'Reports of administration for 1918 of divisions and districts of the occupied territories in Mesopotamia. Volume I' [‎217r] (438/470)

With the big exception of the Jaf tribe, who enter the district for the cold
weather, the population of the district may he said to be wholly sedentary.
Excluding the Jaf, the population at present probably numbers between twenty-six
and twenty-eight thousand. The Jaf possibly number between two and three times
this number.
There are three towns in the Kifri district, each constituted as a municipality.
Most of the houses in Kifri and Tuz Khurmatu are built of stone and gypsum mortar.
The roofs are built without iron or wooden supports of any kind. Grypsum arches
are first made on the ground and left to dry. Then tbey are erected at intervals on
the walls and the space between them built in of stones and gypsum. Such houses
must be carefully re-covered with mud annually before the rains, which are other
wise liable to soak through and cause the downfall of the structure. Bridges are
made in the same way. The Qarah Tappah houses are built of mud, with the
exception of the Sanniyah buildings and the houses of one or two notables, which
are built extraordinarily well of bricks. The Sanniyah buildings were put up
17 years ago.
Kifri has always been short of wood either for building purposes or for fuel, and
at present wood is almost unobtainable. All the trees, with the exception of a few
fruit trees in the gardens of influential notables, were cut down by the Turks. The
inhabitants at present use brushwood for cooking and other purposes, or, more generally,
charcoal, which is brought in mostly from a Jaf village on the Diyalah and sold at
Ks. 6 a load.
The lack of wood probably decided the peculiar system of building without its
use, except as doors and window frames. Some of the houses display considerable
art in decorated stone pillars and doorways and in the use of marble. The best
masons come from Kirkuk. They appear to have lost all knowledge of the origin
of the masonic signs they have been taught to work.
The design of the Kifri house is a good one for the spring and dry weather. In
winter the houses are cold and cheerless, and to move from upstairs to downstairs it
is necessary in almost every case to go out of the shelter of the house.
The inhabitants of the towns are either Government officials, traders or land-
owners with a town residence. Outside the towns the inhabitants are entirely
cultivators. In some villages, the peasants from several villages are of one tribe and
as such accept the authority of the tribal shaikh, fn Sanniyah lands this shaikh
does not customarily receive any dues from his followers, but the mukhtar of the
Tillage was usually favoured by a light assessment for his services to Government,
although even he received no dues from his 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. , except assistance in his house
building or reaping operations. In other parts of the district a shaikh landowner is
found with a position similar to that of an English squire; he has several villages,
generally of his own tribe, but some from other tribes; there are also a few villages
owned by townees who have no tribal authority over the peasants. In the Qarah
Tappab Sanniyah lands are many villages of mixed inhabitants, who elect a mukhtar
and are afterwards responsible to Government for his behaviour.
9. Industries. —In former times cloth of cotton and cloth of wool was woven
locally at Kifri. At present there is no such industry.
Dyeing is also at present a feeble industry, owing to lack of dyes. The Jaf
make carpets of wools dyed with dyes obtained from Persia. There are practically
no local vegetable dyes, except “ zerdik,” a shrub from which is extracted a yellow
dye.
Stockings are knitted of wool by local women. There are really no industries
peculiar to Kifri, save those of the Jaf women, who make carpets and saddle-bags.
There are no brick kilns.
The mountain streams are utilised to mill grain.
The flour mills are distinguishable by their minaret-like towers, from the top of
which the mill-man may shout when he is ready for another customer, and also keep
off thieves.
Gypsum-preparing and lime-burning are local industries, which fell into
abeyance during the war.
10. Trade.— The district of Kifri produces and exports, in ordinary times, large
quantities of the following : —
Horses (pack), mules, donkeys. These are bred and sold by the Jaf tribe and
exported in all directions.
Sheep and goats. As above.