'Reports of administration for 1918 of divisions and districts of the occupied territories in Mesopotamia. Volume I' [‎21r] (46/470)

35
Mandali District.
!• Po^TiiCAL and Tribal. —Mandali was occupied at the end of September
191/, and so by the beginning of 1918 had begun to settle down to ordered
conditions.
With the occupation of Khaniqin at the end of 1917, Mandali was clear of the
immediate influences of war, and continued to remain so.
It lies off the beaten track, except as a route to Persia, and lately, owing to the
unsettled state of affairs over the Persian border, has for the present almost ceased
to occupy the position of a direct caravan route, most merchants preferring to
bring their goods through Khaniqin owing to the advantages of a main high road
in military occupation.
Absence of proper roads from any quarter make it especially inaccessible in
the winter months, except for animal transport.
The tribal element is Arab, but the populations of the two towns, Mandali
and Qazani, are mainly Turkish or Persian speaking.
(a) Relations with the Wali of Pusht-i-Kuh throughout the year have been
unsatisfactory. Friction has arisen on several occasions owing to the fact that the
Wali still pretends to lay claim to land which, according to the boundaries fixed by
the Turco-Persian Boundary Commission, is definitely within occupied territory.
Frequent cases occur where noted bad characters, guilty of crime in this
district, cross over the border, and, living under the protection of the Wali, are
enabled undisturbed to continue their depredations.
Representations to the Wali meet with little or no response, and the last
communication addressed to him by the Officiating Civil Commissioner (copy
attached, Appendix No. 1 ) with reference to Mandali affairs, has up to the present
remained unanswered. This letter shows clearly the difficulties under which this
district is placed, and the feeling of insecurity which naturally prevails, especially
in the season when the Walks tribesmen are accustomed to descend on this district
for the winter grazing.
(b) s.—Relations on the whole have been satisfactory. In the early
part of the year a fight occurred between the Kuma Sang police and an armed caravan
of the Quachi section of Kalhurs, who were smuggling goods across the border.
Karim Gurda, the noted Kalhur robber, had estranged himself from the tribe
and has been in Pusht-i-Kuh territory. He died in October.
The Kalhurs, according to custom, came down in January and settled in the
lower bills round Makatu, and mention has already been made of the punishment
meted out to them on account of their attack on a survey party in that area.
Sulaiman Khan, chief of the Kalhurs, was in Mandali in January on his way
to visit the Civil Commissioner, and agreed to the levy of Kodah tax on the Kalhur
sheep grazing in occupied territory. With the aid of two representatives appointed
by him, this was collected. They withdrew to the hills in April.
(c) With the exception of the Qarah ‘Aulus Kurds, the tribes in the Mandali
district are Arabs.
The Qarah ‘Aulus are settled in the area between Makatu and Mandali. In
January they were reinforced by the addition of the Jarmawandi section, who for
the previous two years, on account of a blood feud, had been living in the Saumar
valley. Through the intervention of the A.P.O. Captain Hay this was settled,
and the Jarmawandi enabled to return to the main body of the tribe.
Kaka Khan is nominally chief of the Qarah ‘Aulus, but the tribe is a much,
divided one, and he has little authority, except such as accrues to him through
Government support. The Turks were in the habit of changing the chief every
few months.
In addition to being cultivators, the Qarah ‘Aulus have for many generations
carried on solely the function of extracting and transporting the crude oil from the
Mandali oil springs.
With the support of the Government, Kaka Khan has kept the tribe in good
order during the year, and not a single robbery or murder has occurred in the district
under his control.
Smuggling has been rife, and the Qarah ‘Aulus are suspected of carrying on
a prosperous traffic to Persia in rifles, collected by Arabs from those abandoned by
the Turks north of the Diyalah in the Kifri area.
o 2