'Reports of administration for 1918 of divisions and districts of the occupied territories in Mesopotamia. Volume I' [‎168r] (340/470)

the boundary cuts right through the centre of the bund, the difficulty being that
the various sections are not of equal difficulty and to give half to one and half to
the other party to bund would not be just. The result was bickering between
the two sides and constant accusations of neglect by one party against the other.
Yet the natural boundary must run through this bund and would give the
Jazrat and Abu ‘Aran to Shaikh Ziyarah. Shawwai and Salman would bitterly
resent this, and the friction caused this year by the lack of any definite order as
regards the respective shares in the work of the two parties would be repeated,
whatever orders were given.
The matter may be easier of settlement now that Ziyarah has misbehaved himself
in a way that would justify his being deprived of the Shati as a punishment and our
putting back the Shattaniyah boundary to its old position at the Duwaimah Canal.
This would end the trouble of the bund (known as Umm-al-Tuwaiyil).
Ziyarah’s delinquencies consist in his selling the Karun wheat advanced to
him for seed in the ‘Amarah bazaar to assist him to meet his more pressing debts.
His debts are due to his relations with a certain dancing girl called ‘Atiyah, with
whom he has contracted an immoral alliance. Careless of the “ Maradh Faring! ”
which he has contracted, he has now taken her off, with her attendant pimps and
with other dancing girls, to his muqata‘ah, where, I hear, performances are given
for the delectation of the unsophisticated fallah 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. at a rupee a man. Ziyarah has
become a joke and a sore shame to the other Shaikhs and deserves, to my mind,
the sharpest lesson.
General [vide also Report of Political Officer for August and September 1918
and previous diaries by Political Officer and Assistant Political Officer).—It has
helped us in war-time to retain single Shaikhs in large holdings, but there is no
doubt that the muqata‘ahs are in many cases too large for a single farmer. This
applies particularly to the holdings of Muhammad-al-‘Araibi, Majid, Juwi, and
Abu Rishah. As, however, the various Shaikhs have consistently helped Govern
ment, it is not yet the time to split up their holdings into various parts. Nor will
it be easy when the time comes to effect such division. It will only be possible
if we have been able to discover this, and that other Shaikhs or men of Shaikhly
family who have a following and who by virtue of their following and in viev of
their good fortune are able to detract from and counterbalance any foice which the
former holder of the monopoly can bring to bear on the situation. But these are
problems of the future, when the fate of the country has been decided and a settled
administration, shared by the Shaikhs themselves, has come into being. Oj 16
thing is certain: if the Shaikhs were left to determine themselves, there would be
no law save—
“ The good old law, the simple plan
That he should take who has the power,
And he should keep who can.”
Tribesmen, even Shaikhs, have a simple faith politically. They ^ realise the
essential jealousy of each other and readiness to fight, and look to a ^ u j iuma , 1 ,,
to sit in justice over their contentions, and they are content with such a hukumah
if it is impartial and has a genuine interest in their welfare. They expect and respect
strength in their governors. But they look also for good manners and a knowledge
of their language. They will use to the full readiness to intrigue and corruption,
md for the 5 moment appreciate it as something familiar and therefore in their
element But they will not respect it, nor will they fear it, since it is a weapon
familiar* to them. But they fear justice as a weapon, with whose use they are not
acouainted and, on the principle “ omne ignotum pro magnifico,” respect it It
is one of their theoretical virtues whose lack is pardoned m practice as a thing
nprVmman though it figures in their stories in certain examplars as a practicable
md desirable proposition. Wise and respectable Shaikhs will permit themselves
to be bribed a £100 (not less) to cover a crime, but they will appreciate your acumen
•md vour justice if you bring the criminal to book over their heads, granted you
dfnoUn eriere with their £100. And if you interfere with the r £100, other we
md resoectable Arabs who were not fortunate in this opportunity of being bribed,
will ill the more respect your action because they can without apparent hypocrisy
nraise it Such is the Arab, so far as the ‘Amarah Division goes, where the wisest
of all its Shaikhs has lately perjured himself into a solemn assurance of the sound