'A Précis of the Relations of the British Government with the Tribes and Shaikhs of 'Arabistan By Lieutenant A T Wilson, Acting Consul for Arabistan' [‎45r] (94/143)

75
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A cemetary at Nasiri was allotted by the Shaikh in iqoq wi+v, *
KSTbS Cen “
Hussainabad.
Kut Nahr Hashim (Karkhah).
Karun west bank.
Shwabeh (between Diz and Shatait).
' NSlsif/anek 0 ^ ^ ^ MushIr - d -Dauleh and the
All the above districts are farmed by the Shaikh, who pays rent for them
fromX 1 ArX U oee, aCC<?r<l1 ^ ^ the . am . ount whioh he has been able to collect
rrom tne Arabs occupying the district m question.
The Mu’in-ut-Tajjar owns lands at Shushtar and at Nasiri (vide Nasiri
Company s concession, Appendix 3) and he claims the landing plLL at sSh
was erected tr^ he T ‘S^^ Messrs. Lynch Brothers' s!o?e stands which
Cd lt N^.r; hv , 7 ^ ^ UrtaZa ' He has dis P° sed of some his
Shaikh* N by 6 aDd hlS C aim t0 other P ortions is disputed by the
^e rslan Government owns a little land in Mohammerah The Kar-
fnd tb! e ’rm=t arant u e stat10 "-Customs Rest House adjoining the Quarantine,
and the Customs House and Messrs. Lynch Brothers’ wharf. The two last
owners w 'o' • ad j"J n eac ,h ot h er ar e ‘ waqf ” and were leased from the
owners who are Saiyids 1 in about 1890, together with the ground in rear of
The German firm of Wonckhaus & Co. leased in 1907 for a period of
8 years a patch of ground for use as a store and wharf, but though they pay
100 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. a year for an area of a little more than an acre, they
ave no rights over the foreshore nor even over the strip of ground 30 yards
broad which intervene between their land and the river. 2 * *
The system in which land is held by Arabs in Arabistan deserves men-
. 10I i Grazing lands are held without fee by custom and the reallotment of
such lands necessitated by tribal changes is arranged by mutual consent with
the intervention of the Shaikh.
lands watered b y pin only are held similarly, most Arabs of the
Muhaism and other tribes, living in the date grove districts have a few acres
ot land allotted to them in the Karun district on which they sow wheat or bar-
ley, paying taxes in kind on the produce.
Date groves and rice fields in Fallahiyeh are held from father to son on
the strength of ancient title-deeds granted by Shaikhs of the Ka’ab, but when
these lapse by reason of the non-existence of heirs in direct line or from other
causes, the ground is reallotted and title-deeds issued by the Shaikh of Moham
merah giving the fallah Arabic for ‘peasant’. It was used by British officials to refer to agricultural workers or to members of a social class employed primarily in agricultural labour. the rights of ownership and sale in J of the land, and
the right to | of £ or even J of the date crop on the whole area, the rest being
the property of the Shaikh. All subsidiary crops grown in the date groves
are supposed to belong to the ’fallahs (cultivators). The only land known to
be held by foreigners in this way is that held by Hussain bin* Jamadar Yusuf
Baluch, a British Indian subject, who has a little land near Mohammerah
which he inherited from his father who was a mercenary in the employ of
Haji Jabir.
^ Of the families of ’Abdul Qatar & Shaikh Habib.
2 On 27th April 1908, His Majesty’s Charge d’Affaires was informed by the Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs that the proceedings of Messrs. R. Wonckhaus and Co., and other foreign agencies should be w, tjhed by
the Consul at Mohammerah with a view to preventing the Shaikh from leasing further land to them.