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‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’ [‎34v] (68/82)

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The record is made up of 1 file (41 folios, 5 maps). It was created in 3 Apr 1912. It was written in English and French. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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58
siderable stream in the neighbourhood of the former
place.
A preference has been generally accorded to the
waters of the Karun over those of the Tigris and
Euphrates on account of their superior purity,
lightness, and sweet taste. The waters of the
Tigris and Euphrates are subject, it is said, to the
influence of the atmosphere, becoming warm or
cold according to the state of the weather, whilst
those of the Karun, on the contrary, are always
comparatively cool. During the great heat ot
summer, indeed, the water of the Tigris and
Euphrates is only drinkable during the night,
whereas above the junction of the Karun with the
Euphrates the former stream may boast through
out the year of the peculiarly cool and agreeable
flavour of its water, thf> inhabitants of the country
affirming that they never feel the want of ice, and
acknowledging that all the best qualities of a good
water are to be found united in the stream of the
Karun.
As Bagdad has different quarters on either side
of the Tigris, so also Mohammerah is divided into
two parts by the Karun. The northern quarter
used to be very populous and surrounded with
cultivation, and it contained also the bazaar which
is now in ruins.
In the southern quarter were situated a fort,
with various buildings and mosques, and the popu
lation was composed of Arabs of the tribe oP Keab.
The parties sent periodically by the Arab sheikhs
of the Keab tribe to gather in the produce of the
date groves had established many depdts on the
banks of the Shatt-el-Arab for storing the fruit.
Sheikh Fariss, nephew of Sheikh Thamir Khan,
was entrusted with the direction of the affairs of
commerce, while Sheikh Jaaber acted as the
political Governor of Mohammerah. Had not this
countrv been under the rule of the Keab it would
have arisen into great celebrity—the only draw
back to its prosperity consisted in its subjection
to the Arabs.
It contained about 6,000 houses, which were
scattered along the borders of the Karun. Persians
from Shuster, Dizful, Howiezeh, Bebahan, and
Kazeroon. and others emigrating from Bunder
Bushire and its dependencies of Bunder-Rig,
steamer at ebb title can just traverse the interval in two
hours.
Mohammerah is on the Hafnr Canal and not on the Korun.
At ebb tide the former channel is certainly filled from the
Karun, but at flood the current is reversed, and formerly
the natural flow of the waters was in this direction, from
west to east.
On the contrary, the Karun between Wcis and Ahwaz,
100 miles above Mohammerah, is very much larger than the
Ilafar at the latter place.
The excellence of the waters of the Karun and Kerka,
" the drink of kings," has been proclaimed by the consentient
voice of all antiquity and attested by the result of all
modern experience. There has been much geographical
confusion it is true, in consequence of one river bei"g mis
taken for the other, but this question of distinction or
identity appears to have the least possible connection with
the disputed right to Mohammerah.
The name of Mohammerah certainly applied originally to
the northern and southern quarters of the town on the
Hafar Canal, but for the last twenty years at least it has
been restricted to the northern division, the southern quarter
having been designated as the Koot-el-Sheikh (the sheikhas
castle) from its being the usual residence of the next heir
to the chiefship of the Chaab tribe. Sheikh Jaaber, the
Governor of Mohammerah, having rebelled against the chief
of Fellahiah, there has been constant fighting between the
inhabitants of the two towns separated by the Hafar Canal.
Mohammerah being on the mainland while Koot-el-Sheikh
was on an island, and thus affording greater facilities for
the dispatch of merchandise into the Turkish and Persian
territorv, was generally visited by traders in preference to
the southern quarter.
When the Chaab possessed the territory from the sea to
Girdelan their storehouses for dates were no doubt
established upon the Shatt-el-Arab along the entire line, but
at present 1 know of no depots belonging to the tribe upon
the river above the Hafar.
Sheikh Jaaber being in rebellion in Mohammerah, Sheikh
Fariss was sent from Fellahiah to Koot-el-Sheikh to hold
him in check, they never were associated in a common
government, but each ruled independently in his own
quarter; Sheikh Jaaber, however, addicting himself to
commerce, while Sheikh Fariss was chiefly occupied in
collecting the date produce of the island of Abadan.
No doubt Mohammerah possesses natural advantages of
some consequence, being situated in a fertile tract im
mediately between the two large navigable rivers of the
Shatt-el-Arab and Karun ; but the population of the
countries through which these rivers flow must be multiplied
tenfold before the demand and supply can bo such as to
entitle the port to bo ranked amongst the great emporia
of eastern trade.
Personal examination and extended enquiries enable me
to state positively the following factsregarding Mohammerah.
In its most flourishing state it never contained at the utmost
computation above 500 houses, probably not more than 400
of these, be it observed, were almost exclusively reed huts
plastered with mud; there were four caravanserais and three
temporary sheds used as coffee houses. Sheikh Jaaber
once brought a boat load of burnt bricks from Bussorah
which he made use of in laying the foundations of hii own

About this item

Content

The memorandum concerns the border between Mohammerah [Khorramshahr] and Turkey, and was prepared by Alwyn Parker of the Foreign Office. There are a number of labels at the top of the first page: ‘Persia’, ‘Confidential’ and ‘Section 10’. The memorandum sections are as follows:

  • Part I. A preface (folios 1-5), introducing the points at issue, with two maps, the first being a sketch map of the Mohammerah district, with the proposed Turkish, Persian and mediating commissioner’s lines indicated (folio 2), and a map compiled from plane table surveys by Lieutenant Arnold Talbot Wilson in 1909, with the frontier as defined by the mediating commissioners in 1850 (folio 4);
  • Part II. An historical summary (folios 6-19) of British Government correspondence relating to the border dispute, with the chief focus being on correspondence exchanged during the period 1843-52, around the time of the Treaty of Erzeroum (c.1848). This part contains two copies of a map, a facsimile of a diagram of the disputed area, the original of which was enclosed by Colonel Williams in his despatch of 4 February 1850, indicating Turkish and Persian claims and the mediating commissioner’s proposal (folios 15, 19);
  • Part III. Conclusion (folios 20-28), with a further map (folio 23), an exact copy of that found on folio 4.

The appendices that follow are:

  • A: British assurances given to the Shaikh of Mohammerah, 1899 and 1902-10;
  • B. Protocol of December 1911 (in French) for the proposal settlement of the Turco-Persian frontier question;
  • C. An extract from Sir Austen Henry Layard’s Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana, and Babylonia , published in 1887. The extract is from volume 2, pp 431-439;
  • D. Rough notes made by General William Monteith when in Persia, on the frontier of Turkey and Persia, as communicated to the Foreign Office in 1843;
  • E. Observations by Sir Henry Rawlinson on a Persian memorandum relative to the situation of the cities of Mohammerah and Fellahiah [Fallāḥīyah], 1844;
  • F. Text of the Treaty of Erzeroum, 31 May 1847, in English and French translation;
  • G. Copy of a despatch from Sir Stratford Canning, the British Ambassador to Istanbul, to Lord Palmerston, Foreign Secretary, dated 30 May 1850;
  • H. Copy of a despatch from Lord Palmerston to Lord Broomfield, dated 12 July 1850.
Extent and format
1 file (41 folios, 5 maps)
Arrangement

The memorandum is arranged into three parts, labelled I, II and III, which are followed by eight lettered appendices, A-H. Historic correspondence referred to in the memorandum is referenced in the inside page margin.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: The foliation sequence commences at the first folio and terminates at the last folio; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.

Pagination: The booklet contains an original typed pagination sequence.

Written in
English and French in Latin script
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‘Memorandum respecting the frontier between Mohammerah and Turkey.’ [‎34v] (68/82), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/B380, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100024051501.0x000045> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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