Muhsin Abu-Tabikh
Sayyid Muhsin bin Hassan bin Ali bin Idris, better known as Muhsin Abu-Tabikh, was a prominent Iraqi nationalist, one of the leaders of the [Iraqi Revolt|1920 Iraqis|Iraqi Revolt] and convicted fraudster.
Biography
He was born in 1878 in Ghammas, a district of Diwaniyah Governorate in southern Iraq. Known for his contribution to the Iraqi revolution against British occupation. He fought with the Ottoman army against Britain in 1915. On October 6, 1920, it was decided by revolutionaries that a national government must be formed through an elected revolutionary council to oversee the areas liberated from the British. Abu-Tabikh was appointed the head of the new government, the administration was set up temporarily in Karbala. Celebrations took place in the city hall in the midst of crowds that exceeded tens of thousands, where he raised the first Iraqi flag in modern history.Land theft controversy
Abu-Tabikh and his father were found guilty by the British Administration of stealing 30,000 acres of land from the Khaza'il family by allying with the Ottoman Administration to implement fraudulent deeds in their name, in order to diminish the control of the Banu Khuza'ah over their Kingdom in the Middle Euphrates.British Administrator James Mann wrote:
"I went off on Friday morning on horseback to Ghammas, a ride of about eighteen miles... and started in at once with the hearing of a famous land dispute.... The land in dispute is about 1500 acres, and thirty years ago it belonged to a great tribe called the Khazail, who took no notice of the Turkish Government, and did not pay any taxes. In 1889 the Turks decided to do something, so they sold the land, with an enormous amount besides—probably 30,000 acres in all—for a nominal sum to a rich man called Saiyid Hasan who stood well with them, on his promising to pay the necessary taxes. The whole business was accompanied by amazing bribery and fraud, and the deeds of sale are so fatuous as to be entirely invalid. But the Turks provided troops to push out the tribes, and Saiyid Hasan managed to get possession and cultivate a great part of the land. Of the particular piece now under dispute, however, he never got possession, and the Khazail people remained in occupation. Saiyid Hasan in due time died, and in 1904 his son, Saiyid Mohsin Abu Tabikh, inherited the property. He... could not endure the presence of these tribesmen on land for which he held his father's deeds. He twice obtained Turkish troops to drive them out, and was once successful, so that in 1910 he managed to grow some crops on the land. But back they came, and there they have stayed until this day. In 1918 Saiyid Mohsin petitioned the British to reinstate him, and the A.P.O. of those days rather unfortunately took his deed at its face value, and ordered possession to be given him. The order was not completely carried out, and there has been constant trouble: and a few months ago suspicions were raised about the validity of the deeds, and they were sent to Baghdad for investigation. Needless to say, they were pronounced wholly worthless."