'Reports of administration for 1918 of divisions and districts of the occupied territories in Mesopotamia. Volume I' [‎37v] (79/470)

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Abu Sukhair was a qaimmaqamliq under the Mutasarrif of Diwamyah, and included
in his charge were the Nahiyahs of Shinafiyah, Ghammas, and Umm al Ga rur, at
which there were Mudirs. Shu‘bah establishments also existed at Umm al J3a rur,
Abu Sukhair, Mishkhab, and Ghammas.
A battalion was stationed at Najaf, and various police posts were scattered
throughout the district, which was certainly the most unpopular and probably
the most dangerous in ‘Iraq.
Post and telegraph offices existed at Najaf, Abu Sukhair, and Umm al Ba rur,
and, theoretically at least, there w'as a quarantine station at Najaf to deal with
the corpse and pilgrim traffic.
(4) General Character and Distribution of Inhabitants .—The names and location
of the various tribes inhabiting the Shamiyah Division are given in some detail
in the Arab Bureau’s publication, “ The Euphrates Channels,” and the character
of the more prominent personalities in such degree as they have up to the present
displaved themselves, is added as an appendix to this Report. The main confedera
tions are the Bani Hasan, the Fatlah, and the Khaza‘il. But the tendency, carefully
fostered by the policy of the Turk and the granting of large Muqata‘ahs to Saiyids,
who soon gather around them fallahs Arabic for ‘peasant’. It was used by British officials to refer to agricultural workers or to members of a social class employed primarily in agricultural labour. from every tribe to become permanent
settlers on their lands, is for definite splits into different subsections owing no
allegiance but to the Shaikh of the subsection and Government. The Jarrah no
longer admit the Shaikh of the Bani Hasan as their overlord, nor do the ‘Awabid.
The Shibil, Al Ibrahim, and Ghazalat do not acknowledge the chiefs of the Khaza‘il.
It is easy to multiply instances.
To arrive at even an approximately just estimation of the character and habits
of the people, urban and rural, it is necessary to survey, however briefly, the history
of Shamiyah and of the town of Najaf in the past. The prevailing characteristics
of the Najafi and the Shamiyah agriculturist are profoundly different, but each
has not been without his influence on the other, a mutual influence which security
and improved communications can only increase.
The Tribes .—To consider the tribes first. Only 50 years ago the Khaza‘il
were the kings of the Middle Euphrates, owning a merely nominal allegiance to
the Turk, and entirely absolved from revenue. At about this time, however, the
Hillah channel began to decay, and the increased flow of water down the Hindiyah
channel soon began to show its results in a tendency of Euphrates tribes to migrate
from the Hillah and the Upper Hindiyah to the Shamiyah. The Turks were not
slow to seize this Heaven-sent opportunity to break the power of the Khaza‘il by
the introduction of alien and hostile tribes. They also brought in another experi
ment designed towards the same ends, the grant of large areas to Saiyids. Some
of these Saiyids claim to have obtained possession of the land before even the
appearance of the Turk in this area, but there is no doubt that the majority were
introduced by the Turks, and that even those whu -may have been there before
were encouraged and their claims regarded favourably by the Ottoman Government.
There is another theory that the Khaza‘il themselves created the power of the
Saiyids owing to the respect they had for them.
That the Turks effectively broke the Khaza‘il confederation is a self-evident
fact, but that they themselves did not gain any direct influence or revenue and
failed completely to administer the country is equally obvious. The sole result
of their efforts was the replacement of a powerful confederacy by a number of
large landed proprietors, Shaikh or Saiyid, enjoying almost complete local autonomy,
preying at wall upon a weaker or less fortunate neighbour, and regarding with only
too well-justified contempt the feeble attempts of corrupt officials to collect one per
cent, of the revenue demand. The rapidly increasing prosperity of the Shamiyah,
the distance from Baghdad, and the proximity of Najaf, as always a centre of
intrigue and rebellion, all contributed towards a feeling of independence and
confidence in their own abilities which made the Shamiyah Shaikhs both the terror
and despair of the Ottoman Government. The attempt to collect the rice revenue
was invariably the prelude to quite extensive autumn manoeuvres on the part of
several battalions, and the murder of the hated Sunni official was an agreeable
pastime. With the Fatlah alone, whom they themselves had introduced and who
are the hereditary enemies of the Khazahl, did the Turk retain any influence, and
this was owing to the ability of Mubdir al Fara‘un.