The Prince of the Marshes: And Other
Occupational Hazards of a Year in
Iraq by Rory Stewart
Thoughtful Guy
In August 2003, at the age of thirty, Rory Stewart took a taxi from Jordan to
Baghdad. A Farsi-speaking British diplomat who had recently completed
an epic walk from Turkey to Bangladesh, he was soon appointed deputy
governor of Amarah and then Nasiriyah, provinces in the remote,
impoverished marsh regions of southern Iraq. He spent the next eleven
months negotiating hostage releases, holding elections, and splicing
together some semblance of an infrastructure for a population of millions
teetering on the brink of civil war.
The Prince of the Marshes tells the story of Stewarts year. As a participant
he takes us inside the occupation and beyond the Green Zone, introducing

us to a colorful cast of Iraqis and revealing the complexity and fragility of a
society we struggle to understand. By turns funny and harrowing, moving
and incisive, it amounts to a unique portrait of heroism and the tragedy that
intervention inevitably courts in the modern age.
(08/04/2006)
Personal Review: The Prince of the Marshes: And Other
Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq by Rory Stewart
This is chronological journal of Stewart's experiences with the various local
and occupation military and the formal and informal leadership of Iraq in
the confusing aftermath of the Second Gulf War. Stewart was the British
administrator appointed as deputy governor of Amara and then Nasiriyah
in the Maysan district of Iraq in the reconstruction after the Coalition
invasion in 2003.
He was the first civilian administrator taking over after the initial military
administration. He details here the intrigues and projects and processes
and rivalries that made up the collection of rival warlords, tribal animosities,
violent radicals and religious bigots he had to deal with in trying to bring
some semblance of order to the suffering mass population.
I bought the book because of the title initially, after confirming that it really
did involve the ethnic group called the Marsh Arabs. The "Marsh Arabs"
are actually the Sumerian remnant from the people who lived in this area
and ran a huge technological and commercial empire thousands of years
ago. The Sumerians were great scientists and developed agriculture,
urban centers and literature.
The Sumerians were a major population group in this region of modern
Iraq, and Stewart had to relate to their leader called the Prince of the
Marshes. This is a fascinating first-hand portrait of the cultural and political
threads of the lower Riverine cultures and their political tangle.
Stewart is a specialist in Islamic societies, having lived in several countries
and speaking many languages of the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
Stewart's job entailed keeping peace and forming adminstration and
facilitating total rebuilding, in the midst of fighting factions who each
wanted him to take their side against the others.
The reader will gain insights on several fronts, depending on each reader's
interests. This is a credible and coherent account of the administration
and chronicled the specific needs, problems, accomplishments and failures
of the new civilian administration led by the invaders. The writing style is a
pleasant mix of serious scholarship and self-deprecating comedy. In that
position, if Stewart was to keep his sanity, I expect he had to maintain a
strong sense of humour!

It provides vivid and thoughtful portraits of the local personalities and
powers vying for power with the new administration, while following
traditional lines of tribal jealousies and values of their honor- revenge
culture, extending their old world into the structures of the new. Important
cultural insights are provided as Stewart deftly analyzes the various
dynamics and structures coming to play in this delicate and volatile
situation.
Stewart admirably includes the deficiencies he observed from the very first
in the occupying forces. They had no cultural training, none of the soldiers
spoke Arabic, and sometimes killed civilians who got out of their cars at
checkpoints when commanded not to - in English, which the locals could
not possibly have been expected to know! The administrators, especially
the early military administrators, gave no attention to local leaders, made
decisions without involving local decision-makers or even those involved in
the matter. The cultural ignorance and insensitivity.
The book reads like an exciting adventure novel or story of international
intrigue. And it is these, only real-life. For a traditional diplomat and self-
confessed bureaucrat, Stewart is an excellent and skillful writer of clear
and flowing story prose! This 400-page work is enjoyable and informative.
The reader can skim through the story for the light adventure, or pause
and take as much time as focus requires on the well-stated and well-
analyzed detail. This combination is unusual in a diplomat writer and I
commend Stewart in his readable and engaging style.
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