'Reports of administration for 1918 of divisions and districts of the occupied territories in Mesopotamia. Volume I' [‎38v] (81/470)

m the hopes that they will be sufficiently deceived to give utterance to an opinion
which, as promulgated by the religious dignitaries of the Holy City, cannot fail
to have a disturbing effect upon the common mind.
The merchant of Najaf belongs to a bygone age, an age when merchandise
travelled by caravan through incredible dangers, when the result of a venture was
not known for years, and the minimum remuneration was a 100 per cent. The
Persian pilgrim, drunk with religious fervour, or the wild Bedu, stunned at the
sight of a house, are equally at his mercy. The insecurity of the roads during the
palmiest days of Turkish control, the influx of goods which poured into Najaf after
the battle of Shu‘aibah and which made it for two years the emporium of ‘Iraq,
have not modified his views. He will keep a tin of oil thirty years in his Sardabs in
the hope that the price will rise an anna, and the only remedy is a plantation of
Jews or an importation of Indian marwaris.
The Townsman—The Zuqurt and the Shumurt. —The origin of these two town
tribes or municipal factions is vague, and such stories as do exist as to it are probably
untrue. They are Arab, though inevitably with some Persian blood. For over a
hundred years they have been the dominant factor in the life of the town; by
heredity in a state of almost open war with each other, making the life of any peaceful
citizen a burden to him unless he joined one of the factions and subscribed heavily
to the party funds; openly antagonistic to law and order, and rendering entirely
abortive the feeble attempts of a terrified qaimmaqam, backed up by a battalion
of soldiers, at municipal improvement or any form of Government whatever. So
powerful were they, or so weak was the Government, that the only remedy the latter
could devise was to back the weaker party in the yearly fight.
The outbreak of war and the defeat of the Turks at Shu‘aibah, at which battle
many Najafis were present, gave them their long-awaited opportunity. The Turks
were fully alive to the situation and had taken considerable precautions, but Karim
al Haji Sa‘ad with 30 men succeeded in entering the town, which was then under
martial law, through a hole in the wall in April 1915, and in keeping the Turks at
bay for 24 hours, by which time help had come from outside and the whole town had
risen and joined the insurgents. With 10,000 riflemen against them and their food
and water cut off, the Turks stood little chance and capitulated three days later.
They were disarmed and allowed to depart to Kifl.
From that date till August 1917, Najaf enjoyed complete local autonomy under
the rule of the four Shaikhs of the Zuqurt and Shumurt. How any respectable
citizen survived with bis life or with his money is a mystery. Each quarter was a
law unto itself; murders and street fighting were the order of the day. What must
have been a grimly humorous sight was the evening meeting of the four Shaikhs at
the well-known coffee-house at the beginning of the grand bazaar, when those whom
they facetiously termed their Mamurs brought the day’s spoils which they had
looted under the plea of municipal taxation. This was scrupulously divided into
four equal heaps, and each Shaikh then returned to his house with his share.
Their power they kept up by bands of armed bullies of their own factions.
Their prestige was further enhanced by subsidies from us. The magnitude of their
exactions can be realised when the extent of the property acquired or built by them
is viewed and it is remembered that, with the exception of Sai , id Mahdi, all were
nonentities before this period.
Such was Najaf in August 1917, when Hamid Khan was appointed the first
Government Agent.
(5). Events mShamiyah. and Najaf from August 1917—when the first Government
Agents were appointed—till May 4, 1918, the Blockade was raised —After the
capture of Baghdad and previous to the appointment of Government Agents in
August, we had exercised an indirect control in Shamiyah and Naiaf through
subventions paid to the leading personalities of the area. On the eastern side these
were Salman al Muhammad al ‘Abtan and Salman al Dhahir all of the Khaza'il
For Abu Sukhair and Ja'arah, Saiyid Hadi Zuwain, the influence of whose familv is
considerable m that town, was appointed. In Mishkhab, Mubdir al Fara'un the
head of the Fatlah, was loyal. In Kufah, ‘Alwan al Haji Sa‘dun, of the Bani Hasan
controlled the town owing to his hold over the surrounding tribes
!n Najaf, the power lay in the hands of the four Shaikhs of the town each
controlling his own quarter. These were Saiyid Mahdi al Saivid Salman head of
the Zuqurt; Haji ‘Atiyah Abu Qulal and Kadhim Subhi, both also of^ Ztr
and Haji Sa‘ad ibn Haji Radhi, head of the Shumurt Z q ’