'Reports of administration for 1918 of divisions and districts of the occupied territories in Mesopotamia. Volume I' [‎218r] (440/470)

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Both these institutions have now heen abolished., a sum of Its. 400 having been
expended to return the inmates to their homes. Vagrancy is now r of small extent
being limited to a few immigrants from Sauj Bulaq area. ’ Diseased prostitutes were
sent to the lock hospital at Baghdad.
o. I ribal. VV e found the tribes in a very different state as to numbers than
that described in Soane’s “ Notes.” I do not believe that all the tribes of this district;
excepting the Jaf nomads, could collect more than 200 armed horse.
After the evacuation of Kirkuk we continued inoccupation of and to administrate
the Qadhaof Kifri. This included the Daudah, Zanganah, Baiyat, Dilo, Zand, Palani,
Kumrijah, Gezh, and sections of the Jaf and Talabani tribes, A section of the
Talabani, under the strong leadership of Sh. Hamid, though outside our defensive
line, openly proclaimed themselves our friends and allies, and in return for this w^e
showed him marks of special consideration among the chiefs of Kifri district, and at
gatherings of chiefs gave him premier position among the chiefs of Kifri, to which he
was not perhaps entitled either by birth or natural influence. At any rate, I w r as not
allowed to forget that be "was entitled to this special lionisation only as an appreciation
of his alliance with us.
The natural leader of the tribes of Kifri is Jamil Beg Baban, and next to him,
Karim Beg Jaf is considered in influence.
The tribal system of this Qadha is in a state of dissolution—a process fostered by
the policy of the Turks since the Hurriyah : in some cases the village headman
acknow ledges no one but the Political Officer as his superior. This seems to simplify
w ork of revenue collection, but makes administration of justice and law 7 and order
more difficult than it is in places where the tribal system persists in its primitive
form. In several parts of the district I have managed to maintain the tribal system
of responsibility for law and order, but all attempts to maintain it for revenue
collection merely led to preposterous delay in its collection or intolerably unfair
treatment of the 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. . But in spite of this the tribal system is worth a good
trial.
A description of the tribes as they exist to-day in the Qadha of Kifri is being
given separately. The history of the tribes during our nine months of occupation is
very shortly given.
On the borders of the Qadha the Talabani under Sh. Hamid were several times
engaged in fights with the Turk-inspired Jabbari tribe.
An old internal feud in the Zanganah at Ibrahim Khanji broke out again and
was patched up by several majlises, but will need a complete settlement.
The ‘Azzah made one or two raids from the Dali ‘Abbas district, till one day
they got such a sound drubbing from the Baiyat that they have been quiet since.
With the exception of the above, the district has heen wonderfully quiet and
normal.
4. Be venue : Land Tenure. —The ; following kinds of land tenure are found in
this Qadha: —
(1) Sanniyah (called Amlak ‘Amiriyah).
( 2 ) Miri Tapu.
(3) Set aside for Auqaf.
(4) Miri (wuth ‘Uqr set aside for Auqaf).
(5) ‘Uqr
( 6 ) Tahrir.
I believe no mulk exists apart from houses and buildings.
Sultan ‘Abdul Hamid acquired some of the best lands in the Kifri district. In
other districts these were called Mudawwarah at the time of the occupation, but in
the Kifri district it seems to have gone a stage further, and they are called Amlak
‘Amiriyah by the ex-Sanniyah Mamurs of the three nahiyahs of the Kifri Qadha.
Qarah Tappah is wliolly Sanniyah. Kifri nahiyah is half Sanniyah and Tuz
Khurmatu is nearly all Sanniyah.
One village (Saiyid Lan) in the Qarah Tappah district is Tapu of Jamil Beg
Baban, principal notable of the district.
The exceptions to Sanniyah in the Tuz Khurmatu district are very small Tapu
estates of the Sadah family and of the Dauda chieftains,, and one or tw r o Auqaf
estates.
That part of the Kifri district which is not Sanniyah is mainly held (Tapu) by
the Jaf Beg Zadah family, sons of Muhd. Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , chief of whom is Karim Beg-i-Eath
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