'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From December 1854 to March 1856. (New Issue.) Edited by the Secretary. Volume XII.' [‎61] (172/258)

OBSERVATIONS ON BAGHDAD.
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rah streams. This is a large and profusely watered arable tract of country,
ranging over’nearly five degrees of latitude and longitude, enclosing an area of
available soil which I compute at fifty thousand square miles.
With the exception of Baghdad itself, there is scarcely a fixed abode de
serving the name of town, though Basreh, Korneh, Semameh Hilleh, Mus-
seyle, Hit’Auh Tekrit, Samara, Sulimaniyeh, Khanakin, Mendalli, Badraiand
Jessan are designated with the title. These are, however, the principal spots
where communities of men in this province dwell within walls, though there are
other villages and petty hamlets of mud construction on the Tigris and its tri
butaries north of Baghdad, as well as on the line of the Euphrates south of
Hilleh. On the course of the Tigris and its arms south of the capital, if w r e
except the miserable hamlet called Beled-al-Hye, on the Hye river, there is
not a fixed abode. These great plains in fact are the wandering places of the
nomades, whose various tribes give so much trouble to the government, and
may be said to exist regardless of all laws, but those which are conventional
among themselves.
The most powerful of these tribes are the Montafik, located between Sema-
weh and Basreh, and whose authority extends nominally to the Tigris south
west of the Hye, and south of the Hud Rivers ; the Beni Laam who occupy
the tract, east of the Tigris, from Kut-al-Amareh to the Hud River, and the
Mesapotamian side of the Tigris south eastward of the Hye ; the Zobeide,
who range between file Tigris and Euphrates north of the Hye, as far as the
Saklaweijeh canal to the west-north-west of Baghdad; and the Shammar
Togeh and Deffafeh having their habitat in the great plains east of the Tigris
and south of the Diyaleh, as far southwards as Kut-al-Amareh. In these
tribes are comprehended many powerful families, but in the present brief re
port, I have no time to do more than name those who are nearly independent
of the governing chiefs, and very often at open war with them. These are the
Al-’bu-Mahomed, occupying the marshes north of Karneh and the banks of
the Tigris as far as the Hud stream. Among Arabs they are in no estimation,
being considered of an impure stock, and their occupation as mere buffalo pro
prietors and dwellers in reed huts, further degrades them in the eyes of
those who boast of pure blood, and the profession of a creed which holds
“ border theft and high treason” as the greatest accomplishments in man,
through in these respects the Al-’bu-Mahomed are not deficient, and are
even powerful enough, screened as they are in fens and marshes, to
beard the more aristocratical hordes who contemn them, and who will
not give them tlieir daughters in marriage, though they will ally them
selves with the girls of their tribe. These are esteemed for their
beauty and their <c salt.” It must be confessed, however, that the Al-’bu-Ma-
homed are a despicable set, neither courteous nor brave, but when strong, ca