other parts of the palace.
 The niche plays a large part in the decoration of Ukheiḍir. A row of
narrow niches runs along the top of the outer face of the northern enclosing
wall, but very little of it is now left (Fig. 87). The southern face of the three-
storeyed block bears an elaborate niche decoration (Fig. 91). Here the lowest
row of niches forms part of the series already mentioned which runs round
court D. Above these, on the second storey, are remains of another row of
arched niches, each of which contains three small niches. So far as I know,
this feature of a large niche enclosing groups of smaller niches has not yet
been observed in Sassanian architecture. It is found, however, in a certain
well-known type of early Christian church (see, for instance, Ala Klisse,
published by me in the Thousand and One Churches, p. 403). On the third
storey of the palace the face of the wall has been left blank, but above the
windows there are still traces of a third order of small niches. Pairs of niches
flanked by engaged columns are to be seen in room G´. They are set high up
in the wall between the transverse arches. On these transverse arches there is
a plaster decoration, the same in character as that which occurs in the semi-
domes at the ends of the vault in Court S (Fig. 101). The motives there used
are the flute (in the squinch arch and in the conical segment of the semi-
dome above it), and a pattern which resembles a tiny battlemented motive.
Upon the transverse arches the battlemented motive is doubled so as to form
diamond-shaped patterns. In the centre of each of these diamonds, and in the
centre of the tiny arched niches at the bottom of the vault, and also between
those niches, there are small funnel-shaped motives formed of concentric
rings. Between the transverse arches there is a boldly worked ribbing. The
arch round the eastern of the two doors that leads into corridor Q´ is
surrounded by cusps (Fig. 94). (Cf. Ctesiphon, Dieulafoy, op. cit., vol. v.
plate 6.) A blind arcade, borne by pilasters, is to be seen in courts M M´ and
N N´. In the antechamber U there are shallow niches on either side of the
doors.
With regard to the date of Ukheiḍir there are three possible hypotheses. It
may belong—
1. To the Sassanian or Lakhmid period prior to the Mohammadan
conquest.
2. To the 150 years after the Mohammadan conquest.
3. To the Abbâsid period, i. e. after A.D. 750.
1. In defence of the first theory can be urged the close relationship
between Ukheiḍir and other places of the Sassanian age, not only in plan (cf.
Ḳaṣr-i-Shîrîn, de Morgan, Mission Scientifique en Perse, vol. iv., part 2), but
also in the technique of brick and stone masonry and in the principles of
vault construction (cf. Ctesiphon, Firûzâbâd, and Sarvistân, Dieulafoy, op.
cit.). But since it is certain that the arts of the early Moslem era were
dominated in Mesopotamia by Sassanian influence, these affinities do not
offer a convincing proof of a pre-Mohammadan date. Even if Ukheiḍir
belonged to the early Moslem age, it might, and probably would, have been
built by Persian workmen. At the same time certain architectural features,
such as the groined vault and the fluted dome, have not hitherto been
observed in any Sassanian building. The earliest Mesopotamian example of
the groined vault known to me, besides the groins of Ukheiḍir, is that of
which fragments can be seen in the Baghdâd Gate at Raḳḳah.
There is, further, a passage in Yâḳût’s Dictionary which might help to
support the theory of a pre-Mohammadan origin (vol. ii., p. 626, under
Dûmat ej Jandal). In the accounts given by the Arab historians of the
invasion of Mesopotamia in 12 A.H. (A.D. 633-4), by Khâlid ibn u’l Walîd,
frequent mention is made of ’Ain et Tamr, which Yâḳût expressly states to
be the same as Shefâthâ (Shetâteh is the modern colloquial form of the
name). When Khâlid ibn u’l Walîd had taken the oasis, which was inhabited
by Christian Arabs, and appears to have been the one place that offered him
serious resistance (Teano: Annali dell’Islam, vol. ii., p. 940), he is said to
have marched on Dûmat ej Jandal, which he captured, putting to death its
defender, Ukeidir ’Abdu’l Malik el Kindî.[84] It is generally admitted that
the name Dûmat ej Jandal in this account is an error, and that the fortress
which was taken by the Mohammadans in the year 12 A.H. was Dûmat el
Ḥîrah. (For the reasons for substituting Dûmat el Ḥîrah for Dûmat ej Jandal
in Ṭabarî’s text, see Teano, op. cit., vol. ii., p. 991.) Now Yâḳût gives two
conflicting traditions concerning the foundation of Dûmat el Ḥîrah, but he
expresses no uncertainty as to its position. It was near to ’Ain et Tamr, and
its ruins were known in Yâḳût’s day (thirteenth century). According to the
first tradition given by Yâḳût, the Prophet sent Khâlid ibn u’l Walîd in the
year 9 A.H. against Ukeidir, who was lord of Dûmat ej Jandal. Khâlid
captured Dûmat ej Jandal and made a treaty with Ukeidir, but after the death
of Mohammad, Ukeidir broke the treaty, whereupon the Khalif ’Umar
expelled him from Dûmat ej Jandal. He retired to Ḥîrah and built himself a
palace near to ’Ain et Tamr, which he called Dûmah. This Dûmah, near ’Ain
et Tamr, is no doubt Dûmat el Ḥîrah which Khâlid besieged and took in the
year 12 A.H. The second tradition is substantially the same as the first as far
as the Mohammadan invasion is concerned, but Yâḳût here implies that
Ukeidir dwelt in the first instance at Dûmat el Ḥîrah, and was accustomed to
resort to Dûmat ej Jandal for the purposes of the chase, and he adds that
Ukeidir named Dûmat ej Jandal after Dûmat el Ḥîrah. Prince Teano (op. cit.,
vol. ii. p. 262) has exposed the improbabilities which attend this explanation,
and he concludes that both traditions are equally untrustworthy, and doubts
the authenticity of any part of the story of Ukeidir. It does, however, appear
to me to be possible that the ruins of Dûmat el Ḥîrah which were standing in
Yâḳût’s day were no other than the abandoned palace of Ukheiḍir, though it
is not necessary to accept either of Yâḳût’s versions of the story of its
foundation.
2. If the palace is to be ascribed to the period immediately succeeding the
conquest, it would be a Mesopotamian representative of the group of
pleasure palaces which were built upon the Syrian side of the desert by the
Umayyad princes (Lammens: La Badia et la Ḥîra, Mélanges de la faculté
orientale, Beyrout, vol. iv., p. 91). But whereas it was natural that the
Umayyad khalifs should have constructed hunting palaces in that part of the
desert which lay on the direct road between their capital of Damascus and
the spiritual capitals of their empire, Mecca and Medina, it is difficult to see
why they should have selected a site so far from any of their habitual
residences as Ukheiḍir. It is true that the Khalif ’Alî made Kûfah his capital
for five years. He was assassinated there in A.D. 661. But during those years
he was ceaselessly occupied in quelling rebellions, and I dismiss the
possibility that he should have found leisure to build or to use the palace of
Ukheiḍir.
3. I am not disposed to place Ukheiḍir as late as the Abbâsid period. The
Abbâsid princes had lost the habit of the desert which was so strong a
characteristic of their Umayyad predecessors. When they moved away from
their capital of Baghdâd they built themselves cities like Raḳḳah and
Sâmarrâ. Moreover, the architectural features of Ukheiḍir, both structural
and decorative, present marked differences from those of the ruins at Raḳḳah
and at Sâmarrâ, and on architectural as well as on historical grounds I am
inclined to ascribe Ukheiḍir to an earlier age.
Whether that age be immediately before the Mohammadan conquest, or
whether it fall shortly after the conquest, during the Umayyad period, I do
not think we are as yet in a position to determine. It is to be borne in mind
that the ruins of the palace bear witness to two different dates of building.
The eastern annex and probably the edifice outside the enclosing wall to the
north are an addition to the original plan and must be of a slightly later date.
 CHAPTER V

KERBELÂ TO BAGHDÂD

March 30—April 12

To travel in the desert is in one respect curiously akin to travelling on the

sea: it gives you no premonition of the changed environment to which the
days of journeying are conducting you. When you set sail from a familiar
shore you enter on a course from which the usual landmarks of daily
existence have been swept away. What has become of the march of time?
Dawn leads to noon, noon to sunset, sunset to the night; but night breaks into
a dawn indistinguishable from the last, the same sky above, the same sea on
every side, the same planks beneath your feet. Is it indeed another day? or is
it yesterday lived over again? Then on a sudden you touch the land and find
that that recurring day has carried you round half the globe. So it is in the
desert. You rise and look out upon the same landscape that greeted you
before—the contour of the hills may have altered ever so slightly, the hollow
that holds your camp has deepened by a few yards since last week, the
limitless sweep of the plain was not hidden a fortnight ago by that little
mound; but here are the same people about you, speaking of the same things,
here is the same path to be followed, yes, even the seasons are the same, and
the dusty face of the desert is too old to flush at the advent of spring or to be
wreathed in autumn garlands of gold and scarlet. Yet at the end of a long
interval composed of periods recurrent and alike, you look round and see
that the whole face of the universe has changed.
When we reached Kerbelâ we passed into a world of which the aspect
and the associations were entirely new to me. I had set out from an Arab
town in North Syria, and I emerged in a Persian city linked historically with
the Holy Places, with the first struggles and the only great schism of Islâm.
At Kerbelâ was enacted the tragedy of the death of Ḥussein, son of ’Alî ibn
abi Tâlib; the place has grown up round the mosque that holds his tomb, and
to one half of those who profess the Mohammadan creed it is a goal no less
sacred than Mecca. But it was not the golden dome of Ḥussein, though it
covers the richest treasure of offerings possessed by any known shrine
(unless the treasure in ’Alî’s tomb of Nejef touch a yet higher value), nor yet
the presence of the green-robed Persians, narrow of soul, austere and stern of
countenance—it was not the wealth and fame of the Shî’ah sanctuary that
made the strongest assault upon the imagination. It was the sense of having
reached those regions which saw the founding of imperial Islâm, regions
which remained for many centuries the seat of the paramount ruler, the
Commander of the Faithful. Within the compass of a two-days’ journey lay
the battlefield of Ḳâdisîyah, where Khâlid ibn u’l Walîd overthrew at once
and for ever the Sassanian power. Chosroes with his hosts, his satraps, his
Arab allies—those princes of the house of Mundhîr whose capital was one of
the first cradles of Arab culture—stepped back at his coming into the
shadowy past; their cities and palaces faded and disappeared, Ḥîrah,
Khawarnaḳ, Ctesiphon, and many another of which the very site is forgotten;
all the pomp and valour of an earlier time fell together like an army of
dreams at the first trumpet-blast of those armies of the Faith which hold the
field until this hour. Then came the day of vigour; the adding of dominion to
dominion; the building of great Mohammadan towns, Kûfah, Wâsiṭ, Baṣrah,
and last of all Baghdâd, last and greatest. And then decline, and finally the
transference of authority. This was the story that was unfolded before me as I
stood upon the roof of a Persian house and gazed down into the gorgeously
tiled courtyard of the mosque of Ḥussein, in which none but the Faithful may
set foot. When I lifted my eyes and looked westward I saw the desert across
which the soldiers of the Prophet had come to batter down the old
civilizations; when I looked east I saw the road to Baghdâd, where their
descendants had cultivated with no less renown, the arts of peace. The low
sun shone upon the golden dome; the nesting storks held conversation from
minaret to minaret, with much clapping of beaks and shaking out of
unruffled wings; the Spirit of Islâm marched out of the wilderness and seized
the fruitful earth.
There were other lesser things which aroused a more personal if not a
keener interest. The oranges were good at Kerbelâ, as Fattûḥ had said. The
shops were heaped with them and with pale sweet lemons: I fear I must have
astonished my military escort, for I stopped at every corner to buy more and
yet more, and ate them as I went along the streets, hoping to satisfy the
inextinguishable thirst born of the desert. Side by side with the oranges lay
mountains of pink roses, the flowers cut off short and piled together; every
one in the town carried a handful of them and sniffed at them as he walked.
After night had fallen I was invited to a bountiful Persian dinner, where we
feasted on lamb stuffed with pistachios, and drank sherbet out of deep
wooden spoons. And there I heard some talk of politics.
Under the best of circumstances, said one of my informants,
constitutional government was not likely to be popular in the province of
’Irâḳ. Men of property were all reactionary at heart. They had got together
their wealth by force and oppression; their title-deeds would not bear critical
examination, and they resented the curiosity and the comments of the newly-
fledged local press. Nor were the majority of the officials better inclined—
how was it possible? To forbid corruption, unless the order were
accompanied by a rise in salary corresponding to the perquisites of which
they were deprived (and this was forbidden by the state of the imperial
exchequer) meant for them starvation. A judge, for example, is appointed for
two and a half years and his salary is £T15 a month, not enough to keep
himself and his family in circumstances which would accord with his
position. But over and above the expenses of living he must see to the
provision of a sum sufficient to engage the sympathies of his superiors when
his appointment shall have expired; otherwise he might abandon the hope of
further employment. Most probably he would have to defray the heavy
charges of a journey to Constantinople, to enable him to push his claim, not
to speak of the fact that he might spend several unsalaried months in the
capital before his request was granted. “And so it is that out of ten men,
eleven take bribes, and, as far as we can see, nothing has come of the
constitution but the black fez” (this because of the boycott on the red fez,
made in Austria), “free speech and two towers, one at Kerbelâ and one at
Nejef, to commemorate the age of liberty.” Under the new régime Kerbelâ
had received a mutesarrif whose story was a good example of the mistakes
which men were apt to commit when first the old restraints were relaxed. He
was of the Aḥrâr, the Liberals, and had begun his career as secretary to the
Vâlî of Baghdâd. The people of Baghdâd raised a complaint against him, on
the ground that in the fast month of Ramaḍân he had been seen to smoke a
cigarette in the bazaar between sunrise and sunset, which showed clearly that
he was an infidel, and he was dismissed from his post; but since he was one
of the Aḥrâr and had friends in Constantinople, he was presently appointed
to Kerbelâ. Now Kerbelâ, being a holy place inhabited mostly by Persian
Shî’ahs, is one of the most fanatical cities in the Ottoman Empire, and a
mutesarrif who brought with him so unfortunate a reputation could do
nothing that was right. Some of his reforms were in themselves reasonable,
but he was not the man to initiate them, nor was Kerbelâ the best field for
experiments. The town, owing to blind extortion on the part of the
government and to neglect of the irrigation system, is growing rapidly poorer
and yields an ever diminishing revenue. This revenue is burdened by a
number of pensions, and the mutesarrif, looking for a way of retrenchment,
found it by depriving all pensioners of their means of livelihood. The
pensioners were holy men, sayyids, whose duty it was to pray for the welfare
of the Sultan. Some were old and some were deserving, some were neither,
but all were holy, and the feelings that were aroused in Kerbelâ when they
were left destitute baffle description.
“Yet,” continued my host, “the Turks understand government. There was
once in Baṣrah an excellent governor; his name was Ḥamdî Bey. When he
came to Baṣrah it was the worst city in Turkey; every night there were
murders, and no one dared to leave his house after dark lest when he
returned he should find that he had been robbed of all he possessed.”
“So it is now in Baṣrah,” said I, for the town is a by-word in
Mesopotamia.
“Yes, so it is now,” he returned, “but it was different when Ḥamdî Bey
was governor. For a year he sat quiet and collected information concerning
all the villains in the place; but he did nothing. Now there was at that time a
harmless madman in Baṣrah whom the people called Ḥajjî Beiḍâ, the White
Pilgrim; and when they saw Ḥamdî Bey driving through the streets, they
would point at him and laugh, saying: ‘There goes Ḥajjî Beiḍâ.’ But at the
end of a year he assembled all the chief men and said: ‘Hitherto you have
called me Ḥajjî Beiḍâ; now you shall call me Ḥajjî Ḳara, the Black Pilgrim.’
And then and there he cast most of them into prison and produced his
evidence against them. And after a year’s time the town was so peaceful that
he ordered the citizens to leave their doors open at night; and as long as
Ḥamdî Bey remained at Baṣrah no man troubled to lock his door. And at
another time there was a Commandant in Baṣrah, and he too brought the
place to order. For when he knew a prisoner to be guilty, yet failed to get the
witnesses to speak against him, he would put the man to death in prison by
means of a hot iron which he drove into his stomach through a tube. Then it
was given out that the man had died of an illness, and every one rejoiced that
there should be a rogue the less.”
 I made no comment, but my expression must have betrayed me, for my
interlocutor added a justification of the commandant’s methods. “In Persia,”
said he, “they bury them alive.”
“My soldiers have told me,” said I, not to be outdone, “that in Persia they
cut off a thief’s hand, and I think they regard it as the proper sentence, for
they generally add: ‘That is ḥukm, justice.’ ”
“It is the sherî’ah,” he replied simply, “the holy law,” and he recited the
passage from the Ḳurân: “If a man or woman steal, cut off their hands in
retribution for that which they have done; this is an exemplary punishment
appointed by God, and God is mighty and wise.”
I had intended to go straight from Kerbelâ to Babylon, but I was
reckoning without full knowledge of the Hindîyeh swamp. The history of
this swamp is both curious and instructive. A few miles above the village of
Museiyib, north-east of Kerbelâ, the Euphrates divides into two channels.
The eastern channel, the true bed of the river, runs past Babylon and Ḥilleh
and discharges its waters into the great swamp which has existed in southern
’Iraḳ ever since the last days of the Sassanian kings. The western channel is
known as the Nahr Hindîyeh; it waters Kûfah, now a miserable hamlet
clustered about the great mosque in which the khalif ’Alî was assassinated,
and flowing through the great swamp re-enters the Euphrates some way
above the junction of the latter with the Tigris.[85] The dam on the Euphrates
which regulated the flowing of its waters into the Hindîyeh canal has been
allowed to fall into disrepair; every year a deeper and a stronger stream
flows down the Hindîyeh, and matters have reached such a pass that during
the season of low water the eastern bed is dry, the palm gardens of Ḥilleh are
dying for lack of irrigation, and all the country along the river-bank below
Ḥilleh has gone out of cultivation. The growth of the Hindîyeh has proved
scarcely less disastrous. The district to the west of the canal, in which
Kerbelâ lies, is lower than the level of the stream, while the increasing
torrents, bringing with them the silt of the spring floods, yearly raise the bed
of the canal and add to the difficulty of keeping it within bounds. The
Hindîyeh has become an ever-present danger to the town of Kerbelâ, and
indeed in one year, when the stream was unusually high, the water flowed
into the streets. It was the duty of the owners of the land, a duty prescribed
by immemorial custom, to keep up the dykes, in order to save the cultivated
country, and incidentally the town, from inundation. Needless to say they
neglected to do so. A large part of the land—and here the story takes a very