'Reports of administration for 1918 of divisions and districts of the occupied territories in Mesopotamia. Volume I' [‎37r] (78/470)

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into the past. Cut off from the world, but an emporium of trade for the desert,
its appearance does not belie its character—the Holiest City of the Shhahs, a turbulent
desert town, the seat of religious fanaticism and bigotry, of intrigue and turmoil,
oppressive wealth and sanctified poverty, and of a commercial moralitv and practice
which cannot have its equal in the world.
The population of Najaf is estimated at some 45,000 persons. The town of
Kufah, with 7,000, is a suburb and at the same time the port of Najaf. It possesses the
characteristics of the Euphrates river town—a good river front, which will soon be
greatly improved by the river-wall, fine bazars and good buildings gradually
extending along the tram-line towards Najaf.
(c) The Desert. That is the Najaf Sea and the fringe of oases that lie between
it and the Syrian desert proper. Formerly this was under the control of the Political
Officer, Desert, but lately has come again under Shamiyah, an arrangement eminently
suitable, as such cultivation or date groves that exist are nearly all the property
of ISajafis or Shamiyah people. The line of oases from North to South is Hayadhiyah,
Ruhaimah, Rahabah and A1 Qaim. At Hayadhiyah there are good date groves,
at Ruhaimah fine wheat is grown, while the Sea of Najaf itself, now dried except for
accumulations of rain water by the construction of the Qurnah dam, offers great
possibilities for flow irrigation from the Euphrates.
The whole is a country of infinite variety of scenery. The oases of the Syrian
desert, a holy city in which it is possible to realise the truth of the characters in the
“ Arabian Nights,” the prosperous commercial town of the Euphrates, the dense
date groves of Basrah, the wheat and barley lands of Hindiyah, the rice lands of
Amarah, the marshes of Qurnah, all are there. Through it flows a river in its upper
reaches equalling the Tigris in horror, in its lower vying with the Thames in beauty.
And so with the people, the nomad, the riverain settled Arab, the Mujtahid, the
merchant and the holy poor. A 100 years’ study could not read their character
and a thousand pages could not portray it.
(2) Trade and Communications. —Najaf and Kufah lie on the old pilgrim road
from Baghdad to Mecca, a road which continues beyond to the borders of China.
This road is still used for pilgrim traffic and for trade with the Shammar of Northern
Arabia, who in normal times bring in their caravans of wool and ghi to exchange
for rice and piece goods. The main channel of communication is, of course, by river,
and there are few parts of the district which, owing to the large canals, are not
accessible by bellum. Najaf and Kufah are connected by tram, which with
improvement and increase of rolling stock will inevitably absorb the very large
trade of the town. The road to Ja‘arah takes a certain amount of traffic, mainly
market produce, from the Shamiyah to Najaf.
The communications with Baghdad lie by river to Kifl and thence by rail, or
by motor road from Kufah via Qakat ‘Abbasiyah to Hillah.
The Karbala road will probably fall out of use unless a light railway should be
built between the two towns, communication being far easier by boat.
As regards lateral communications, a good road runs between Kufah and Abu
Shorah on the Shamiyah Channel, and between Abu Sukhair and Umm al Ba‘rur
a road will probably be constructed at no distant date, though the result of this
year’s flood on the island must be seen before such work is midertaken. From
Umm al Ba c rur a direct road is in course of construction to Diwaniyah on the Hillah
Channel.
Bridges exist at Kufah, and at Qakat ‘Abbasiyah on the Shamiyah Channel,
and there are ferries taking a large volume of traffic at Abu Sukhair, on the Kufah
Channel and at Abu Shorah, Umm al Ba‘rur, Umm Shawarif and Ghammas on the
Shamiyah Channel.
The geographical position of Kufah from the point of view of trade is of great
importance. It lies in the great rice-growing district of Mesopotamia, and so is a
collecting centre for a raw product which is marketable directly to Najaf or the
Beduin or which can be exported North to Baghdad.
The movement of trade is the export of rice to the desert or Northwards, and
the import of manufactured goods direct from Basrah and, in a small degree, from
Baghdad for home consumption or for re-export to the desert.
(3) Turkish Administrative Divisions. —Under the Ottoman Government the
town of Najaf was a qaimmakamlik controlled by the Mutasarrif of Karbala.
Under the control of this qaimmakam also came the Nahiyah of Kufah, at which
place a Mudir was stationed, and which included Abu Shorah and Hor al Dukhn.