ABSTRACT
Two attempts to relieve Rumaitha were unsuccessfu1 8 and led to further encouragement of the tribes. Not until July 20th was a relief column, after severe fighting, able to reach the town which was evacuated the next day. 4 Samawa was not relieved until October 14th. In the meantime, the Miskhab tribes below Najaf marched on Abu Siikhair, on July 13th. The following day, the southern Bani Hasan tribe arose. On July 20th, Kiifa was besieged and was not relieved until October 17th. On the same day the Bani Hasan attacked Kif!, to relieve which, a force including three companies of the 3rd Manchesters was dispatched in intense heat and without adequate arrangements for water. The force met with overwhelming disaster, less than half the original number returning to Hilla. The incident was magnified by rumour. Practically the whole of the middle Euphrates rose. Rumaitha, Hindiya Barrage and Musaiyib had already been evacuated; Samawa and Kiifa
The British reverses on the middle Euphrates not unnaturally reacted on the situation on the lower Euphrates and in the Muntafiq. On July 30th, Saiyid Hiidi al-Muqutar from Najaf appeared in the Samiiwa area, establishing himself at Khidhr. Supported, it was alleged, by 'an immense quantity of gold', 3 he became the leading figure among the insurgents, inflaming the tribes to a Jihad with but one aim: the overthrow of the Civil Administration in the lower Euphrates. Other Saiyids and' Ulama, operating on the Gharriif, at Shatra and at Khidhr, joined him in preaching the Jihad which was declared from Karbalii about August 6th. 4 These activities were doubly effective on the tribes in conjunction with what appeared to be continued British reverses. Musaiyib had been reoccupied on August 12th, and Hindiya Barrage on August 13th, but the evacuation of Qal'at Sikar on August 12th, following an attack on it, led the insurgents to believe that they had inflicted a military defeat on the Government and had driven it from a large portion of the country. The insurgents' belief in the success of the rising seemed confirmed by the British loss of Khidhr with two armoured trains on August 13th; by the isolation by land of Samiiwa on the same day; by the loss of several British vessels on the upper Euphrates on August 15th; by the evacuation of Shatra on August 2oth;5 by the capture of the S.9 with all on board, on August 28th; by the evacuation of
aspirations such as played a part in other districts, fell on August 14th. In Mandali, where the Naqib, Saiyid 'Ilyas Agha, had enlarged on the Nationalist views held by Saiyid Talib Pasha with whom he was in close touch, a provisional government was also formed. I t took over in an orderly manner from the Deputy Assistant Political Officer. Although not efficient, it succeeded in maintaining law and order until late October when it lost its authority. From Ba'qiiba the insurrection spread to Kirkiik Division, but only in Kifri did open outbreaks occur. The tribes entered the town on August 26th, killing the Political Officer, Captain G. H. Salmon.
