'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎349r] (700/862)

PORTS AND INLAND TOWNS 543
Air: Airfield and wireless station 1 mile west of Kirkuk and I.P.C.
landing-ground 5 miles away near Pumping station Ki.
Kut al Imara. 32 0 30' N., 45 0 50' E.; alt. c. 62 feet. Pop. 9,000. Liwa
cap. Rainfall station (P. and T.).
The town stands on the left bank of the Tigris in a bend of the river
opposite the divergence of the Shatt al Gharraf. Fringed by gardens and
date plantations, it is the centre of a considerable grain trade and a river
port. Its population contains two main elements, Arabs and Faili Lurs,
both Shia, and certain number of Jews.
History
In the early Abbasid period Madharaya was a prosperous town near Kut
(p. 49), controlling the confluence of the great Nahrwan canal with the
Tigris, but with the change of the Tigris’ course to the Shatt al Gharraf
the town decayed. When the Tigris took its present course a settle
ment grew up again, but modern Kut owes its rise mainly to the develop
ment of steam navigation on the Tigris during the nineteenth century. It
was, however, never more than a qadha capital during Turkish rule. It was
the scene of a British disaster in 1916 (p. 279) and was recaptured in Feb
ruary 1917 after much damage had been done to the town. It has recently
been given added importance by the construction of a barrage across the
Tigris (p. 439).
General Description
Kut was almost entirely rebuilt after its reoccupation in 1917, and has
wide streets. There is a river frontage occupied by wharves, and the prin
cipal buildings are the sarai and municipal offices, a police barracks, two
small schools, the civil hospital (75 beds), and grain stores. The new and
prosperous arcaded bazaar of 400 shops is on the river front. The town is
a market for cereals which are transported up the Gharraf to Kut and
thence down the Tigris to Basra, and for local vegetable produce; it is
also a collecting centre for liquorice, which is exported abroad. Local
crafts include the making of rugs and carpets. There is a liquorice factory An East India Company trading post.
on the right bank, and there are ice and soda-water plants. Such of the
inhabitants as are not traders are cultivators, and the Faili Lurs are
porters. There is a local caravan trade with Badra on the Persian border.
Water is supplied unchlorinated by a municipal plant; the electric lighting
plant is also municipal.
Communications
Rail\ Kut is the terminus of the new branch-line north-west to Jassimiya
near Baquba (Rly. 3), built to supplement the devious and slow water route.
Road : The Tigris is bridged by the Kut barrage which takes the Gharraf