Editing Anah (section)

===Ottoman rule===
Starting around 1535, the town served as the de facto capital of the Abu Rish [[bedouin]] emirs, whom the Ottomans appointed as governors of several ''{{lang|ar-Latn|sancak}}''s (provinces) as well as ''çöl beyis'' or "desert emirs".<ref>{{cite book|first=Stefan|last=Winter|editor1-first=Stefan|editor1-last=Winter|editor2-first=Mafalda|editor2-last=Ade|title=Aleppo and its Hinterland in the Ottoman Period / Alep et sa province à l'époque ottomane|chapter=Alep et l'émirat du désert (çöl beyligi) au XVIIe-XVIIIe siècle|year=2019|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-37902-2|url=https://brill.com/view/title/38977}}pp. 86-108</ref> In 1574, [[Leonhart Rauwolff]] found the town divided into two parts, the Turkish "so surrounded by the river that you cannot go into it but by boats" and the larger Arab section along one of the banks. In 1610, Texeira<!-- links to dab page, but this particular Texeira seems not to be described in WP --> said Anah lay on both banks of the river, with which [[Pietro Della Valle]] agreed.<ref>Della Valle, i. 671.</ref> In that year, Della Valle found the Scot George Strachan resident at Anah, working as the physician to the emir and studying Arabic;<ref>Della Valle, i. 671–681.</ref> he also found some "sun worshippers" (actually [[Alawites]]) still living there.<ref>{{cite book|first=Stefan|last=Winter|title=A History of the 'Alawis: From Medieval Syria to the Turkish Republic|year=2016|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9780691173894|url=https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691173894/a-history-of-the-alawis}}pp. 24-25</ref> Della Valle and Texeira called Anah the principal Arab town on the Euphrates, controlling a major route west from [[Baghdad]] and territory reaching [[Palmyra]].{{sfnp|Hogg|1911}}

About 1750, the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]] installed a rudimentary administration to run Anah and its district.<ref name="Longrigg461"/> After roughly a century, a more organized local government was put in place, whereby Anah became the center of a [[kaza]] belonging to the [[Baghdad Vilayet]].<ref name="Longrigg461"/>

At the beginning of the 19th century, [[G.A. Olivier]] found only 25 men in service of the local prince, with residents fleeing daily to escape from bedouin attacks against which he offered no protection.{{sfnp|Olivier|1807}} He described the city as a single long street of five or six miles along a narrow strip of land between the river and a ridge of rocky hills.{{sfnp|Olivier|1807|p=451}} [[W. F. Ainsworth]], chronicling the [[Francis Rawdon Chesney|British Euphrates expedition]], reported that in 1835 the Arabs inhabited the northwest part of the town, the Christians the center, and the Jews the southeast.{{sfnp|Ainsworth|1888}} The same year, the steamer ''Tigris'' went down in a storm just above Anah, near where Julian's force had suffered from a similar storm.{{sfnp|Hogg|1911}}

By the mid-19th century, the houses were separated from one another by fruit gardens, which also filled the riverine islands near the town.{{sfnp|Baynes|1878}} The most easterly island contained a ruined castle, while the ruins of ancient Anatho extended a further two miles along the left bank.{{sfnp|Baynes|1878}} It marked the boundary between the olive (north) and date (south) growing regions in the area.{{sfnp|Hogg|1911}} With the positioning of Turkish troops in the town around 1890, the locals no longer had to pay blackmail (''{{lang|ar-Latn|huwwa}}'') to the bedouins.<ref>Von Oppenheim, 1893.</ref> Through the early 20th century, coarse cotton cloth was the only manufacture.{{sfnp|Baynes|1878}}{{sfnp|Hogg|1911}} In 1909 Anah had an estimated population of 15,000 and 2,000 houses.<ref name="MesoHandBook">{{cite book|title=A Handbook of Mesopotamia, Volume III: Central Mesopotamia with Southern Kurdistan and the Syrian Desert|date=January 1917|publisher=Admiralty and War Office, Division of Intelligence|pages=351–352}}</ref>  Most of the inhabitants were [[Sunni Muslim]] Arabs, though a small Jewish community lived on the town's southern edge.<ref name="MesoHandBook"/>

[[Image:Mosque in Anah Iraq protected by USMC in August 2008.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Mosque in Anah]]