swamp scene at Sumer, courtesy, AsiaNews.it |
It is often
said that the Garden of Eden was
located in the land of Sumer. Before and during the 4th millennium BCE, what
archaeologists call, the Ubaid and Uruk periods, the first literate
societies had emerged. Due to the geographical location and ecological factors
of the Fertile
Crescent, the Sumerians
were also able to develop agricultural and technological programs. Farming
arose early in the Fertile Crescent because the area had a large quantity of
wild wheat and pulse species that were nutritious and easy to domesticate.
Soon, city-states rose to power and between
that time and the 27th century BCE, their written history began. Classical
Sumer ends with the rise of the Akkadian Empire in the 23rd century and following
the Gutian period, which ended c.
2055, there was a brief Sumerian
Renaissance. But that was cut short in the 20th century by invasions by
the Amorites. The Amorite
"dynasty of Isin"
persisted until c. 1700, when Mesopotamia was united under Babylonian rule. The
Sumerians were eventually absorbed into the Akkadian (Assyro-Babylonian)
population. Since then, Sumer became a part of the empires of the Assyrians,
Babylonians, Arameans, Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks, and Romans.
In the early Christian period CE (or AD), some Assyrians settled in or
near the area of the marshlands and churches
were built in Ur and Larsa, while the Sumerians/Maadan developed a culture
where the water buffalo became an important part. In 636, the Muslim Arabs
invaded from Arabia and the indigenous Sumerians/Maadan overwhelmingly adopted
the religion of the conquerors. Sumer, along with the rest of Mesopotamia and
the Middle East, became part of the Arab Empire. Almost immediately however,
their acceptance of Islam notwithstanding, the Arabs began to colonize the area,
stealing land from the inhabitants in the process. In addition, the Maadan would
often suffer a cruel dhimmi-like status in their now-occupied homeland. This
situation still exists to this day.
Shortly after the Arab invasion, the settler colony of Basra was
established. In the 10th
and 11th centuries, the marshes became the site of the short-lived Arab
colonial state of Batihah founded by 'Imran
ibn Shahin. Up until the end of the eighteenth century, pastoral
nomads that formed tribal confederations often provided the framework for a
ruling dynasty and state.
In the early
17th century, the Italian composer and musicologist Pietro
Della Valle (1586–1652)
who was also a world traveler, visited and studied the Maadan and brought them
to the attention of the western world. In 1824, George Keppel, 6th Earl of Albemarle (1799–1891) reported in detail on
the marsh inhabitants. In the first half of the 20th century, other
high-status travelers visited the area and wrote of their experiences e.g. Gerturde
Bell, TE Lawrence (of Arabia), and British colonial administrator Stuart Edwin
Hedgecock and his wife. In the early
1930s, American anthropologist Henry Field visited the Maadan and made the
acquaintance of their Sheikh Falih al S’aihud of the Al Bu Muhammad tribe.
Beginning in the 1950s and continuing to the 70s, and without the
consent of the Maadan, the Arab occupation authorities began a process of draining
the swamps thus displacing, as well as destroying, the Maadan’s way of life. During the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88), many were driven
out of their homes, their few possessions were stolen, and their water buffalo
were slaughtered for food by the armies. In the late 1980s and 90s, during the presidency of Saddam Hussein, the draining of the
swamps was expanded and accelerated. Before 2003, the marshes were drained to
10% of their original size. The Qurna and Hammar Marshes were nearly dried up and only 35%
of the Hawizeh Marshes remained. After the fall
of the regime in 2003, the recovery of the marshes was excruciatingly slow. Drought
along with dam construction in Turkey, Arab-occupied Syria, and Iran have
hindered the process.
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