This work recounts the travels of a member of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Mission to the Assyrian Church throughout Syria, Northern Iraq, and Kurdistan in the early twentieth century. The travelers visited the Yezidi Temple, the Chiefs of the Barzanis, and the ruins of Babylon, as well as the Assyrian Patriarch Mar Shimon. This 1922 second edition also contains the author's indignant account of the Assyrian genocide and the failure of the British democratic politicians to keep their promises afterward. Splendidly illustrated, The Cradle of Mankind: Life in Eastern Kurdistan is recommended for those seeking a glimpse of life in the Eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire just before the outbreak of the First World War.

• CONTENT (page 7)
• NOTE TO SECOND EDITION (page 9)
• PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION (page 10)
• CHAPTER I : BEYOND THE PALE OF THE RAILWAY(ALEPPO AND URFA) (page 11)
• CHAPTER II : A LAND OF DUST AND ASHES (DIARBEKR AND MARDIN) (page 19)
• CHAPTER III : THE MARCHES OF ANCIENT ROME (DARA AND NISIBIN) (page 27)
• CHAPTER V : THE TEMPLE OF THE DEVIL (SHEIKH ADI) (page 42)
• CHAPTER VI : THE SKIRTS OF THE MOUNTAINS (RABBAN HORMIZD, BAVIAN, AND AKRA) (page 50)
• CHAPTER VII : AN ORIENTAL VICH IAN VOHR (THE SHEIKH OF BARZAN) (page 58)
• CHAPTER VIII : A MASTER OF MISRULE (NERI AND JILU) (page 67)
• CHAPTER IX : THE DEBATABLE LAND (GAWAR, TERGAWAR, MERGAWAR) (page 74)
• CHAPTER X : TWIGS OF A WITHERED EMPIRE (URMI) (page 82)
• CHAPTER XI : A LAND OF TROUBLE AND ANGUISH (URMI TO VAN) (page 91)
• CHAPTER XII : A SLOUGH OF DISCONTENT (VAN AND THE ARMENIANS) (page 96)
• CHAPTER XIII : THE LAND OF PRESTER JOHN (QUDSHANIS) (page 106)
• CHAPTER XIV : THE GREAT CANONS (THE NESTORIAN "ASHIRETS" OF HAKKIARI) (page 115)
• CHAPTER XV : INTRUDERS IN A PANDEMONIUM (AMADIA AND BOHTAN) (page 125)
• CHAPTER XVI : THE GRAVES OF DEAD EMPIRES (MOSUL TO BAGHDAD (page 136)
• CHAPTER XVII : OUR SMALLEST ALLY (page 144)
• CHAPTER XVIII : DEAD SEA FRUIT (page 158)
• GLOSSARY (page 166)
• MAP (page 168)
• FOOTNOTES (page 169)