'Gazetteer of Arabia Vol. I' [‎433] (452/1050)

(224)
BITAIRAH 453
'Awaiji and Chalbath.
'AwaijI and Chalbat; a tract comprising the lands of Rughl, Nishabah, Gusamah and
Ra 'ash, the last and southernmost of which borders on the great Bitairah Hor. It ie
part wheat, part barley, part rice, watered by the big branches called Shak-er-Riyat
about 5 miles from the Tigris, and Talaa about 7 miles from the Tigris.
Umm-uch-Chir and Bdh-al-Hawa,
The Bitairah Hor is about 6 miles broad but nowhere except immediately below the
Bitairah is it more than about 1 foot in depth. At about 4 miles east, south-east
from the debouchure of the Bitairah the Umm-uch-Chir takes off from the northern
bank of the Bitairah Hor and forms the south-eastern boundary of the Ra 'ash lands
watering a large rice tract. It runs towards the north-east, and falls into a Aor half way
between the Tabar or Majar-as-Saghir, and the Bitairah. Large mashhvfs can pass up
the Umm-uch-Chir channel across this central hor and up the Khubaiyir (one of the
branches of the Tabar). The mouth of the Umm-uch-Chir is badly silted up from the
floods of 1915.
• At about 4 miles from the Umm-uch-Chir entrance the big channel of the Bab-al-
Hawa, takes off from the north (eastern ?) bank, of the Bitairah Hor and runs north
east into the Hor Jindalah at the bottom of the Jindalah, the most westerly branch of
the Majar-al-Kabir. There is a through connection for big mashhufs between tho
Bitairah Hor, by the Bab-al-Hawa into the Majar-al-Kabir.
On the south shore of the board Bitairah Hor opposite the Umm-uch-Chir and Bab-al-
Hawa lands, and separated from them by 6 or 7 miles of water, is a large rice tract entirely
surrounded by water comprising Karachi, Haddam, and Abu Dhahab. The principal
place is Haddam where resides a slave of Shaway as his agent.
A mound of ruins close to Haddam where gold ornaments or coins are often found
after rain, gives its name to Abu Dhahab. The whole of the Karaichi-Haddam-Abu
Dhahab tract is liable to submergence and has to be protected against the Bitairah Hor
by expensive dykes formed of clay, rice straw and reeds.
Umm-az-Zora and Laqaqah.
Umm-az-Zora is a long island lying in the middle of the Bitairah Hor to the north-west
of Haddam. It is intersected by numerous channels and mostly covered with tamarkk
having also a certain amount of rice cultivation.
Laqaqah, is a very extensive rice tract lying south-west of Khazinah arid almost
due west of Umm-az-Zora from which it is separated by a comparatively narrow strip
of hor. It abuts on the desert Jazirah. Like Haddam it has to be protected by
expensive d5^kes.
Cereal lands of 'Audah and Shatlaniyah {Bardah, Buraidah, Dawaimah, Al-Bazun, Al-Aisa),
South of the main Bitairah Hor, and partially screened from it by the Haddam block,
lies the smaller Hor-at-Tafra. Round the shores of the latter lie the extensive wheat,
barley and millet lands known as 'Audah ; they are, beginning from the north, Bardah'
Buraidah, Al-Bazun and Al'Aisa. The Muntafiq tribe of Al-Bajun under Shaikh
Falih ibn Abu 'Oja cultivate them. The 'Audah lands seem to be at present (Februarv
1916) entirely submerged.
Shattaniyah is a large isolated tract, lying on the southern side of the Bitairah Hor,
about 10 miles to south-east of Haddam, and forms the extreme outpost of cultivation in
the tail-lands or hazayiz of the Bitairah.
It is separated from the Hor-at-Tafra by about 12 miles of desert called Al-Khidhr,
which is dotted with ruined mounds called 'Al-Hiffa or Huffa. The soil here is very
rich and has two crops yearly, one millet and the other wheat and barley. Shattaniyah
is protected against the hor by exceptionally big dykes faced with camel-thorn.
Bitairah watering.
It seems evident that the flow of the water in the Bitairah might be diminished and
regulated with advantage. Not only is the rice cultivation liable to be swamped, but the
extensive barley and wheat crops in 'Audah and Shattanyiah are often drowned.
The Al-Bn-Darraj Muqata'as lie on the right bank of the Tigris between the 'Azairii
Muqata as of Majar-as-Saghir (on the Tabar and Bitairah rivers) to the east, and the
„ r „ an ' ^ s " rl Muqata'as of 'Ali Gharbi and Gutba beyond the Dnjailah river on the
f