Marshes
Al-Jubaish is a district in Dhi Qar Governorate, with an area of 2,333 square kilometers, located east of the city of Nasiriyah, northwest of Basra Governorate. Al-Jubaish Center is located on the Al-Hammar Marsh near the Euphrates River. The population of the district is about 150,000 people according to 2015 estimates. Al-Jubaish is the plural of the word Jabisha, which is an artificial island floating on the surface of the marsh water. It was carefully prepared and formed from layers of silt, reeds, and papyrus that are stacked on top of each other until it becomes like a floating island on which reed houses or huts can be built. This way of life was mentioned in the Sumerian records seven thousand years ago. It is interesting that the Sumerians had a legend about the origin of the earth. They believed that the land originated as they made that Jabisha. The population centers here usually consist of a group of these islands, where the villages called Salaf are formed, and their group is Salaf. The village of Al-Jabaish here is only a large ancestor inhabited by several clans, the most important of which are Al-Khaza'il, Bani Asad and other clans.
One of the most distinctive features of this romantic environment is that its houses are built of reeds and papyrus and are called "Sarifa", which is derived from the Aramaic word (Saryatha) which means the hut from which the name of the city of Basra was derived. This reed house was mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and its Arabic translation is (A house of papyrus reeds. . A house of papyrus reeds. . A wall. . A wall. O King of Shurbak. . O son of (Ubaru-Tutu) demolish your house and build a boat). As we notice in this phrase, the bundles of reeds could be a light boat for moving between these Al-Jabaish, which developed over time into what we find today as what is called the "balm" and the "mashhoof" and other layers of water transportation, which is the only means of transportation in that green thicket.
The word may have an Aramaic origin that distinguished the culture and names of the region, but some believe that the word Jbeisha is a corruption of the Arabic word (Kabisa) due to the act of pressing layers of clay, reeds and papyrus that surrounds its manufacture. Jbeisha is also called (Al-Daboun) and its Aramaic name is (Tahitha) and it means the lost village because of its presence in the middle of those marshes. In Al-Tabari's history, when describing the events of the Zanj Revolution that began here in 680 AD, the name (Tahitha) was mentioned, meaning the region of Jbeish.
These areas were inhabited during the Abbasid era, flourishing with their civilization, and famous for their crops. Even our great scholar Ali Al-Wardi wrote about them that these marsh people are the most deeply rooted and extended inhabitants of Iraq during the historical eras prior to the Islamic conquest. These areas suffered from complete neglect during the later historical eras, especially during the Turkish eras, for well-known sectarian reasons. It was a refuge for all those who opposed the successive authorities that ruled Iraq. This could be the justification for the interest in this central center that the Iraqi state took care of after its establishment in 1921. It made it the center of a district and built a government house, as well as schools and houses for the employees it appointed there. It was interested in bringing the means of civilized living to these employees. The residents of Al-Chibayish depend for the greater part of their livelihood on fishing, collecting reeds, and weaving mats called (Al-Bawari) and exporting them to all parts of the world, even the Gulf and Iran.
