'Reports of administration for 1918 of divisions and districts of the occupied territories in Mesopotamia. Volume I' [‎159v] (323/470)

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and Shaikh Qubashi was appointed Mudir in his place. This step received a little
feeble opposition from Malzum, but Qubashi soon made good his position, and now
has the Bani Malik thoroughly in hand.
The Albu Bakhit are a lawless marsh tribe, inhabiting the marshes along the
railway between Sakhrichah and Ezra’s Tomb. They had given considerable
trouble in petty thefts from the road and river, but they surpassed all their previous
efforts by perpetrating robberies on a big scale from supply trains, and it was with
these people that Muhammad Nuri was suspected of conniving. In January, five
of their villages were burnt, and that action was effectual in stopping their thefts,
the more so as immediately after that action had been taken a spell of particularly
cold wet weather was experienced. Shaikh Qubashi has them now well in hand,
and they are giving no trouble.
Bait Haddad and the section of the A1 Fartus near Ezra’s Tomb are well-
behaved semi-marsh tribes, whose chief occupation is breeding buffaloes.
Almost all the land in this Nahiyah belongs to the Mandils of Basrah, and is
very fertile. Owing to road and railway construction having taken away all the
people, no cultivation was done during the first three years of British occupation;
but this year the whole of the cultivable land was made use of and good results
obtained. The people are good cultivators and, the women especially, good coolies A term used to describe labourers from a number of Asian countries, now considered derogatory.
for building bunds and making roads.
(2) Nuhairat, Bani Mansur, and Muzair'ah .—The Nuhairat Nahiyah includes
also Nahr al Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. and Huwair al Sa‘ad. Its Shaikh is Qubashi, who is a man
of very great influence and no small capability. He keeps his Nahiyah in good
order, and readity gives any assistance he can in the work of Government.
The tribesmen are closely related to those of Bani Mansur and to MuzaiFah,
though the latter has a considerable admixture of tribesmen from Huwaizah
district. They are mostly river men and the bulk of the muhailah crews are recruited
from them. •
Of Bani Mansur, half is enclosed by a circular bund and half is not, the former
part being very well kept, containing very fine date gardens and producing some
wheat. The unenclosed part has patches of date-trees and produces a considerable
quantity of millet.
The Muz air 4 ah lands are owned by ‘Abdul Karim ibn Falih Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. al Sa‘dun
and have been sequestrated during the war. Much of the estate has not been
cultivated within the memory of man. The inhabitants of MuzaiPah are industrious
cultivators, who make the best use of the land which can be cultivated. Nuhairat,
Bani Mansur, and Muzair ah are all under Shaikh Qubashi, and each Division of
the Nahiyah is under the direct supervision of one of his sons, Jasim being responsible
to him for Bani Mansur, Qata‘*for Muzair‘ah, and Paris assisting him at Nuhairat.
(3) Suwaib. The Suwaib Nahiyah lies on the left bank of the Suwaib River
and the left bank of the Shatt al Arab, but includes also an estate on the right bank
of the Suwaib River which belongs to Haji Musa al ‘Ataiyah of Basrah.° Shaikh
Chiyad has a somewhat flimsy hold over most of the tribesmen, as those on the
Shatt al Arab, who are settled and belong to the Maivah tribe, are very largely
under the influence of Saiyid Musa, who is no friend of Chiyad’s, while the tribesmen
along the Suwaib are nomads who live part of the year in Suwaib and part of the
year in Huwaizah. The greater part of the Nahiyah becomes totally submerged
during the flood season, and the only cultivation is done on a small strip of land
along the Shatt al Arab and on small pieces at the mouth of the Suwaib. There
is considerable ill-feeling between Suwaib and Nashwah, which is always liable to
give a little trouble.
t This Nahiyah, which lies along the left bank of the Shatt al
Arab from the boundary of the Suwaib Nahiyah to the boundary of the Basrah
Sanjaq opposite Nahr Umr, has suffered very largely from the drain of coolie A term used to describe labourers from a number of Asian countries, now considered derogatory. labour
for Basrah The destruction caused by the high floods of 1914 and 1915 caused
considerable agricultural depression, and the bait offered by the high wages prevalent
m Basrah drew away large numbers of the inhabitants of Nashwah. These have
remame m asrah, leaving their lands uncultivated, and the result is that there
are scarcely enough people left to cultivate the lands at their disposal. In this
Nahiyah the cultivated belt on the river bank widens considerably, but the lands
have for a long time been badly tended, with the result that what was once covered
with date gardens is now almost innocent of trees, though the gardens immediately
round the village are well tended and fruitful. The Mandils and certain Sa‘duns