The Marsh Arabs

Reeds in the Wind - The Ma'dan

Iraq is proud to call itself Messopotamia - it's even on the immigration stamp and most government crests and logos.  The mythical "Land of the Marshes", called that because of the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers which flow through most of the south is a beautiful albeit rough desert country, but in my limited experience, Iraq is undoubtedly more - a lot more - than the marshes.  There’s enough history - both ancient and much more modern - and monuments to fill not one, but ten excursions and, some would argue, a dozen lifetimes.  From the land of the Kurds in the north (which will be the subject of another trip very soon, so watch this space) to the land of the marshes in the south, there are countless things to see and stories to tell.  However, for me, this time, it was all about th Ma’dan and the land of the Marshes.

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Watching the sun set deep into the marshes is an almost spiritual experience, one of near perfect stillness and silence, rarely punctuated by birdcalls and the occassional boat returning home
The land between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers has been an incredible area of stunning landscapes, mind-blowing biodiversity and, for the last 6,000 years, home to more than 50 different tribes,  people collectively called the Ma’dan.  There, among the reeds and the ever-changing waterways and islands, more than a hundred thousand people have lived, fought, created and died for centuries.  Unfortunately, things that had stayed pretty much the same for millennia have suffered such seismic changes in the last 40 years it poses the question: what’s left of the Ma’dan and their way of life?
Before we get into the trip however, a short - I promise - history lesson:The tribes of the Ma’dan have populated the land of the marshes for thousands of years.  Tribes have grown and waned, fought and merged but in essence they have followed the growth of the marshes over the centuries.  As the waters flowed and expanded beyond the banks of the rivers, the different tribes would seek new lands and as they occupied different landscapes, their lifestyles would evolve - as they took over really fertile grounds, they would grow crops such as barley and rice, when the waters receded they focused on livestock and hunting and so forth.
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Women, even those from ultra conservative families, will regularly venture out into the marshes, to gather reeds, collect fish caught in the family's nets or traps
Over the centuries, different tribes because different things and, come the early 20th century when Wilfred Thesiger, funded and supported by the Royal Geography Society, spent 3 years among the Ma’dan, they had pretty much settled into a relatively stable tapestry of cultures and traditions.  In Thesiger’s book “The Marsh Arabs”, he presents this tapestry as incredibly colourful, fierce and filled with compassion, love and hospitality.
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And then Saddam came along (well, not immediately, but in terms of an arrival it’s significant enough) and everything changed.  And not for the better.  As his fanatical and tyrannical reign over Iraq grew, the few pockets of resistance fighters found refuge into the marshes where the water and soft ground could not support Saddam’s heavy artillery, tanks and other vehicles - heck, even moving troops into the marshes against guerrillas proved to be a losing battle for many years.  But Saddam was not to be deterred - after all, you cannot be a proper dictator if the southern half of the country still resists, right?  So he built great big dams along the Tigris and the Euphrates and within a year drained the entire land of the marshes!
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Now his mechanised units could build roads and bunkers and move straight into the dry landscape and eradicate the fighters.  The Ma’dan “responded” by leaving the marshes and going to Kuwait and Iran, leaving less than 5,000 people behind who, over the next decade, suffered deprivations, starvation and death with reportedly fewer than 2,000 surviving to the end of Saddam’s reign.  And then, one day, Saddam was gone.  Within a week the Ma’dan pulled down the dams and let the waters flood back onto the marshes, restoring almost 75% of them within a year!  Over the next 12 months more than 60,000 Ma’dan returned to “reclaim” their ancestral lands.
Of course, reclaim is a loose term in this case: the old tribal lands were gone and were impossible to prove, tribal leaders were gone and as their identities were tied to the land, a lot of the old tribes either disappeared or were merged until very little of their original identities were left.  This day, very few of the marsh dwellers remember their old tribal names and you can find representatives of tribes spread across the marshes in ways which would have been impossible less than 80 years ago.Jumping to today, the people of the marshes still make a living in a lot of the traditional ways: they still raise their buffaloes and trade their meat, milk and cheese with the people of Iraq as far as Baghdad and the north.  They still, mostly, make their tribal houses (called mudhif) out of reeds and quite a few of them still live there all year round.  They grow some rice (even though today cheap rice from China makes this a less-than-commercially-viable enterprise) and some barley and still catch fish and bake bread daily, the same way their ancestors did hundreds or even thousands of years ago.  Of course, today there are asphalt roads leading to the edges of the marshes, villages and small towns of brick houses have formed at strategic places and there’s electricity and even internet available - albeit only at the fringes of the marshlands.  But a lot of the traditions still remain alive inside the marshes.Less than a kilometre inside the edges and you come across small, islands made from compacted reeds with reed houses built on them, exactly as they would be built hundreds of years ago, still built the same way so that as the waters rise and fall, so do the islands - even if, these days, the government digs canals to help the water flow during dry seasons.Of course, while before the structure of the reed houses was designed to allow them to be packed, moved and reassembled within hours, today’s structures are more permanent, include layers of plastic sheeting to prevent rain from coming in and have incorporated a number of other modern conveniences.  However, animal pens are still made up from reed poles with reed cross-braces, buffaloes are still provided with “ramps” to allow them to freely go in and out - and yes, buffaloes swim in the rivers and cover wide areas, frequently beyond the sight of their owners, so they can graze on the sweet shoots of the young reeds.
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The islamic traditions are adhered to quite strictly in the marshes but in a more gentle way than one would probably expect: girls over 12 wear the hijab and are dressed in all black and while they are allowed to attend school until the age of 16, nobody considers it strange if they drop out early.  Boys are expected to follow the family profession - whatever that is - from as young as 14, frequently dropping out of school to do so, especially if the family has a prosperous occupation such as, these days, tourism.  There are no calls to prayer inside the marshes and no mosques, so religious fervour is down to the individual and even then it is toned down and quite casual.  Even so, you will find small prayer carpets at every mudhif and people will give those choosing to pray the space and peace to do so with a lot of respect.
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I saw a lot during my week at the marshes - while everyone who wishes to visit the marshes either goes for a half-day “tour” comprising of a 2hr boat ride and a really nice lunch with local fish, usually wrapping up before sunset so the guests can retreat to the comfort and convenience of Basra (less than 90’ away) or a slight variation where they arrive around sunset, go for the boat ride before returning to the mudhif where they spend the night before leaving the next morning.Having spoken to more than 8 different people working as guides to tourists (please read the relevant blog about travelling to Iraq and the marshes here) I was the only person ever to ask to spend a whole week at the marshes, let alone ask to meet the locals, spend time with them, explore the depths and take anything more than the occasional snapped photo.
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The truth is the marshes are, in more ways than one, what you make of them.  You can visit remote villages where the locals have never met a tourist and you can send time with a boat builder - you just need to ask for it and plan accordingly.  You can choose to travel the waterways and meet fishermen, reed gatherers and house builders, men and women.  You can choose to engage with the local kids and really find out how they live - maybe even gain their trust enough for them to allow you to take photos not normally allowed.  There are simply too many things to do for the person who wants to dive deep enough to do them.  The Ma’dan are really kind and hospitable people, happy to invite you over for tea and food, eager to share their culture with you and let you in behind the proverbial reed curtain.
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Photographically speaking, the marshes are a treasure trove of beautiful, emotive images and stories, ones which deserve to be discovered, told and shared.  I think I barely scratched the surface this time, but if you want to see the best images from the trip, have a look here.

All content copyright © 2025 Marios Forsos
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