Marsh Dwellers of the Euphrates Delta

S. M. Salim

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000323382
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Public Affairs & Administration
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Dr Salim, of Bagdad University, spent two years amongst the remarkable tribal peoples who inhabit the great marshes of the lower Euphrates. He describes their social and economic organization and discusses on the one hand the process by which people with bedouin traditions and values have adapted themselves to different and difficult conditions, and on the other the effects upon them of submission to the central government and the modernisation of their modes of life that has resulted from it. His account offers a fascinating study of people living in an unusual environment, and will be of value to the anthropologist and ethnologist for its precise ethnography. At the same time, as one of the few detailed studies of the changes now being wrought on such a large scale by modern economic and political forces, it has real importance for the general student of contemporary Middle Eastern affairs.

Plates

(between pages 70-71)

1. 1. A. Four elders
2. B. Lughmaija channel
3. 2. A. A hut built on a reed platform
4. B. A hut during the flood
5. 3. A. A canoe shop
6. B. A floating platform poled by two men
7. 4. A. A floating platform with hut and buffaloes
8. B. A youth milking a buffalo
9. 5. A. A guest house
10. B. A reed hut in an early stage of building
11. 6. A. A man and boy cutting reed
12. B. A family splitting and skinning reed
13. 7. A. Mats stored ready for collection
14. B. Fishermen's nets spread to dry in the sun
15. 8. A. A dwelling island
16. B. A large sailing boat with labour immigrants to Basra

MAPS AND DIAGRAMS

1. Southern Iraq
2. Ech-Chibayish village, distribution of clans
3. Ech-Chibayish and Hor il-Hammar region
4. Ahl Haji Sari lineage

Introduction

WHEN the Iraqi government entrusted me with the first anthropological field investigation to be carried out in Iraq, I chose to make a study of the inhabitants of the Euphrates Delta. This is largely peopled by descendants of bedouin immigrants, who have adapted themselves in one way or another to life in the marshes. I made a general survey of marsh-dwelling communities in both the Euphrates and Tigris marshes, and used this as a background for a detailed investigation of one large community.¹

¹ In the village of ech-Chibayish, from a January to 34 December 1953.

Having chosen the village of ech-Chibayish for intensive study, I had to find a dwelling, transport, servants, food and reliable informants, not easy in marshland conditions. For a dwelling, I had to rent an island on which to build my reed hut. For transport I bought a little canoe, but as it was unsafe in high water, I had to rely on larger hired vessels for much of my travelling. As it is against tribal traditions to work for wages, it took me nearly three months to secure a good servant paddler and I never found a cook. For food I relied on the village school caretaker who used to cook for some of the teachers.

My major difficulty was the suspicious attitude of the people. Only after three months did I feel the community begin to open out to me. I began to find willing informants and was admitted to any guest house. After about six months, they talked about me as one of themselves. The friendship of the head of Ahl ish-Shaikh clan and of his son were invaluable.

Wherever possible, I participated fully in village life, visiting guest houses and village administrative officers, and I made daily tours in my canoe. I obtained life-histories, and used questionnaire and discussion techniques, with discreet cross-checking of any information obtained. I made a detailed census of 120 families.

My investigations took me to Basra and Baghdad, and to Sũg ish-Shyũkh and in-Nasriya. At Basra I visited the date-packing stations for a week. In Baghdad I obtained some published materials, together with a few statistics and official data from the government offices. I visited Shaikh Salim Ahl Khayũn, the ex-shaikh of Beni Isad, who lives temporarily in Baghdad. We had long discussions and I took down from him a lengthy autobiography. At Sūg ish-Shyūkh and in-Nasriya I consulted some official documents and had discussions with administrative officers.

I made frequent short trips to the more accessible parts of the Euphrates marshes, such as il-Abid, Obū. Saibaya, Lishan, il-Hamrnar, Beni Msharraf, Iabada, and Sūg iah-Shyūkh, and two long tours to Hor il-Hammar and the Tigris marshes, each of which took about a month. Nearly every community in the three big marshes of the Tigris region was visited. These tours enabled me to form a general idea of the Marsh Dwellers and their distribution, and provided a basis for comparison.

My intensive study of ech-Chibayish revealed a community remarkable as much for its pride as for its poverty. Pride in tribal traditions, inherited from bedouin forebears, leads them to despise occupations which would make their life less hard and precarious. They despise all trade and, though forced to live by the export of reed mats, they would be ashamed to produce other goods for sale to each other. Although abjectly poor and perennially in debt, they leave the natural food potential of their marshes largely unexploited, and buy what they consume at exorbitant prices from itinerant traders.

This pride and utter contempt of all trade makes their adjustment to modern market conditions all the more painful. The community is divided into those who uphold tribal traditions, who maintain guest houses and dispense free-handed hospitality, and those who have become business men. The latter live in separate parts of the village, build different houses, eat different food. The traditionalists drink coffee, the modems drink tea. The business men meet to gossip about business, the tribesmen meet to arrange compensation for offences, and the marriages of their girls. The business men are preoccupied with gain; the tribesmen with status. The solidarity of clan and lineage is, however, still immense, and even those who have forsaken tribal traditions in other respects, pay the same contribution as others to the levies which are made for communal lineage or clan obligations.

Although this study was made in the peculiar environment of the marshes, much of what I record is also valid for other rural communities in South Iraq. Clan and lineage organization, corporate responsibility for offences, endogamous marriages, contempt of trade, and love of hospitality, vary little, whether in the marshes, in the desert zones, or in the rich arable plains.

1
The Iraqi Marsh Dwellers

THE Iraqi Marsh Dwellers occupy the low-lying country in the south basin of the twin rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, Their home lies roughly within a triangle drawn between Basra in the south and il-Kut and il-Kifil in the northeast and northwest. This area is not a continuous marsh; and much of the population inhabits the numerous towns and villages along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates. There are also nomadic tribes of bedouin, who pasture their camels and cattle in the plains between Amara and il-Kut, in the two desert barriers dividing the marshes, or west of the Euphrates, between in-Nasriya and il-Hilla.

To the north the marsh region is bounded by the towns of il-Kut on the Tigris and il-Hilla on the Euphrates; to the south by Basra; to the east by the Iranian border, which runs for some distance through the marshes; and to the west by the river Euphrates between il-Hilla and Sūg ish-Shyūkh, and the southern edge of Hor il-Hammar from Sūg ish-Shyūkh to Basra.

The climate of Iraq is characterized by large diurnal and annual ranges of temperature, low humidity, and low rainfall. In the southern plains temperatures range from a cool winter to a very hot summer. The coldest months are December, January and February, when the mean daily temperature varies between 5o°F and 56°F. From March onwards the temperature rises steadily until the hottest months of the year, July and August, when the mean daily temperature is about 95°F. Temperatures may exceed I20°F during the day, yet at night they may fall to 65°F. From September the temperature drops steadily, and by the end of November the winter has set in and frosts may occur.

The rainy season lasts from October to May, and during the rest of the year there is practically no rainfall. The mean annual rainfall is 200 mm. (8 inches). The prevailing wind is the shim l, or north wind, which comes from the mountains of Asia Minor and Kurdistan, and sweeps almost continuously down the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates; in summer It mitigates the great heat.

The marshland of southern Iraq is probably one of the largest in the world. With the alternating stretches of bare desert, it has been estimated to cover as much as 20,000 square miles.¹ The whole country is built up on

¹ L. Dimmock, The Waterways of Iraq. Journal of Royal Central Arian Society, 1945.

Southern Iraq

the old bed of the sea and is formed by silt brought down by the twin rivers. Much of this potentially fertile plain cannot at present be cultivated, because i...