'Reports of administration for 1918 of divisions and districts of the occupied territories in Mesopotamia. Volume I' [‎161r] (326/470)

(10) Ma l dan .—-The Ma‘dan are in this district by no means a negligible element.
Almost every Shaikh has his own Ma‘dans, who are regarded as a valuable asset
to his nahiyah. On them the Shaikh is dependent for the reeds and mats with
which to build his mudhif, and to a very large extent for his milk and ghi, for large
herds of buffaloes are kept by them. Naturally a wild and uncontrollable element,
they frequently endanger the tranquillity of the district by indulging in impromptu
battles in the marshes. Usually there are no casualties, but if there are and the
two sides in the contest belong to different shaikhs, the shaikhs at once rush to the
Political Officer declaring that his tribe has been attacked and demanding reparation.
Probably the wildest and most troublesome of the Ma'dans are the A1 Partus
and the Shighanbar, living near A1 ‘Abid in the Chabaish nahiyah. During the
flood season they come down to the Euphrates and make travelling by night by
muhailah a matter of no small risk. To obviate the risk of such robberies muhailahs
and balams are not allowed to pass Madinah if going up stream, or Chabaish if
going down stream, unless there is a reasonable chance of reaching Chabaish or
Madinah before dark.
2. Revenue : (a) Land Revenue .—The total demand of land revenue in this
Division for the year ending 31st March 1919 is Rs. 207,146/1/6, and of this sum
Rs. 100,996/8/- had been collected up to the end of December 1918. This is
well above the demand for the year ending 31st March 1918, when the demand was
Rs. 154,463/1/9. The desirability of the speedy abolition of the Khars was well
shown in the absurd and utterly useless assessment made by the Khawaris this
year in Hammar. The man who was sent with the Khawaris as clerk and who
knew little or nothing about crops appears to have taken things into his own hands
and paid no heed to" the estimate made by the Khawaris, but to have put down
fanciful figures of his own. It is to be hoped that some better means of assessing
the Government share in the produce will soon be devised. i • . p •
An interesting piece of work is about to commence in the nahiyah of Dair,
where a survey and record of rights will be made. While an examination of a
comparatively unimportant land dispute was in progress an unexpected spirit o
conciliation in the matter of ownership of the land was found to exist between the
Sa‘dun overlords and the local inhabitants. A little discussion elicited facts which
shed rays of light on the actual state of affairs, and the result was that I felt justified
in proposing an experimental land settlement. The proposal was approved by
the Civil Commissioner and preliminary investigation of titles commenced, partly
in Qurnah and partlv before the Revenue Officer, Basrah wilayat. Though further
examination showed that the question of ownership was not quite so simple as
had at first appeared, yet the examination has already brought to light several
interesting points, and, as the work proceeds, no doubt facts will be obtained of
considerable help in the final settlement of the difficult Sa dun question.
(b) Tapu. There has been very little tapu work during the year, as the town
of Qurnah is small and few transactions in land take place therein. It cannot be
said that tapu has been much encouraged, as pressure of other work has made one
hesitate to touch any cases which may provoke a controversy The extension of
tapu work to the districts is quite impossible until land settlement is complete,
as there seems to be hardly a square yard of ground which cannot draw out three
or four claimants of ownership.
(c) Warif There are only very small pieces of ground here belonging to the
Waqf administration, and these are all well tended. No money has been spent
on them but little can be done on such small places unless all the surrounding
owners spend money on their estates in the building of bunds or the cleaning out
of 0 Jd£Ljzi.r).0].s*
(d) Miscellaneous and Special Revenues.—Vmlev these headings come (1) reeds
and mats tax (21 fish tax, (3) ferry tax, and (4) kodah. The reeds and mats tax
has been almost in abeyance owing to the fact that the whole output was required
for Military purposes. Large numbers of mats have been produced at prices
considerably below those paid in 1916 and the early part of 1917, and the supply
for the civil population was confined to those mats which could be smuggled through
the marshes and sold for Rs. 2/- each when they reached their destination. With
the raising of the embargo on the sale of mats to the public, however, the amount
collected In taxes should be by no means inconsiderable The collection of the
tax for the remainder of the financial year is by farm, but at the beginmng of the
new financial year arrangements will be made for direct collection.