'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎96] (105/568)

96
INHABITANTS
arabs
Numbers an
The Arabs form the great majority of the population in the plains,
where other races are hardly found except (a) in some of the towns,
and {b) on the northern and eastern fringes of the plain country.
The Arabs of the Jezlreh, Irak, and Arabistan may number in all
about a million and a half.
The Mesopotamian Arabs form the north-easterly part of the
main body of their race. In various ways they are in close con
nexion with their oyrn people to south and west.
On the north the limit of the predominantly Arab country is,
roughly, on a line across the Jezlreh from Jerablus to between
JezIret-ibn-'Omar and Mosul. Here, along the fringes of the plain,
under the spurs of the Qarajeh Dagh and the southern face of the
Tur Abdin, the Arabs are in contact with Kurds and Syrian
Christians. Along this borderland runs the Baghdad Eailway.
West of Mosul there is a large group of Yezidis islanded among
Arabs in the Jebel Sinjar.
On the east the Arabs are practically not found beyond the Tigris
above Mosul, but south of Mosul (which is a predominantly Arab
city) they share with the Kurds the plains east of the Tigris and
north of the Jebel Hamrln. In the neighbourhood of the Diyaleh
the Jebel Hamrln marks roughly the frontier between Arab and
Kurd, and farther south the boundary between Arabs and Lurs runs
along the foot of the Pusht-i-Kuh hills to the western border of
Arabistan.
In Arabistan the Arabs hold the greater part of the plains. On
the northern edges of these plains, in the districts of Dizful, Shushtar,
and Eamuz, they are in contact with Lurs of various kinds (Sagwand,
Bakhtiyari, and Bahmai Kuhgalu). East of the lower Karun, about
the Jerrahi and the Hindlyan, they have Lurs (Kuhgalu, &c.) or
Perso-Arab cross-breeds (Behbehanis) for their neighbours. The
inhabitants of the towns under the hills are of mixed blood.
Modes of Life:
As regards their mode of life, the Arabs of Mesopotamia may be
divided conveniently into nomads, semi-nomads, and a wholly settled
element, rural or urban. But it is to be remembered that in fact
the classes of nomads, semi-nomads, and settled cultivators are not
divided by hard and fast lines; the first shades off into the second,
the second into the third.