http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/05/0501_030501_arabmarshes.html
"Today, there's not much to visit. In 1991, shortly after the first Persian Gulf war ended, Saddam Hussein's government, angered by Marsh Arab participation in the southern uprising against his rule, launched an assault on the southern wetlands and the nearly 300,000 Marsh Arabs, known as Ma'adan, who call the region home. The assault included burning villages, summary executions and "disappearances," and a multi-year, sophisticated campaign of water diversion and marsh drainage that has reduced roughly 93 percent of the marshes to dry, salt-encrusted wasteland."
Sometimes the Hebrew dictionaries can help flesh out similar Semetic words.
04574 ma`adan {mah-ad-awn'} or (fem.) ma`adannah {mah-ad-an-naw'}
from 05727; TWOT - 1567d; n m
AV - delicately 2, dainties 1, delight 1; 4
1) dainty (food), delight
from 05727
05727 `adan {aw-dan'}
a primitive root; TWOT - 1567; v
AV - delighted themselves 1; 1
1) (Hithpael) to luxuriate, delight oneself
That's the same as...
05729 `Eden {eh'-den}
from 05727;; n pr loc
AV - Eden 3; 3
Eden = "pleasure"
1) a place conquered by Assyria; probably located in the northwest of
Mesopotamia
***
The letter mem is often prefixed to a root to form a word that is, in a sense, "out of" or "from" the root.
Example: migdal (tower) from gadal (magnify, grow, be great)
Thus, the ma`adan could simply be the people "from" a place called Eden.