Thanks to “Iraq Update” for its wealth of scholarly resource. This piece exploring the mysteries of the  Marsh Arabs, so often persecuted by those around them, is a window into a world apart.

Some small excerpts:

Encyclopædia Britannica (1911 edition)


From an archaeological point of view, the Iraqi marshes are still largely terra incognita. Reports from travellers suggest that traces of ancient settlements are exceedingly rare, probably because they consisted of reed-hut villages similar to those of today, which have completely disappeared or lie buried beneath several feet of mud and water. It is hoped, however, that modern methods – such as the use of helecopters – will eventually open to exploration a region which is by no means lacking in historical interest.”
Georges Roux, Ancient Iraq, 1964. Reprinted in 1992

“…Memories of that first visit to the Marshes have never left me…Firelight on a half-turned face, the crying of geese, duck flying in to feed, a boy’s voice singing somewhere in the dark, canoes moving in procession down a waterway, the setting sun seen crimson through the smoke of burning reedbeds, narrow waterways that wound still deeper into the Marshes…”

The Marsh Arabs, Wilfred Thesiger,1964