'The Muntafik. Al Sa'dun, Bani Malik, Ajwad, Bani Sa'id, Bani Huchaim' [‎6v] (17/196)

6
The Committee of Union and Progress had been temporarily overthrown r
in November 1912, and Saiyid Talib was paramount at Basrah and in favour
with the Wali, who was a creature of Kiamil Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. . ’Ajaimi was declared an
outlaw, owing to his attack on Mizyad; the Ealih family was received into
full official favour, and the Ocmmittee partisan, Earid Beg, was removed from
his post at Nasiriyah. ’Ajaimi, irritated by these events, threatened an
attack on Basrah in November 1912 and there was a panic in the town, which
Saiyid Talib had helped to put in a position to defence. ’Ajaimi was, however,
dissuaded from pressing his attack and retired.
In January 1913 the Committee resumed power, by a coup d'etat culmin
ating in the murder of Nazim Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. and the removal from office of Kiamil.
The partisans of the Committee were immediately installed in power in
Basrah and ’Ajaimi once more found himself on the side of the Turkish officials,
while Saiyid Talib was in opposition. Finally in June 1913, Saiyid Talib
stood forth at Basrah threatening open rebellion against the Turks. The
Committee then evolved the scheme that ’Ajaimi’s old friend, Earid Beg
should he sent from Baghdad to be Military Commandant of Basrah and if
possible arrest or kill Saiyid Talib, while ’Ajaimi with his tribesmen should
help against Basrah from the desert. ’Ajaimi’s hands were set free by a
reconciliation patched up by the officials of Samawah between him and the
Dhaflr tribe. He advanced against Basrah and Saiyid Talib’s assassination
was expected at any moment, but Saiyid Talib suddenly got in the first blow
and had Farid Beg assassinated in open day in c Ashar. ’Ajaimi then retreated
and is said to have complained subsequently that he had not been properly
supported by the Turks.
During the whole of 1913 the Muntafik country remained in disorder,
’Ajaimi was now apparently officially recognised as Shaikh of the Muntafik,
but was unable to control the tribes. He worked in concert with Ibn Bashld
against the Dhaflr. In April 1914 the Wali visited Suq al Shuyukh and saw
’Ajaimi and a new plot seems to have been concocted against Saiyid Talib,
who had meanwhile been growing in power at Basrah. In May 1914 adher
ents of ’Ajaimi began to drift into Basrah and Saiyid Talib was once more in
danger of assassination but he took so firm an attitude that the Wali banished
’Ajaimi’s adherents from the town. ‘Ajaimi remained, hanging about not
far from Zubair, until war broke out in November 1914, when after some
show of indecision, he threw in his lot with the Ottoman Government.
The tribes have n(frer acquiesced in the degradation in their status from
landowners to tenants, nor have the Sa’dun been able to enforce to the full the
rights they acquired from the Ottoman Government. With the weakening of
the central authority since the beginning of the constitutional era in 1908, and
the general deterioration in local administration which followed on the Italian
and Balkan wars, the official sanction for which the Sa’dun bartered their
old tribal prerogative has proved a broken reed. For several years before the
British Occupation the tribes had refused to pay rent, and their attitude is one
of extreme unvillingjiGss to be drawn back into the state of subserviency
which was imposed upon them. At the same time the prestige of the Sa’dun
chiefs, combined with the sedulous preaching of the Jihad by pro-Turkish
Saiyids, and the yet stronger inducement offered by the immediate rewards of
war, whether they took the form of loot or of Turkish subventions, brought the
Muntafik league out against us in 1914. The work of pacification & began
with the occupation of Nasiriyah and Suq al Shuyukh in July 1915 and in
spite of the proximity of hostile influences, has made fair progress ; 'but no
finai settlement of the Muntafik district can be reached until the rival agrarian
claims of Sa dun ail tribesmen have been adjusted.