Al-Chibayish
الجبايش | |
---|---|
Nickname: City of the Marshes | |
Coordinates: 30°57′17.7″N 46°58′30.3″E / 30.954917°N 46.975083°E | |
Country | Iraq |
Governorate | Dhi Qar |
District | Al-Chibayish |
Elevation | 9 m (30 ft) |
Population (2014) | |
• Total | 36,100 [1] |
Time zone | UTC+3 (AST) |
Area code | 01 |
Al-Chibayish is a town on the Euphrates River in Al-Chibayish District, Dhi Qar governorate, in southern Iraq. It is the capital of its eponymous district.
Al-Chibayish is inhabited primarily by Marsh Arabs of the Beni Isad tribe. Al-Chibayish has historically been an important hub for the Marsh Arab people and a traditional boat-building center for their mashoof canoes. [2]
Al-Chibayish was historically home to a community of Mandaeans, as well as Arabs. In 1895, Sheikh Ṣaḥan ibn Sheikh Ṣagar (Ṣaqar in standard Arabic), a Mandaean priest, was arrested near Chabāyish in Iraq and imprisoned in Basra. He was accused of supporting an Arab tribal rebellion led by Jāsim al-Khayyūn (of the Bani Asad tribe, one of the largest tribes affiliated with the Al-Muntafiq), as well as killing his nephew. Although a petition was delivered to the British authorities to have him released, and the British attempted to assist Sheikh Sahan, he was not released and died in prison in 1898. [3]
Al-Chibayish was the subject of a groundbreaking 1955 ethnographic study, Marsh Dwellers of the Euphrates Delta, by Iraqi anthropologist Shakir Mustafa Salim. [4]
Al-Chibayish was home to about 11,000 people in 1955. [4] Al-Chibayish's population dropped to less than 6,000 by 2003 as a result of Saddam Hussein's draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes and his associated campaign of violence against the Marsh Arabs, during which Al-Chibayish was attacked by military helicopters. [5] However, the population recovered and quintupled between 2001 and 2009, when it reached an estimated 30,416 people. [1]