'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎246v] (497/862)

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368 DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION
the tribes co-operated (p. 274). Many of the leading members of the
Sadun family, though wealthy landowners, still keep herds of camels
and lead the nomadic life.
The main confederations of Muntafiq tribes are the Aj wad, theBani
Malik, and the Bani Said. The Ajwad include the cultivating tribes
inhabiting either bank of the Shatt al Gharraf between Qala Sikar
and Shatra, grouped in the Bani Rikab on the west and the Al Humaid
on the east of the river; some sections of the latter are camel-owning
nomads. Southward between Shatra and Nasiriya these are suc
ceeded on the ‘tail’ of the Gharraf by a number of separate tribes
and minor confederations (Bani Zaid, Khafaja, and Azairij). Muntafiq,
including Budur (p. 365), may be found west of Nasiriya along the
Euphrates up to Darraji; the Khafaja are semi-settled shepherds with
large flocks who could raise 3,5 00 men but m ay revert to cultivation
with the improvement of irrigation, as the Azairij have done. The Bani
Zaid, a richer tribe on better lands, count some 2,500 men; they are
related to the Bani Zaid Dachcha of the Euphrates.
The Bani Malik confederation includes the wealthy rice-growing
tribes along the western and north-western shores of the Hammar
lake with Suq ash Shuyukh as their centre. Among them are Ahl al
Kut, rice-growers west of Suq ash Shuyukh, the Bani Khaiqan, a large
tribe between Suq ash Shuyukh and Hammar village, and the partly
nomadic Albu Sali, who live north of the Bani Khaiqan and whose
shaikh is sometimes regarded as head of the confederation. The
southernmost Muntafiq tribes south-west of the Hammar lake are
shepherd and nomadic tribes which seem to be connected with the
Bani Malik confederation (p. 365).
The third major confederation, the Bani Said, are mainly semi-
nomadic shepherd and stock-breeding tribes in the deserts and wastes
between the irrigated lands of the Gharraf and the Tigris swamps.
The territory between the old Euphrates channel and the Hammar
lake from Qurna up to Kabaish is held by several tribes such as Al
Saad and Al Jazair, which had thrown off their allegiance to the
Muntafiq before 1914. Independent shaikhs in mud towers may hold
great authority in this area. Marsh Arabs or Madan are found inter
mingled with the cultivating tribes of the Hammar region.
Baghdad-Diyala Tribes (figs. 6,13,67). This well-watered region of
central Iraq, which for convenience is taken to include the country
between Falluja and Musaiyib on the Euphrates, Shahraban on the
Diyala, and Mandali on the Persian frontier, includes no great tribe or
tribal group but a number of small tribes and the shattered remnants