'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎347r] (696/862)

PORTS AND INLAND TOWNS
a centre of Shia learning. The peak of the pilgrim season is in Moharram
month, when the passion play and mourning procession for Husain cause
scenes of great excitement. The townsmen are divided into five tribes or
wards, Bani Saad, Salalma, Wuzum, Tahamza, and Nasariya. There are
many wealthy landowning shaikhly families, such as the Kammuna Zada
of Persian extraction, the Arab Awwad, and the much respected A 1 Baari
whose forebears buried Husain. There is a British vice-consulate mainly
for the administration of the Oudh bequest, left by the Raja King of Oudh in the
eighteenth century for the support of the faithful at Karbala and Najaf.
Water is pumped from the Husainiya canal to tanks. Electricity is
supplied for lighting by a municipal plant (44° D-d).
Communications
Rail: A branch-line connects east with the Baghdad-Basra line at
Hindiya junction (Rly. 1).
Road: Karbala is a route centre linking desert tracks to the road system
of the Middle Euphrates area. Motorable tracks go south [17] to Najaf and
Shabicha, west-south-west to Ukhaidhir and Nukhaib [16], following the
general line of the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Ubaiyidh, and west to Shithatha oasis: roads
[2c] north-east to Musaiyib and south-east [zb] to Hilla.
Air: Landing-ground 2 miles south-west of the town.
Khanaqin. 34°2TN., 45°23 , E.; alt. c. 660 feet. Pop. 8,000. Qadhacap.,
Diyala Liwa. Rainfall station (Rlys.).
The town lies among date- and fruit-gardens on both banks of the Al-
wand (Hulwan) river, 5 miles from the Persian frontier. Most of the in
habitants are Kurds and Lurs with some Arabs, Jews, Persians, and Turks.
The town is a base for the Khanaqin Oil Company and is a customs station
on the Baghdad-Kermanshah road, which forms the main route for Persian
pilgrims visiting the holy cities and carries the greater part of the land trade
between the two countries.
In ancient times Khanaqin was a bridge town on the main trade route
by the Zagrian gates to the Persian plateau and the Far East (the Khorasan
road’ of the Abbasids), 16 miles south-west of the Sassanid town and palace
of Qasr-i-Shirin. It also drew revenues from the naphtha springs in the
neighbourhood. It has suffered continual inroads since the weakening of
the Abbasid power, from the descent of Hulagu on Iraq to the incursions
of the Persian Safawids and the arrival there of the Russians in the present
century, during the War of 1914-1918, when it suffered greatly from their
ravages, from Turkish reprisals, and from famine.
General Description
The plain around Khanaqin is watered by numerous irrigation canals,
and there are many pleasant gardens around the town where dates, lemons,