Karbala in the British Annual Report For 1917

Abstract

Too many things have been written down on the contemporary history of Iraq, but the British reports of administration which are printed in the volumes called as :- (Iraq administration reports 1014- 1932) and part one for the period 1914-1917 in particular handles too many important items of Iraq in analytical historical way, especially what is related with the revenues of land and with the criminal, tribal and commercial situation of the country. Basing on what is mentioned in these documents, we have divided this research into three topics, the first one goes around the civil administration of Karbala Municipality and the general circumstances of this town. The second section deals with the social and economic life of the different tribes that were dwelling in karbala, while the third topic sheds light on the British administration of police and municipality of Karbala. So, it is worthily to mention that treating the historical truth in these British documents cannot be taken for granted or as a matter of fact because they represent the British political point of view. This could be attributed to the fact that these reports have been written down by officers used to look at things through their extreme military belief, therefore those officials have logistically directed the capabilities of the land for military domination. Hence, these concepts conflicted with the social structures of the people which had already habituated to the long Ottoman Turkish rule. In addition, the British did not decrease the despotic Turkish form was of governance but initiated a central immediate rule over the natives. This pressure resulted in the blowing out of the Iraqis who revolted against the British domination in 1920. At last this report gives us clear vision on the social, economic and political life of the Iraqi cities during the British rule at that time.