Mudhif

A mudhif (Arabic al-muḍīf) is a long, tunnel-like hall built entirely of reeds in the marshes of southern Iraq. It is the communal guest house of a village or tribal sheikh, and is often described as one of the oldest continuously built roof forms: the structure is the roof, with no separate walls or timber frame.

Mudhifs have been built in the marshes for at least 5,000 years. A carved image of a typical mudhif from Uruk, dated to about 3300 BC, is held by the British Museum. The marshes and the nearby Sumerian cities of Uruk, Ur and Eridu are together inscribed by UNESCO as the Ahwar of Southern Iraq.

Construction

• Arches: thick reeds are bundled and woven into columns. Pairs of bundles are set into the ground and bent together into parabolic arches that form the spine of the building. Setting them at opposing angles pre-stresses the arches and stiffens them.
• Purlins: smaller reed bundles are laid along the length of the building across the arches and lashed in place.
• Covering: woven reed mats form the outer skin. Some mats are made open like a mesh to let in light and air.
• End walls: the front and back are framed by two large vertical reed columns and closed with more mats; decorative bundles on the facade can identify the tribe.

The number of arches is chosen by the family or tribe rather than fixed. The traveller Gertrude Bell described one mudhif as roughly 50 yards (about 46 m) long. The entrance traditionally faces Mecca.

Why reed works

The common building reed in the marshes is called ihdri. Reed is cheap and flexible, insulates against heat and noise, and resists water and insects; its high silica content helps it shed water. A mudhif still needs rebuilding roughly every ten years.

Related reed buildings

The mudhif belongs to a wider family of reed structures (sarifa). A raba is a family reed house with doors at both ends, and a bayt a small single-room reed dwelling.

Drainage and return

The marsh communities, known as the Ahwari or Marsh Arabs, numbered about half a million in the 1980s. From around 1993 the marshes were deliberately drained by the Iraqi government. After 2003 local people broke the dykes, water returned to parts of the marshes, and reed building resumed. UNESCO notes that the Huwaizah marshes were not drastically drained in the 1980s and 1990s.