'The Muntafik. Al Sa'dun, Bani Malik, Ajwad, Bani Sa'id, Bani Huchaim' [‎4r] (12/196)

THE MUNTAEIK.
The tribal league which may be said roughly to occujoy the Euphrates
from Chabaish to Darraji and the Shatt al Gharraf as far north as Kut al Hai
is known as the Muntafik.* The link between the units of which it is com
posed is of the loosest kind, being no more than a common recognition of the
paramount authority of the Sa’dun. This family, which claims descent from
the Prophet and is therefore related to the Sharif of Mecca, migrated from the
Hijaz to Mesopotamia in the early part of the 16th century. According to
local tradition, the southern borders of the ’Iraq were held towards the close
of the ’Abbasid period by two large tribal groups, the Bani Malik (in the
dialect pronounciation Bani Malich) in the Shamiyah under Ibn Khusaibah,
and the Ajwad further north on the Gharraf, under the Al Wathal. The
name of the first ancestor of the Sa’dun who approached their territories is
generally given as Shabib. It is said that Kis son, Mani‘, took to wife a
daughter of the ruling house of the Bani Malik and was presently involved in
a feud between that tribe and the Ajwad. The scale turned in favour of the
latter. The Bani Malik were defeated with considerable loss in a battle in
which Mani‘ was himself killed, and forced to make their escape into Najd,
taking with them Manias son, Shabib, who was the grandson of their owm Shaikh.
After three years of exile, they were reinforced by some sections of the
’Ataibah, one of the most powerful tribes of Central Arabia, and felt them
selves strong enough to take revenge upon their rivals. Legend relates that
Shabib ibn Mani‘ came up to spy upon the camping grounds of the Ajwad
whom he found at the wells of Safwan, a well-known watering place on the
borders of what is now Kuwait territory. On his way back he took note of the
stages of his journey and returned to Najd with a careful report of every
halting place, Wird, ’Azlb, Fallahah, Qirb al ma (water, waterless, sown land,
near water) and so further, until he had completed the tale of the road.
Armed wdth the information he had gained, he led the Bani Malik to Safwan.
where they overthrew and almost exterminated the Ajw r ad, sparing onlv a
handful of men and 40 women, or according to another version of the story,
40 women with child. The remnant, whatever may have been its composition,
took refuge in the Hawlzah marshes, but returned after a short period to the
‘Iraq where they were joined by the Budur, who are a section of the Buwalah
’Anazah, the Shuraifat, a tribe of Southern Arabian origin (Qahtan), and the
Juwarin, long settled in Mesopotamia. Shabib, by virtue of his relationship
with the Al Khusaibah and his military powers, had assumed the leadership of
the Bani Malik, and to him the Ajwad addressed themselves with proposals of
peace. He demanded for the killing of his father, no payment of blood money,
but that he should be accorded the honours of overlord, that they should kiss
his hand wdien they approached him, and that he should not be required to
rise in response to their salutation. To this stipulation, wLich was regarded as
an instance of high generosity, they agreed, and the Bani Malik and Ajwad,
united under one chief, made so formidable a combination that they attracted
a third ally, the Bani Sa’ld, a tribe of the Jazlrah. These three formed and
still form the Muntafik league.
The three divisions as avc know them are not tribes but tribal grouns.
The Bani Sa’ld, w T ho are by far the smallest, appear to be the most co-hesive.
Their district lies as yet beyond our sphere, in the desert between the Tigris
and the Gharraf. Though they own some cultivation on the tail of the great
canals, they would seem to approach the Beduin more closely in their mode of
life than is the case with the other tw'o members of the league, and their con
stituents have the character of sections of a homogeneous tribe rather than that
of independent units gathered into a confederacy.
The Ajwab are the least compact. Their country is on the Gharraf and
on the Euphrates above . and below Nasirlyah; they are therefore mainly in
* The word should probably be written with a Qaf, Muntafiq, (’ittifaq-agreement'.
194 F, & P. I),
s 2