Al-Shatrah was founded in 1872 in the late
Ottoman Iraq period, and was part of the
Basra Vilayet. Not long afterward, the town established a strong trading relationship with
Baghdad and became a hub of the
grain trade in southern Iraq. Shatrah became the most important town along the
Gharraf Canal and gained the nickname "Little Baghdad". It served as the administrative center of a
qadaa (subdistrict) of the same name, which was part of the Muntafiq Sanjak of the
Basra Vilayet. The town's original official name was "Shatrat al-Muntafiq", but it was simplified by local residents to "al-Shatrah" to distinguish it from the nearby town of Qal'at Salih, which was officially known as "Shatrat al-Amarah" by the Ottoman authorities. In the summer of 1889, al-Shatrah experienced an outbreak of
cholera, which caused the deaths of around 700 of its inhabitants, including the
qaimaqam (lieutenant-governor) of the town. Prior to the outbreak, the population stood at around 5,000, but al-Shatrah was largely and temporarily deserted after the outbreak. Al-Shatrah was a stronghold of the
al-Muntafiq tribal confederation which dominated southern Iraq during the Ottoman era. In the early 20th century, it was regarded as the tribe's seat of power. It had a population of roughly 4,000, nearly all of whom were
Shia Muslim Arabs with small
Jewish and
Mandean communities. Its market contained nearly 300 shops and was frequented by the Muntafiq tribesmen who predominated in the surrounding region. The Jewish community managed a primary school in the village. ==References==