"العراق والخليج الفارسي" [و‎‎٥‎٣] (٨٦٢/١١٠)

DESCRIPTION OF THE LAND
6l
banks of the channels, and quince, citron, and mangoes in the
clearings. These gardens provided the wealth of Basra before the
improvement of the port increased its prosperity. Farther south-east
rice is grown in the swamps which surround the creeks, and lucerne
is planted on drier ground. Both creeks and irrigation cuts form
serious obstacles to movement. Some creeks have small villages
with untidy walled gardens on their banks; others are lined with
plantains. On the desert edge of the palm-belt there is grazing for
sheep; buffaloes and cattle are found on wetter ground. From
September to November the country is dotted with the black tents
of beduin and reed-huts (sarifa) of marsh Arabs who come in to help
with the harvesting of the dates.
South of the palm-belt is a broad expanse of low-lying alluvial
desert, flooded in the north by the Hammar lake and drained in the
south by the Khor Zubair into the Khor Abdulla, a large tidal creek
opening south-eastwards into the head of the Persian Gulf. The
lowest reach of the Khor Abdulla forms the boundary between Iraq
and the territory of the Shaikh of Kuwait; the flats bordering it on
either side are overgrown with coarse grasses and reeds and are liable
to inundation. Formerly the Khor Zubair drained marshland west
of Basra and the overflow in high flood of the Hammar lake, but this
extensive flooding is prevented by the two embankments which carry
the road and railway to Shuaiba and the higher ground west of the
Hammar lake.
Beyond the Khor Zubair the ground rises to the desert edge. About
9 miles south-west of Basra are the ruins of ‘old Basra’, the town built
by the Abbasids, which was connected across the low ground by two
canals to the Shatt al Arab. Little remains of it now (p. 507), but the
walled village of Zubair with its blue-tiled minaret forms a landmark
in the otherwise featureless country about 2 miles beyond. Beduin
come here for the market, and there is some trade across the desert
to Saudi Arabia. North-west of Zubair are the airfield, R.A.F. station,
fort, and railway station of Shuaiba, which, with the low ridge to the
west, mark the site of the Turkish defeat in April 1915 , when they
attempted to retake Basra from the British (p. 275). At that time all t e
low ground between Shuaiba and Basra was flooded from an extension
of the Hammar lake, and troops had to march in 2 or 3 feet of water
or be ferried in bellums for 9 miles. There are a number of wells and
water-holes in the Zubair-Shuaiba region, and they are not uncommon
along the desert edge south-eastwards, but many of them are sa me
or brackish and undrinkable. South-westwards there is good glazing