Editing Mudhif (section)

==Description==
Mudhif structures have been one of the traditional types of structures built by the Arabs of the marshlands in southern Iraq for at least 5,000 years. A carved elevation of a typical mudhif, dating to around 3,300 BCE was discovered at [[Uruk]], and is now in the [[British Museum]].<ref>Broadbent, G., "The Ecology of the Mudhif," in: Geoffrey Broadbent and C. A. Brebbia, ''Eco-architecture II: Harmonisation Between Architecture and Nature,'' WIT Press, 2008, pp. 15–26</ref>

[[File:Marsh Arab.jpg|thumb|left|Marsh Arab amid the reeds used for building]]

A mudhif is a special type of ''sarifa''; a structure made from reeds which grow naturally in the marshlands and is used by the village sheik as a guest-house.<ref>Ochsenschlager, E.L., ''Iraq's Marsh Arabs in the Garden of Eden,'' University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004, p. 162</ref> Other types of reed dwelling, such as a ''raba'' (with entrances at both ends and used as a family dwelling) or a ''bayt'' (strictly a single-room dwelling) are typically smaller than a mudhif and may be used for residential and other purposes.<ref>Ochsenschlager, E.L., ''Iraq's Marsh Arabs in the Garden of Eden,'' University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004, pp. 145–46</ref>

Each village sheik had a mudhif capable of accommodating at least ten persons. The number of arches used in a mudhif is dictated by the tribe and family group.<ref>''The National Geographic Magazine,''  Vol. 113, 1958, p. 214</ref> Sometimes the mudhif was decorated with additional bundles of reeds, arranged in decorative patterns, placed on the façade, to serve as a tribal identifier.<ref>Van de Noort, E., ''Climate Change Archaeology: Building Resilience from Research in the World's Coastal Wetlands,'' Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013, p. 216</ref> The entrance to the mudhif always faces Mecca.<ref>''The National Geographic Magazine,''  Vol. 113, 1958, p. 214</ref>
[[File:Mudhif by Gertrude Bell 1918 or 1920.jpg|thumb|Mudhif, photograph by Gertrude Bell, 1918 or 1920.]]

The English writer, [[Gertrude Bell]], wrote a description of a mudhif in a letter to her father:<ref>Lady Bell (ed.), The Letters of Gertrude Bell, Vol. II, London, Ernest Benn, 1927, pp. 476–77 https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.210996/page/n85</ref>
{{blockquote|"After dinner Sheik Ibadi al Husain invited us to his mudhif, his guest house. Now a mudhif you can't picture until you have seen it. It is constructed of reeds, reed mats spread over reed bundles, arching over and meeting at the top, so that the whole is a perfectly regular and exquisitely constructed yellow tunnel, 50 yards long. In the middle is a coffee hearth, with great logs of willow burning. On either side of the hearth, against the reed walls of the mudhif, a row of brocaded cushions for us to sit on, the Arabs flanking us and the coffee-maker crouched over his pots. The whole lighted by fire and a couple of small lamps, and the end of the mudhif fading away into a golden gloom. Glorious.}}