The Water Wars in Furat Al-Hidiya Region

. Dr. Fallah Mahmood Khidhir Al-Bayati, Prof

	The Water Wars in Furat Al-Hidiya Region
KARBALĀʾ HERITAGE Quarterly Authorized Journal Specialized in Karbalāʾ Heritage
Article 1, Volume 2, Issue 3, 2015, Pages 59-95
Author
Prof . Dr. Fallah Mahmood Khidhir Al-Bayati
Abstract
Abstract Iraq has witnessed many combats among its tribes because of the distributed water shares which are devoted for the irrigated lands that belong to these tribes. Furat Al-Hindiya was one of these regions of Iraq that had fights for this reason and its population were also in constant revolts against paying taxes to the authority. This obliged the government to build dikes on the banks of the great rivers to control the rebelled regions or to dry up the marshes that were used by the aggressive tribes there. In this province, the Ottomans had already worked to establish some simple harbors to contain canoes and tiny ships used in waterier regions. So, they could have subdued the tribes in Hindiya. In addition, In 1841, they built a dike on Furat Al-Hindiya River to dry up the Uwaina marsh and then to subjugate Bani Hassan tribes there, as in 1849. The Ottomans themselves tried to punish tribes of Affak and Daghaara in 1869 by blocking out the waters and preventing the cultivated lands there from irrigation. Similarly, the British occupiers used the waters as a punishment over the tribes of Kerbala, for the latter revolted against them, used Furat Al-Hindiya in propulsion of their warships and hit the revolted tribes in Kufa. A British warship was bombed and ruined by the revolted tribes in Al-Raranjiya battle near Kufa during the revolution of 1920.
Keywords
History Heritage Section

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