'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎96v] (197/862)

122 GEOLOGY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE LAND
proximity to Karbala, Najaf, and the site of Hira, there is no more
promising field of investigation for early Moslem Arab contacts with
Iraq.
Rahhaliya is an oasis with about 16,000 palms and a mixed popula
tion with negroid elements. It is surrounded by brackish swamps
and stagnant pools, some sulphurous and fed by springs, but replen
ished by rain and discharge from the western wadis in winter. At
the end of the hot weather the air becomes heavy with the rank smell
of rotting vegetation, fever is rife, and there is much sickness from
recurrent malaria. The people live in fortified enclosures to protect
them from desert raiders.
Shithatha (or Shifatha) is a much larger oasis and stretches for about
7 miles. Musil records (1912) about 600 families dwelling in fortified
enclosures, each with a chief of its own. Gertrude Bell recorded in
1908 that there were 160,000 palms, but that the number was rapidly
diminishing, and that on every side there were groups of headless
trunks of palms. Musil speaks of only 10,000 palms for both Rahha
liya and Shithatha, but writes that there was room for 100,000 more.
A later report gives 200,000 palms for the two oases. There is thus
either considerable variation or an element of uncertainty as to the
correct figure. The gasrs or walled villages, about 17 in number, are
scattered among the date plantations, their enclosing walls being from
9 to 12 feet high and about 1 foot thick. Little is grown in the oasis
except dates and pomegranates, but some wheat and barley are grown
in a basin (jalta) about 4 miles to the west. Water is plentiful, but
most of it issues from the ground in a warm state, slightly salt to the
taste, with an odour of bitumen and sulphur (photo. 56). The smell
passes as the water cools, but the brackish taste remains. Rainwater
is procurable until the end of July from certain hollows, and good
water is not far from the surface. Grazing for horses, sheep, and
camels is good. The oasis does a brisk trade with the surrounding
tribes.
Tuqtagana is another oasis with palm plantations and fortified
village near the mouth of the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Khirr. It appears to lie on the site
of an ancient settlement dating back to Sassanid and Lakhmid times.
Qasr Ukhaidhir, near the mouth of the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Ubaiyidh, is by far
the most imposing ruin in these parts. Within a great square battle-
mented wall nearly 200 yards each way are the ruins of an early Arab
palace with vaulted rooms and corridors, many of them standing
to-day (fig. 31). Like Tuqtagana it probably dates back to the Moslem
conquest or possibly to Lakhmid times (6th century a.d.) (Appendix C).