'Reports of administration for 1918 of divisions and districts of the occupied territories in Mesopotamia. Volume I' [‎96v] (197/470)

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Siege of Najaf. —The operations against Najaf, consequent on the murder of
Captain Marshall, were watched with a great deal of interest by the tribes.
Fortunately the Bani Hasan have for some years been on terms of open enmity
with the people of Najaf, and the bountiful harvest which was just maturing
prevented any fear of active sympathy with the rebels. The general feeling
throughout the district seemed to be that, while not wishing to see the holy places
interfered with in any way, it was recognised that the British Government would not
allow its officers to be murdered with impunity. There can be no doubt that the
conduct of the operations against Najaf and the subsequent punishment of the
guilty persons caused a very deep impression. The general opinion was aptly voiced
by one of the leading Shaikhs : “ Never have we seen Siyasi like this. In the time
of the Turks the guilty invariably escaped and the innocent invariably suffered.
You punish the guilty and have done no harm to the innocent.”
2. Revenue : Land Revenue .—The larger part of the district is miri land,
paying one-third of the gross produce on winter crops and one-half on summer.
Almost the whole of the Abu Gharaq Shu‘bah is mudawwarah, or former Crown land,
of ’Abdul Hamid, and the share of Government on this is 44 per cent, on winter
and summer crops—a little actually; however, it was not attempted to collect the
full amounts this year, except in the case of “ miri ” winter crops, on which
33Jrd was collected, of which 2Jrd per cent, was paid as bonus to Sarkals and 1 per
cent, to the Shaikhs. On “ miri ” summer crops, rice paid 30 per cent, and other
crops 25 per cent., in each case 2 per cent, being paid to the Shaikh and 3 per cent,
to the Sarkal. Mudawwarah paid 36 per cent, on winter crops, 3|rd per cent, being
paid as bonus as in the case of miri lands, while summer crops were assessed alike
in both mudawwarah and miri land.
The assessing of the Government share was a matter of real difficulty. The
Turkish method, nominally based on a combination of measurement and estimation,
really resolved itself into a series of bargainings between the greedy underlings
of the Turkish administration and the local Shaikhs and Sarkals, and the only thing
that may be said to have been beyond dispute was that never by any chance did
anything but a fraction of the nominal Government dues ever find their way into
the Treasury. Under the circumstances uniformity of method of assessment, even
within the narrow boundaries of the Hindiyah district, was impossible of achievement.
Winter crops were assessed on the basis of measurement by the Irrigation Department
and Ciop Experiments; rice was assessed on the Turkish method of measurement
and estimation, while other summer crops were assessed by estimation pure and
simple. The assessment of winter crops was very much a leap in the dark; at the
commencement of operations it was quite uncertain whether the Irrigation Depart
ment would be able to give figures sufficiently accurate to form a basis; whether
it would be possible to arrive at a satisfactory rate of yield to apply to the Irrigation
figures, and whether the tribes would accept an assessment, the basis of which they
looked upon with the deepest suspicion. The leap was taken, however, and the
results were probably at least as accurate as those attained by other methods
while a beginning was made of the only possible method by which accurate results
can be attained. The tribes on the whole were satisfied that their lands had been
fairly assessed. Winter crops were collected in kind, while on all others Government
revenue was collected in cash. The total Government demands are as shown below
Winter Crops.
Barley
Wheat
Summer Crops.
(а) Dukhn
( б ) Idhrah Baidhah -
(c) Idhrah Safrah -
{d) Lubyah
(e) Mash - - .
(/) Sesame
(g) Cotton
(h) White rice -
(^) »>
Kilos.
3,320,976
248,995
Cash Assessment.
77,956
1,181
2,489
3,945
22,990
1,280
0,510
336,660
290,844
7,795/ 0/0
177/ 3/0
373/ 0/0
789/ 1/0
2,989/ 0/0
575/ 5/0
306/ 0/0
53,865/12/0
37,810/ 2/0