Al-Shatrah

Al-Shatrah

Al-Shatrah (also known as Shatrat al-Muntafiq) is a town in southern Iraq, located northeast of Nasiriyah. It is the administrative capital of the al-Shatrah District, a part of the Dhi Qar Governorate. Al-Shatrah is situated along the Gharraf Canal at the intersection with Highway 7. It lies 22.35 km (13.9 mi) west of the ancient city of Lagash.[2] In 2009, it had a population estimated 254,000.[3][4] Al-Shatrah was founded in 1872 during the Ottoman era in Iraq when the town was part of the Basra Vilayet. Not long afterward, the town established a strong trading relationship with Baghdad and became a hub of the grain trade in southern Iraq. Shatrah became the most important town along the Gharraf Canal and gained the nickname "Little Baghdad".[5] It served as the administrative center of a qadaa (subdistrict) of the same name, which was part of the Muntafiq Sanjak of the Basra Vilayet. The town's original official name was "Shatrat al-Muntafiq", but it was simplified by local residents to "al-Shatrah" to distinguish it from the nearby town of Qal'at Salih, which was officially known as "Shatrat al-Amarah" by the Ottoman authorities.[6] In the summer of 1889, al-Shatrah experienced an outbreak of cholera, which caused the deaths of around 700 of its inhabitants, including the qaimaqam (lieutenant-governor) of the town. Prior to the outbreak, the population stood at around 5,000, but al-Shatrah was largely and temporarily deserted after the outbreak.[7]