'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎56v] (117/862)

GEOLOGY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE LAND
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and marsh is easy except after rain, when the alluvium becomes
rapidly churned to mud; but large areas not shown as marsh on the
maps may easily be inundated in the flood season if the river bunds
are breached, either accidentally or deliberately. Movement is then
extremely difficult and some of the channels have to be bridged.
The Shaft al Gharraf or Shaft al Hai (figs. 9, 20)
The Shatt al Gharraf draws water from the right bank of the Tigris
opposite Kut al Imara, and after flowing south for about 100 miles
tails out into marshes near Nasiriya. It was formerly the Abbasid
course of the Tigris (p. 50). Until the completion of the Kut barrage
in 1940 the intake of water from the Tigris was entirely uncontrolled,
and during the months from August to October the bed was either
dry or only contained disconnected pools of water. The Shatt al
Gharraf has, however, always been a watercourse of importance
during most of the year, and its banks and those of its distributaries
have always been fairly well populated. This is particularly true of
the country south of Qala Sikar, from which place southwards a
system of controlled distributaries take water from the river to irrigate
fields on either side (p. 438). These distributaries disperse into marshy
ground generally from 5 to 15 miles from the Shatt al Gharraf, and
some of these marshes remain perennial with open water throughout
the year, particularly those on the east. Most of them, however, dry
up in summer, when their surface becomes baked hard and cracked
by the hot sun. Kut al Hai in the north, and Qala Sikar, Karradi, and
Shatra towards the south, are the chief settlements. The region is
divided between the Bani Rabia in the north and the Muntafiq in
the south. The latter in particular have held a reputation for turbu
lence and treachery, both among themselves and in their dealings
with government authority.
The Country north of the Tigris between Kut al Imara and the Diyala
(% ! 9 )
This area is divisible into five parts: (1) the belt of country along
the Persian boundary and foothills, watered by streams, some of them
perennial, between the Galal Badra and the Ab-i-Naft; (2) the
extensive area of low ground liable to inundation in winter from the
surplus waters of these hill streams; (3) the narrow riverain fringe of
the Tigris; (4) the desert, once fertile and irrigated by the great Nahr-
wan canal and its distributaries; and (5) the zone of comparatively