Iraqi Fellowship Reports
For security reasons, TARII’s previous policy did not allow for the public sharing of our annual Iraqi Fellows’ information. Beginning in 2018, however, TARII has begun to list and provide the final research reports from the Iraqi Fellows who give express consent to do so, in order to recognize them for their outstanding work. These are reports edited by the authors for the purpose of sharing on the TARII website.
If you are a previous Iraqi Fellow and would like to have your research shown here, please email us at Info@tarii.org.
Drs. dlshad Aziz marf and ziyad ahmad mohammed, 2020 tarii Fellows
Archaeology, Sulaimani University and Salahaddin University-Erbil
The Jewish Knešta (synagogue)s in Erbil/Hawler (Ancient Arbela)
The long history of the Kurdish-Jewish community in Erbil that continued for more than 2700 years began in the 8th century BC and lasted up till 1948 AD is a history that needs to be studied from different perspectives. In this project we deal with the public buildings that are called locally Knešta کنێشتە, a Kurdish term for the Jewish synagogue. In Erbil there are remains of two synagogues, in addition to another synagogue recorded in the historical records but unfortunately disappeared among the residence buildings in the Tophkhana District in the Erbil Citadel.
In this field research we focus on one of these synagogues, the neglected one that was built by the Kurdish Jewish residents (community) of the Taajeel/ Taa’jeel(تەعجیل) district (Jewish district) in Erbil, located in the downtown of Erbil just to the southeast of the citadel in the Bazar of Erbil.
The synagogues of Erbil are rarely mentioned in the historical and archaeological researches that dealt with the heritage and architecture of the citadel and the lower old town around the citadel. In this research we study the remaining architecture of the synagogue, its original plan, the used materials in this building, estimate the damages and the changings that faced the building since 1951 onward, and analyze the historical records that dealt with the Kurdish Jewish community in Erbil and their synagogues.
dr. nassier al-zubaidi, 202o tarii fellow
English, Baghdad University
Iraqi Online Compliments on Facebook and Instagram: A Cyber Pragmatics Analysis
This study examined the speech behavior of compliments giving and responding among Iraqi Facebook and Instagram users. Specifically, it investigated the realization strategies of Iraqi complimenting behavior in Facebook and Instagram online interactions. In addition, it explored the types of modification used by Iraqi Arabic speakers when complimenting in the contexts of Facebook and Instagram. To achieve the study objectives, a corpus of compliments on Facebook and Instagram platforms compiled from 20 Iraqi users were analyzed. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were performed to analyze the data and report the results. The results demonstrated that to pay and respond to compliments, Iraqi Facebook and Instagram users employ verbal and non-verbal complimentary patterns. In paying compliments, Iraqi Facebook and Instagram users preferred using explicit compliments while preferring the category of accepting compliments in responding to compliments. To modify their compliments, Iraqi Facebook and Instagram users employ internal and external modifications in favor of the former to enhance the intensity and sincerity of compliments paying and responding. Furthermore, some instances of socio-cultural influence were found in the complimenting behavior among Iraqi Facebook and Instagram users. On the basis of the findings arrived at, a number of conclusions, implications and further research are suggested.
Report available here (English).
Jaafar Jotheri, 2019 TARII Fellow
Geoarchaeology, Al-Qadisiya University
The History of Changes in the Euphrates: From ancient Ramahiyah to modern Diwaniyah
In the modern Diwaniyah province, located in the south of Iraq, there are two main branches of the Euphrates. First, the abandoned branch called the Ramahiyah and second, the current branch called the Diwaniyah. According to Ottoman texts, there were dozens of towns and villages associated with the Ramahiyah branch and several Arab tribes flourished near the fresh water and fertile soil of the area during the early Ottoman period. However, in 1687, the Ramahiyah branch started to dry out as a result of local farmers breaching its banks, leading to the formation of a new flooded and marshy branch called the Diwaniyah in 1700. Thus the tribes living on the River Ramahiyah migrated and settled in nearby areas.
To document sites and tribes that once lived there, I surveyed fifty five archaeological sites (Fig.1) using the modern QuickBird imagery via GIS (Geographical Information System) software. The entire area of the Ramahiyah branch (40km x 20 km) has been covered by this analysis (Fig.1). To support my findings, I reviewed all available Ottoman documents and maps.
Report available here (English).
Faris k. o. nadhmi and luai k. jabir, 2019 TARII fellows
Social Psychology, Salahaddin University and Al-Muthana University
Voting Orientations among Iraqi Youth: Are they influenced by their Collective Guilt?
The research aimed to examine the probabilistic path taken by Collective Guilt among Iraqi youth from different socio-cultural backgrounds - Sunnis and Shiites - in predicting their Voting Orientations. This aim is accomplished by providing extensive comparisons between the two groups, thus contributing to the identification of the dynamics inherent in this predictive probabilistic path. This research suggests that the low social self evaluation and the perpetuation of chronic "sins" (i.e. collective guilt) may contribute to mobilizing the political behavior of the individual and the community by specific emotional or cognitive motives to select certain candidates or political streams in the voting process. Then interactions between collective guilt and voting orientations shall be explored in light of a number of variables, such as: age, gender, income, marital status, political affiliation and membership of civil society organizations.
It is a field research adopting the Correlational and Quasi – Experimental method. The sample consists of randomly selected Iraqi youth from both genders: 100 individuals from the Sunni city of Al-Ramadi, and 100 individuals from the Shiite city of Al-Samawah. Two measuring instruments (questionnaires) were developed in order to measure collective guilt and voting orientations through interviewing the individuals of the sample face to face.
Report available here (Arabic).
Diyar salahuddin ali, 2018 TARII Fellow
Chemistry, Salahaddin University
Treating Oily Wastewater in Kurdistan Refineries and Oilfield using Low Cost Absorbents
Due to the petroleum refining in Kurdistan - Iraq unavoidably generates large volumes of oily wastewater. The environmentally acceptable disposal of oily wastewater is a current challenge to the petroleum industry. Unfortunately, the oil companies don’t have the technique for treating the polluted wastewater, especially those that are contaminated with free and dissolved organic waste water. Consequently, oily wastewater treatment has become an urgent problem and it must be explored and resolved by every oilfield and petroleum company. The treated water could be re-utilized for agricultural or other purposes.
In addition to that, the conventional techniques for treating oily wastewater have many disadvantages including high operation costs, low efficiency, corrosion, etc. These difficulties and stricter environmental regulations have persuaded the researchers and scientists to promote and discover novel processes for oily wastewater treatment. Many types of adsorbent materials such as activated carbon, bentonite, zeolite, etc. have been investigated as new materials for removing water from oil contaminants. Ali’s work evaluated the possibility of using the raw materials such as clays and oil shale samples as a new and low-cost adsorbent to handle the free and soluble oil fraction from oily wastewater, which comes from the desalting units. He also investigated some major factors that affect the treatment such as temperature, contact time, etc. Finally, applying adsorption isotherm models like Freundlich and Langmuir for the results of oily wastewater treatment.
Report available here (English).
Mays Fouad Hadhraty Alrubaie, 2018 TARII Fellow
Engineering, University of Technology, Iraq
Using Slurry Infiltrated Fiber Concrete as New Technique in Repairing of Defected Concrete Structures
Slurry infiltrated fiber concrete (SIFCON) is considered a special type of high strength high-performance fiber reinforced concrete, extremely strong and ductile. This relatively new type of concrete is produced by placing the separated steel fiber into a mold, to form a dense network which is then infiltrated with low viscosity slurry of cement mortar or paste.
This research aimed at investigating the possibility of using a relatively new type of concrete in retrofit and rehabilitation field. In this work four SIFCON mixes were molded with different steel fiber contents, metakaolin was used in one of these mixes in order to investigate its performance. Two other concrete mixes were molded these were steel fiber concrete mix with 1.5% steel fiber content and reference mix with 0% steel fiber. A number of tests were carried out, such as compressive strength test, flexural strength test, load deflection test, total absorption and permeability test. The result indicated a considerable improvement in all the mechanical properties, where the SIFCON mixes showed high compressive strength values up to 102.7 N/mm2 and extraordinary flexural strength values up to 39.5 N/mm2 at 180 days age. Using of metakaolin was beneficial in improving the mechanical properties at later age as well as in reducing the total absorption and permeability of the SIFCON mixes.
Report available here (English).
