Meher Baba's Life & Travels
ERBIL, IRAQ
( ARBIL, IRBIL )
In October 1936, Meher Baba along with two of his men devotees, flew from Karachi, then British India to Baghdad. From here he travelled by train and taxi through Iraq, then through Syria, Turkey by train and arriving in London U.K. in early November.
This was the 9th visit to the West. This was also the only visit he made to Iraq.
Meher Baba's visit to Iraq took between 6-7 days.
They left Kirkuk the same day - 29th, by taxi for Mosul via Erbil, further north, because the rail line had a breach. The distance to Erbil was 129 kms / 80 miles and then another 80kms / 50 miles to Mosul. A total of 209 kms / 130 miles. They probably reached Mosul the same day.
There are no known images of Meher Baba for the whole of this journey from Bombay to London. This was his 9th visit to the West.
October 1936
On Monday, 19 October 1936, Adi Sr. drove Baba to Bombay, and the next evening at 9:00 P.M., accompanied by only Kaka and Chanji, Baba boarded the Kathiawar Mail train for Karachi. (There were Hindu-Muslim communal riots in Bombay, prior to Baba's departure.) Reaching Karachi two days later, Baba met Pilamai and her family, and his maternal aunt Banu Masi and her family.
Baba and the mandali left Karachi on the 24th on the 24-seat Imperial Airways Hadrian biplane. It was his ninth foreign journey. Baba's first international air travel
proved distressing for Kaka and Chanji who suffered from headaches and vomited during the flight, due to severe
turbulence from Bahrain, Kuwait to Basra. ( Then flew to
Baghdad )
Arriving in Baghdad on the evening of Sunday, 25 October, Baba and the mandali checked into a hotel. The next day they took a tour of Baghdad. On the 27th, Baba visited the shrine of Hazrat Abdul Qadir Gilani — a Sufi Perfect Master of his time. Baba remained in the Muslim tomb for some time, but made no comment on his work.
News was given to them at the Baghdad train station that there was a breach on the railway line at the crossing of the Turkish border, with no definite information as to when the line would be repaired and ready for travel. This report was, at first, vexing because Baba had planned to proceed to England from Iraq by train.
Lord Meher Online Edition Page 1739
The Citadel of Erbil
Continued....
Baba was also feeling ill; his eyes had become swollen and he had severe pain in his molar teeth.
In spite of his failing health, on the 27th October Baba arranged for a large amount of cooked food to be purchased and fed 100 of the city's beggars, serving the food with his own hands. At one point, he remarked, "By my coming here, the link with Rahuri is snapped, and to re-establish this link, I am feeding these poor persons." Before starting their journey, Baba had expressed his desire to feed and, if possible, bathe a number of poor and crippled persons in Baghdad. Now, due to being detained by the breach in the railway line, he was able to do his work with the destitute.
Baba's health had become so serious that he considered canceling his planned visit to England and sending for Kitty Davy from London to convey to her all the instructions for his lovers there. Telegrams were exchanged with the Western group, but Baba then dismissed that idea and decided to proceed to London, although his stay was to be drastically curtailed to only three days.
Baba left Baghdad by the Taurus Express train on Wednesday, 28 October 1936, at nine that evening. From Kirkuk he went to Mosul by taxi and then on to Tell Kotchek by train. While travelling, Chanji would read aloud the manuscript of Baba's biography, The Perfect Master, recently completed by Charles Purdom. They also discussed Baba's schedule in London.
NOTE : "The Perfect Master" by C.B. PURDOM was published and printed in 1937.
