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fought against the British until 1932, albeit in a most chivalrous manner.
However, according to British intelligence records, Sheikh Mahmud was by
no means implacably anti-British and certainly not pro-Nazi, reserving most
of his distemper for the Iraqi Arabs, whom he loathed.^17 Freya Stark visited
him about a year before the Germans launched their ill-fated operation and
found him ‘delightful,’ speaking affectionately of individual British friends
and stating firmly that he would fight for the Allies whenever they asked
him to do so. He had attempted to raise his tribes against Rashid Ali during
the rebellion, in favour of the besieged British, but his efforts had been
thwarted by the unexpected brevity of the campaign.^18 Even American
intelligence was fully aware that Mahmud’s political life had been ‘reduced
to impotence’ since 1931, in other words at least five years before Müller
first met him.^19 Yet Müller and Abw II felt so misguidedly confident of
Mahmud’s support that they even named their mission after him:
MAMMUT (Fig. 9.2).^20
Beyond relying on an alliance with Mahmud, Müller’s grandiose plan
for MAMMUT was to locate and join forces with Sheikh Hadji Agha
Fig. 9.2 Misjudged by
the Abwehr: Sheikh
Mahmud Barzanji,
former self-proclaimed
‘King of Kurdistan.’
Source: Wikimedia
Commons
A PLACE IN THE SHADE