A Reed Shaken by the Wind – A Journey through the Unexplored Marshlands of Iraq –

“Between Baghdad and Basra the map is blank.

This is the 2,000 square miles of unexplored marshland waste inhabited by the Ma’dan, a tribe whose primitive way of life has remained unchanged for thousands of years. Gavin Maxwell went to live among them and this unusual, absorbing travel book is his acclaimed report of that strange existence where houses are built of reeds on tiny man-made islands; where the economy of life is based on the water buffalo, and where children may learn to paddle a canoe before they can walk.”