'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎58v] (121/862)

KJ 3333 !
72 GEOLOGY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE LAND
up the two rivers. During the Abbasid period, from the seventh
century to the sixteenth, almost the whole southern half of the region
was inundated and remained under the waters of the Great Swamp,
only to be uncovered after the Tigris changed to its present course
(p. 50). As the waters of the swamp were drained, strips of land were
reclaimed by Arab cultivators along the lower Gharraf and along the
distributaries of the Euphrates, but lack of co-ordination during the
Ottoman period led to the silting of the great canals in the north.
The Tigris, too, constantly broke its banks and laid great areas under
water during the flood season, so that during these centuries a broad
belt of country between the two rivers went out of cultivation.
At the outbreak of war in 1914 there were thus three distinct parts
to the region: the cultivated region of the Euphrates and its uncon
trolled distributaries, with constant quarrels regarding property and
water rights; the narrow riverain strip along the right banks of the
Tigris and Shatt al Gharraf, the latter only irrigable for a few months
of the year and only a small proportion of the cultivable land being
actually cultivated; and the broad waste in the middle, marked by the
derelict embankments of ancient canals and by the teh of forgotten
settlements, and covered after almost every flood season by marsh in
the north and centre, but throughout the year desolate and barren in
the south.
These three subdivisions marked out by history remain true to-day,
though much has been done during the past twenty-five years to lessen
the evils caused by centuries mf neglect. The left-bank Euphrates
canals from below Ramadi to Musaiyib have been widened, extended,
and partly regulated, and the Hilla and other canals controlled by the
Hindiya barrage have been improved (pp. 36 ff.). The cultivated area
is encroaching again on the central waste, particularly in the north;
the Tigris embankments are much better looked after than in the
past, and mechanical pumps have broadened the riverain belt of
Tigris cultivation. In the south a considerable area east of Diwaniya
is commanded by the Daghghara barrage and the acreage under
cultivation has increased. Movement near the Tigris and Euphrates
banks is restricted by the irrigation channels, date-gardens, and culti
vation, though there is still a high proportion of fallow land every
year, because of insufficient labour for intensive cultivation.
There are no recently published maps showing to what extent the
marshlands of the central belt have been reclaimed, and no soil survey
to indicate how much is reclaimable. The Haur Dalmaj seems to be
the only remaining perennial marsh of any size; it is fed by channels