The Kingdom of Khaza'il (Arabic: أمير الخزاعل العام عبعوب آغا مملكة الخزاعل, romanized: Mamlakat al-Khaza'il), also known as the Kingdom of Khuza'ah, Emirate of Khaza'il (Arabic: إمارة الخزاعل, romanized: Imārat al-Khaza'il) to the Arabs and officially as the Kingdom of the Middle and Lower Euphrates (Arabic: مملكة الفرات الأوسط والأسفل, romanized: Mamlakat al-Furāt al-Awsaṭ wa-al-Asfal) by Britain, was an autonomous kingdom in present-day Iraq that resisted Ottoman colonial rule from the early 16th century to the early 20th century. Ruled by the Khaza'il Royal family, also known as the Banu Khuza'ah Sheikhly dynasty, the Kingdom exercised military, economic, and political sovereignty, particularly in the Middle and Lower Euphrates region.
At the height of their power in the 17th, 18th and 19th century, the Khaza'il ruled from the northern city of Anah to Basra, including the southern outskirts of Baghdad and all cities along both sides of the Euphrates River, controlling all cultivatable land and tribal forces in their territory. The Emirs of Khaza'il were known for their fierce armed resistance to Ottoman imperial authority lasting several centuries, vast land ownership, and their immense wealth established through the creation of Silk Road taxation mechanisms and agricultural monopoly. They are also known for establishing the dominance of Shiism in Mesopotamia and ending 383 years of Ottoman Empire rule in Iraq.
History
Pre-formation Before becoming an autonomous Emirate, the Khaza'il, known in Arabic as the Khuza'a, Khuza'ah or Khaza'ah had a long history in Mesopotamia, having travelled from Mecca in present-day Saudi Arabia at an unknown date during the Early Muslim Conquests; although some scholars tie their move as a cohesive tribal unit to Mesopotamia in the 14th century. The first known record of them as a tribal unit in Iraq was in 1580 through the Ottoman cadastral survey that highlighted the Khaza'il Sheikhs and their livestock, based in the Rumahiyya region in the Middle Euphrates. However, contemporary analysis by British Colonial Administrators of fortresses established by the Khaza'il, namely Ruhabah, ~20 miles South West of Najaf suggest a ruling presence in the area from the early 16th century or perhaps even before.
The Khaza'il played a substantial role in the establishment of the Abbasid Caliphate with some of the most senior positions under the Caliphs being held by members of the tribal family. This includes the Vizier to the Caliph, Master of Post, the holder of the Royal Seal, Governors of the Abbasid provinces and the Head of the Abbasid Armies among others.
Before their migration to Mesopotamia from their early origins around Medina, the Khaza'il family played a prominent role in the beginnings of Islam, having been the Custodians of Mecca for around 400 years prior to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. As early supporters of Islam, they contributed greatly to Muhammad's army during the Conquest of Mecca which began as a result of a breach of the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah by the Banu Bakr against the Khaza'il (Banu Khuza'ah). Several members of Muhammad's companions were from the tribe as well as several members of Muhammad's own family.
Early formation After the Ottoman Empire conquered Baghdad from its Safavid occupiers in 1534, they controlled most territories around the city but were unable to capture those along the Middle and Lower Euphrates given the resistance faced by the local tribal rulers of the Khaza'il. Although Ottoman records do not have the names of Khaza'il rulers during this period, British explorer Ralph Fitch noted in 1583 the resistance of these local Arab rulers in the Basra region along the Euphrates River.
Prior to the Khaza'il rule of the Middle Euphrates under the Shah of Iran, Mir Nasir, also known as Nasir bin Muhannā or Nasir Al Muhannā, was a Khaza'il King of the southerly stretch of Iraq, from Najaf to Fallujah, during the late 16th century to early 17th century. Although Iraq was formerly under Ottoman colonial rule, the Pasha's power to govern the fringes outside of Baghdad were limited and so resulted in reluctant mutual acceptance between Emir Muhannā and Ottoman governors, albeit temporarily. As British colonial administrator Stephen Helmsley Longrigg wrote: "Mir Nasir, or Nasir bin Muhanna, was in 1604 the "king" of the more southerly, which stretched from Najf to Fallujah. Najf, always fanatical and now impoverished since death cut off the bounties of Shah Tahmasp, admitted the power of this desert ruler. Karbala, not less intolerant but larger and more prosperous, was the centre of his dirah. Travellers from Baghdad to Fallujah were met but a few miles from the capital by his agents and paid his tolls."When payments to the Shia religious centres of Karbala and Najaf from the Iranian Shah Tahmasp dried up upon his death in 1576, and the Ottoman Empire having invaded Iran during the Ottoman–Persian Wars (1603) leading to the removal of Janissaries from the Najaf-Karbala region, Emir Muhannā cemented his ultimate rule over the province in 1604.
For other scholars, the official reign of the Khaza'il began in 1622 when the Safavid Empire conquered Mesopotamia from its Ottoman occupiers who had been in control of the country since 1534. Shah Abbas I, commonly known as Abbas the Great, appointed the leader of the Khaza'il tribal family Muhannā ibn Ali Al-Khaza'il as the Khan of the Middle Euphrates from Hit to Al Aqrah (Nasiriyah), where the Khaza'il had controlled semi-autonomously since the disintegration of the Mongol dynasties in the early 15th century. His territory headquartered in Samawah but extended far across the Jaza'ir (Jazira) region of southern Mesopotamia. However, the Khaza'il's reign under the Safavids did not last for long, ending in 1641, three years following the reconquering of Mesopotamia by Sultan Murad IV. A fierce battle lasting several months ensued, resulting in the massacre of Khaza'il tribesmen; 600 heads of senior tribesmen were brought to the new Ottoman Pasha Darwish Muhammad in Baghdad by his military general 'Ali Agha, as war trophies. Sheikh Muhanna and his entourage escaped to Persia under the Safavids where some stayed while others returned to their homeland in the Euphrates in the decades succeeding. Muhanna was given the fiefdom of Zeydân along the Eastern coast of the Persian Gulf for him and his tribesmen by Shah Safi. However, this did not signal the end of Khaza'il autonomous rule; Qurna was attacked in 1653, a revolt in 1657, a force marched against Basra with the Al-Muntafiq in 1690 and the pillaging of villages with Shammar and Anaza tribesmen, threatening the city of Hillah in 1705.
Turn of the 18th century In the first few months of 1700, massive flooding affected the Lower Euphrates rendering Ottoman forces incapacitated. Ibn 'Abbas, the Sheikh of the Khaza'il capitalised on this, re-taking the ancient Rumahiyya fort, Hiskah and the outskirts of Najaf. His son, Sheikh Salman Al-Khaza'il besieged Hillah. The Ottoman Sultan Mustafa II, realising the danger to his Empire's power in Mesopotamia sent the new Baghdad governor Daltaban Mustafa Pasha, who was later to become the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, to assemble a massive military force against the Khaza'il. Kurdish contingents along with timariots (cavalry) from half of the Eyalets of Eastern Turkey were sent, with heavy weaponry brought along the Tigris by flotilla to the Ottoman Pasha in Basra. Although the intervention repelled the incursion, it did not remove the Khaza'il from their areas of sovereign control.
With the Euphrates avulsion creating a new channel eastwards to Hasaka, giant marshlands akin to seas were created, giving rise to the Khaza'il eponym as the Marsh Arab Kings of Iraq. Emir Salman, the leader of the Khaza'il and the eldest brother of future Emirs Sheikh Mohammed and Sheikh Hamad called for independence among the Arab tribes, marking the Khaza'il as the most powerful force in the Middle Euphrates. As Professor of History Faisal Husain writes:"They [tribesmen] refused to pay taxes and fortified their positions in the marshes. From the midst of an environmentally and politically fragmented landscape, a charismatic leader emerged, rocketing his tribe to fame across Iraq. ... [Salman] proclaimed his sovereign rule in the region between Hasaka and Najaf and spread his call for independence among the neighbouring tribes. ... After transferring villagers to cultivate his newly conquered land, Sheikh Salman besieged the Hilla fortress, the last pillar of Ottoman rule in Iraq's Middle Euphrates region. ... Sheikh Salman emerged in 1700 with a hefty military force of 10,000 men armed with muskets and spears. By 1701, he had brought most of Rumahiyya's districts under his sway. The Khaza'il ... had turned into 'kings of the Middle Euphrates'"In an attempt to quell the ambitions of the Khaza'il, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire Amcazade Köprülü Hüseyin Pasha sent a threatening letter to Sheikh Salman saying his activities put him against the "Lord of Mud and Water":"When the wrath of the Padishah [Sultan] becomes manifest, in God we seek refuge [from such outcome], the rock and clay, the beasts of the land and the sea, and even the bird on the tree will be your enemies."Emir Salman is reported to have responded: "Arrogant and ignorant gibberish, with some irrelevant words [put together]," so "he deserved reproach and punishment."
Marsh rule and resistance With the flooding of the Euphrates creating enormous marshlands that remain to present day, the Khaza'il built the centre of their Dirah within the marshes, transforming their ancient tribal traditions of nomadism to semi-nomadic life. This amphibious way of life made it extraordinarily difficult for the Ottoman armies to invade and subjugate the Khaza'il. As Husain elucidates, "the Khaza'il, emerged from the flourishing marshes of the Middle Euphrates, built its power, and challenged the authority of one of the world's most powerful early modern empires." The Khaza'il used the waters for animal husbandry, agriculture, as well as hubs for resistance and defence. For travellers and explorers passing through their territory, they were regarded as "really amphibious, for they live as much on water as on land." French diplomat Pierre Joseph de Beauchamp noted that as the water level rose in the Khaza'il marshes: "In a quarter of an hour, [they] can carry away their mat huts and regain dry land by swimming; men take their sabres, spears, and pots, and the women their children; I have seen a hundred times women cutting a handful of reeds, there placing their nursing infants and crossing the river; those children of 7 or 8 years follow them swimming...and with superior skill ... in a manner so that one only sees the tips of their noses."William Francis Ainsworth similarly noted that "I have even seen a baby swinging in a cradle, suspended from the top of a reed hut, where, owing to a flooded state of the waters, the stream was flowing, in an unimpeded current, through the hut itself. Their familiarity with water commences thus at a very early age."
Scottish explorer James Baille Fraser also highlighted how inhabiting terrain behind "thousands of canals that... render[ed] them inaccessible," the Khaza'il earned a reputation for being "fierce and independent, and extremely jealous of all strangers who approach their haunts."