'Military Report on The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company's (South Iranian) Oilfield Area' [‎11r] (28/150)

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main groups east of the river, and a third in the Abadan-Moham-
merah (Khorramshahr) area. In addition to those groups there
are some 20,000 Arabs situated east of the Karun who belong to
no tribal confederation. The various groups are given in detail
in Appendix I.
Some of the tribes are settled, others are nomads, and others
again are in a transitional stage between the two modes of life,
but all are Arabs and are similar in character and customs. As
there is no difference of race, a constant interchange of sections
occurs. Intertribal feuds, bad harvests, and the migratory
ha bite of some have, in the past, caused whole tribes to disperse
and be merged into other groups. The tribal system is thus by
no means rigid or permanent. It prevails only to a limited
extent throughout Arabistan (Khuzistan), as the Iranian Govern
ment’s policy of actively assisting the disintegration of the tribal
system has met with marked success ; in a very few years it
will have disappeared completely.
In 1925, Sheikh Khazal of Mohammerah (Khorramshahr) was
removed and remained virtually a prisoner in Tehran until his
death in July 1936. Since then the power of the smaller
sheikhs has been completely broken and the tribes themselves
disarmed. Iranian officials have been sent to the more impor
tant tribal centres to administer the affairs of the tribes. Road
Guards (Amnieh) have been established, and customs and
revenue officials posted in these centres. The tribesmen have
been left undisturbed to lead their ordinary existence. Each
small group or section is under its headman, but the latter now
receive their orders not from hereditary sheikhs but from the
officials appointed by the Iranian Government.
This almost complete disintegration of the tribal system, com
bined with economic causes, has led numbers of tribesmen to
migrate to Abadan to seek employment w r ith the A. I. 0. C., or
to Ahwaz to work on the trans-Iranian railway. Others have
moved into the date-growing belt along the Shatt-el-Arab.
The fighting strength of the Arab tribes is estimated at
40,000. The extent to which the tribesmen have been disarmed
is largely a matter of conjecture. Whatever quantity of arms
and ammunition they have been able to retain in secret, the
authority of the Government has completely put a stop to the
open carrying of arms, and security, even in remote districts, has
been effectively established. Energetic measures on the part of
the customs authorities render smuggling of arms a difficult and
dangerous business. It is, therefore, improbable that the num
ber of secret arms is more than a few hundred.