At a time when we are witnessing environmental threat to the marshes, and the 30th
anniversary of the Marsh Arab genocide and drought, it is worth shedding light on
the relationship of the modern state with the Marsh Arabs since the beginning of the
20th century through an analytical look at the policies that shaped this relationship in
several stages, The Marsh Arabs are an ethnic group in the delta of Mesopotamia
characterized by a unique culture and history, which caused them to be subject to
historical persecution whose features emerged after the First World War.

Ethnic Origins

Their ethnic origins remained unknown over the centuries, no special ethnic identity
developed among the Marsh Arabs and they were considered an inferior race, Academic
circles have speculated several hypotheses confirming their origins; according to genetic
research, they were considered the population with the strongest connection to the ancient
Sumerians, Popular tradition however considers them as a foreign group of unknown origin
who arrived in the marshes when the rearing of water buffalo was introduced to the region,
the British colonial ethnographers found it difficult to categorize some social customs of
their’s and speculated that they may have originated in India, this belief was traditionally
justified in society by the slave trade from India, while rumors also circulated among the
neighboring tribes about their speculated persian origins, Ethnic origins were one of the main
reasons for the extermination of the Marsh Arabs in the 90s, as the newspapers of the Baath
Party indicated during the genocide, for the history of the slave trade from India during the
Abbasid Empire era.

The oral traditions of the Marsh people lack written codification, and they did not have a
written record of their tribes until the ninth century, and the Sumerians lost their distinct
ethnic identity by 1800 B.C. However, other scholars have noted that much of the Marsh
Arab culture is in common with the Bedouin Arabs who came to the area after the fall of the
Abbasid Caliphate, and therefore concluded that they also descend from this source.
genetic research indicates that they are an ethnic mixture between the Bedouin Arabs, the
ancient Sumerians and other races, and were described as a mixed race by numerous
anthropologists, The Norwegian ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl wrote:“In the veins of the
Marsh Arabs their Sumerian blood is more than that in the veins of any other Arab tribe, and
only the Marsh Arabs are the grandchildren of that ancient civilization.”
Over the centuries, the Indian slave trade was ignored after the Islamic rule of India, despite
how it lasted for centuries. Iraq was one of the main destinations for the transfer of
thousands of “jat” or “zott” people in Sindh and then the “sammas” dynasty to Iraq by a
number of Arab rulers, most notably the campaign of Muhammad al-Qasim, genetic
research confirms that South-Asian genes rise slightly and it doesn’t have a significant
impact on the Ahwari culture, According to the modern definition of race, it is a social
structure that is determined based on the rules set by society related to culture and common
interests, although race depends in part on physical similarities within groups, it does not
have an inherent physical or biological meaning, so culture naturally determines race.
“Barbaric”
The orientalist Pietro Della Villa was the first to introduce the word “Ma’dan” as a reference
to the distinguished people inhabiting the Mesopotamian delta, this word was used to
reference the Marsh people to the western world in the 17th century.
“Ma’dan” is also a metaphor for roughness and is widely used in Iraq as an adjective for
ignorance, brutality, and ugliness, the word can also be found in many popular and ancient
eloquent poems, It was also said as the name of “an ugly bird with a beautiful voice”, This
commonly used derogatory word shows how most people view Marsh Arabs as inferior and
barbaric, and it’s a offensive word for the Marsh Arabs,This commonly used derogatory word
shows how most people view Marsh Arabs as inferior and barbaric, and it’s an offensive
word for the Marsh Arabs Wherever it says because of its history, Sibawayh believes that it
is a metaphor for a man of low destiny, and al-Zamakhshari believes that it means austerity
and roughness. Its oldest literary existence may have been on the tongue of al-Numan ibn
al-Mundhir in the sixth century AD, before the advent of Islam as mentioned in the book “The
Gathering of Proverbs” by Abu Hilal al-Askari. When he met Al-Nu’man bin Al-Mundhir, a
man called Damrah said to him: “It is better to hear about the Ma’idi than to see him.” This is
due to his strange appearance, And in the hadith of Umar ibn al-Khattab: “be rough and
Tama’dad”, it was said to the son when he grows up.