Page 74 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 3

78 THE BEDOUTN TRTBES

The NORTHERN SHAMMAR of the Jezirah are variously esti­
mated. Probably a total of 2,000 tents is not far from the true
figure ; but they have been put as high as 10,000 tents. Their
pasture-grounds'are between the Tigris and the Euphrates, though
occasionally they cross the Tigris in the region of the Lesser Zab.
They come down to Baghdad and even south of Baghdad as'far as
Zobar. To the west they extend to Deir ez-Zor, which is a head­
quarters of the tribe ; thence north up the Khabur and to near
Nisibin they wander over the fertile desert which*’is watered by the
Jaghjagh and its affluents. They are a£ feud with their Anazah
neighbours, both Fed'an and ‘Amarat, and usually on bad terms
with the Kurdish tribes to the north and north-east. Traditional
rebels against Ottoman authority, they slip between the fingers of
the Mutesarrif of Deir and the Vali of Mosul, paying taxes to neither.
They exact dues from the caravans pn the Tigris road and Kot- in­

frequently hold up the traffic along this important link between Asia
Minor and Baghdad, forcing travellers, and sometimes even the
Government post, to take the longer route by Irbil and Kerkuk. The
j
keleks On the river are subject to their exactions also. In 1911, the
cup of their iniquities having overflowed, Nazim Pasl^a, then Vali
of the ‘Iraq, sent an expedition against them under his chief of staff,
Hasan Riza Bey (murdered during the siege of Scutari in the fol­
lowing year). He conducted matters very skilfully. The Shammar
came in without resistance, camel- and sheep-dues, many years in
arrear, were collected at a great camp formed at Hatrah, and the
rights of the tribe over the Mosul road were defined. But the fall of
Nazim immediately afterwards, and the resignation of Hasan Riza, • j
took the heart out of this agreement.
The Shammar of the Jezirah are all under the sheikhly family of
the Jerban, who sprang into political importance about 1830 with
Sheikh Sufuq ibn Jerba, a bitter enemy of the Turks. His eldest son,
Ferhan, was a lover of peace and kept on good terms with the
Government; but the contest was continued by Ferhan’s brothers,
of whom the youngest, Faris, took refuge in J. Shammar with Ibn
Rashid. He returned to the Jezirah in the seventies, and from that
time shared the position of Paramount Sheikh with Ferhan. He
took the camping-grounds on the Khabur, while Ferhan held those
round Mosul, with his head-quarters at Ha_trah, and on the brackish
springs of the Wadi Tharthar. In 1911 ‘Asi, the eldest of Ferhan’s
sixteen sons, was appointed by Hasan Riza Bey Paramount Sheikh
and made responsible to the Government for all Mesopotamian
Shammar. He is a man advanced ’ in years, peaceable and upright. , *