I. BEYOND THE PALE OF THE RAILWAY 1 (ALEPPO AND URFA)
II. A LAND OF DUST AND ASHES 24 (DIARBEKR AND MARDIN)
III. THE MARCHES OF ANCIENT ROME 47 (DARA AND NISIBIN)
IV. THE BURDEN OF NEWER NINEVEH 69 (MOSUL)
V. THE TEMPLE OF THE DEVIL 87 (SHEIKH ADI)
VI. THE SKIRTS OF THE MOUNTAINS 111 (RABBAN HORMIZD, BAVIAN, AND AKRA)
VII. AN ORIENTAL VICH IAN VOHR 134 (THE SHEIKH OF BARZAN)
VIII. A MASTER OF MISRULE 158 (NERI AND JILU)
IX. THE DEBATABLE LAND 176 (GAWAR, MERGAWAR, AND TERGAWAR)
XI. A LAND OF TROUBLE AND ANGUISH 221 (URMI TO VAN)
XIII. THE LAND OF PRESTER JOHN 262 (QUDSHANIS)
XIV. THE GREAT CAÑONS 284 (TYARI AND TKHUMA)
XV. INTRUDERS IN A PANDEMONIUM 311 (AMADIA AND BOHTAN)
XVI. GRAVES OF DEAD EMPIRES 339 (MOSUL TO BAGHDAD)
11. CHURCH OF MAR SHALITHA, QUDSHANIS 257
17. THE MOUNTAINS OF DIZ AND TAL, FROM THE PASS ABOVE QUDSHANIS 366
18. A BIT OF THE ROAD BETWEEN TAL AND JULAMERK 372
MAP of EASTERN KURDISTAN with inset of mesopotamia (insert at end)
BEYOND THE PALE OF THE RAILWAY (ALEPPO AND URFA)
The belated Jinn who emerged out of Suleiman's Brass Bottle into twentieth-century London found there, amid much that was strange to him, some beings of his own kin. These were the railway locomotives, obviously Jann like himself, but yet more oppressively treated; bound by spells of appalling potency to labours more arduous and wearisome than Suleiman had ever conceived.
And truly his blunder was plausible: for if Jann be extinct nowadays (which one doubts after visiting Asia), then assuredly cylinders and boilers are charged with the might of the Jann. They are set to work regularly now instead of rarely and spasmodically; and though they raise less dust and clamour their net output is considerably more. The slaves of the Lamp and the Ring developed intense explosive energy, but their effective radius was limited. They could rear Aladdin's palace in a night, or transport him to Africa in a twinkling; but these more domesticated Titans are capable of transmogrifying whole communities, and advancing the clock of progress five hundred years at a span.
And now the modern Magrabis, the busy Western magicians, have let slip these formidable Efrits against the City of Al Raschid himself: and one fine morning his descendants will awake from the slumber of centuries to find themselves environed by a new heaven and a new earth.