| Suq Al-Shuyukh District | |
| Native Name: | قضاء سوق الشيوخ |
| Settlement Type: | District |
| Pushpin Map: | Iraq |
| Pushpin Label Position: | left |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: |  Iraq |
| Subdivision Type1: | Governorate |
| Subdivision Name1: | Dhi Qar Governorate |
| Timezone: | AST |
| Utc Offset: | +3 |
| Coordinates: | 30.8903°N 46.4625°W |
Suq Al-Shuyukh District (Arabic: قضاء سوق الشيوخ|translit=Suq eš-Šuyūḵ; also called Suq al-Shoyokh District) is a district of the Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq. Suq al-Shuyukh is a city surrounded by date palm orchards and located on the right bank of the Euphrates, at the western end of the Hawr al-Hammar lake and wetlands,[1] about 40 km southeast of Nasiriya.[1] Suq al-Shuyukh is a center of date and rice cultivation, which takes place in the areas to the north and west of the lake.[1]
Suq al-Shuyukh was founded in the early 18th century to serve as the suq (i.e. marketplace) of the Muntafiq tribal confederation.[1] The leader of the entire Muntafiq confederation resided at Kut al-Shuyukh, four hours to the east.[1] The name "Shuyukh" refers to the members of his clan.[1]
Toward the end of the 18th century, Suq al-Shuyukh was "a small town with a mosque and surrounded by earthen walls".[1] In the early 1800s, the town was described as "extremely dirty", and the Muntafiq's shaykh "disdained to live in the town".[1] According to contemporary accounts, it was inhabited by 6,000 families and was a center for commercial exchange with Basra and even Bushir and Bombay.[1]
During the 1800s, the town of Suq al-Shuyukh was separated into Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Mandaean quarters, as reported during Julius Heinrich Petermann's 1854 visit to the town.[2] The Mandaean quarter was known as Margab[3] or Ṣubbūye[1] and was located on the opposite bank of the Euphrates.[1] Petermann's visit came shortly after a mass emigration of the town's Mandaean population around 1853: before, there had been about 260 Mandaean families, many of them serving as silversmiths or boat-builders, but 200 of them had left to al-Amarah due to persecution by the Muntafiq.[1] Petermann estimated the town's population to be 3,000.[1] By this point, the shaykh did own a house in the town.[1] During his visit, Petermann met with Shaykh Yahya Bihram, the high priest of the Mandaeans.[1]
Around the end of the 19th century, V. Cuinet listed Suq al-Shuyukh's population at about 12,000.[1] This included some 2,250 Sunnis, who had two mosques (jami's); 8,770 Shi'is, who had one "sanctuary" (masjid); 200 Jews; and 700 Mandaeans.[1]
Under Ottoman rule, Suq al-Shuyukh was made the seat of a kaza in the sanjak of Muntafiq.[1] It was later involved in the Iraqi revolt of 1920 as well as the 1935-1936 Iraqi Shia revolts.[1]
Notable historical residents of Suq al-Shuyukh District include:[4]
Suq al-Shuyukh is home to the Suq Al-Shuyukh Stadium, and also the two football clubs Suq Al-Shuyukh FC[5] [6] and Al-Forat FC.[7]