'Field notes: Mesopotamia. General Staff, India. February, 1917.' [‎39r] (84/350)

69
bates
ettled,
2 have
others
'S, but
. The
most
rlyiug
must ,
)f the
pres-
ladily
t the
amia,
nsiou
£ the
rkish
icor-ls
stori-
itil a
,y be
i the
istat-
ture,
laiiaia
riant
i and
icome
profit
camel
i place
:ogress
in the
jmaiic
assure
;ed to
r th^
would
Is and
bbod
and tradition and not infrequently fragments of very ancient
and famous Arabian tribes are present among the cultivators
upon the outer limits of Arabian migration. Thus in Mesopo
tamia the Bani Tamin, who are divided among various big
tribal groups, were masters of the whole of Central Arabia
before the time of the Prophet and still form a large part of
the Oasis population—their first ajppearance in Mesopotamia
dates from about the beginning of the Mohammadan era; and
the Khazraj, now found chiefly on the Persian frontier, sup
plied by their martial exploits in the southern deserts much
of the romantic stock in trade of the pre-Mohammadan poets.
It follows from the conditions under which settlement has
been effected that the old tribes are often widely scattered
along the edges of the cultivated land, large units which once
ranged over extensive stretches of desert having been split
up and thrust apart by the intrusion of others. For example,
the Jubur, a tribe now only half nomadic, are found along the
Tigris as far north as Mosul, as well as on the eastern frontiers
of Syria, and the Zubaid are divided between Mesopotamia and
the volcanic districts east of Damascus.
The transition from a nomadic to a settled life is always a
slow_ process and the very doubtful security offered by Turkish
administration did not tend to hasten it. Except in the
immediate neighbourhood of big towns, such as Baghdad and
Basrah, tribal organization has not been relinquished, tribal law
and customs hold good and tribal blood feuds continue to be a
terrible scourge. A periodical reversion to tents is common
and even the reed villages are semi-nomadic, shifting frequently
from place to place. The puzzled map-maker may find his last
addition to geographical knowledge removed, almost before his
eyes, from the spot assigned to it in his survey and re-erected
on another site. But the rising value of land tends to pin down
these restless husbandmen and no sooner do they settle than
their numbers increase out of all comparison with those of their
hungry if prouder brethren, who neither plough nor harvest
tlm wilderness. The Muntafiq confederation occupy 7 an area
which in round figures extends 65 miles from east to west and
50 miles from north to south, and number, at a rough estimate,
not less than 200,000 souls, whereas the whole of the great
Badawin group of the Anazah, which peoples the Syrian desert
from Aleppo to the sands of Central Arabia, can scarcely be
reckoned at a higher figure.