File 1356/1912 Pt 2 'Turco-Persian Frontier:- negotiations at Constantinople. (Mohammerah Boundary)' [‎316r] (640/680)

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“The localities known as Jessan and Baderay depend on us. The kassaba of
Mendeljin and the land as far as Dertenk—Dertenk Ser Mil being the limit—with the
plains between them, depend on us. The mountains at the side remain on the other
side of the frontier, Derna and Dertenk Mil Bashi (Ser Mil), which are defined as the
limit, depend on us.
It is consequently deduced from these considerations that the old frontier must
have passed through the localities referred to; but as the said localities consist of
mountain land, there are other likely points for the course of the frontier.
[A ote.—It must be explained that, instead of the terms “ nahie and “ kaza "
employed by us, the Persians use the words “ mahal ” and “ bulouk,” and when places
disputed to-day and in the Persians possession are referred to, most of them are called
by the Persian name “mahal ; so when, in this report, such and such a “ mahal” is
referred to, it means such and such a nahie or kaza.J
Chapter XXIV.
If the frontier is made to pass through the localities above mentioned there will
remain within the boundary of the Ottoman Empire the mahal called Aivan (Iwan),
which is situated to the north and north-west of Dihbala and the waters of which
extend as far as Mendeli.
Chapter XXV.
It has been ascertained that a century ago no one lived in this mahal, Aivan, and
that region was waste and deserted. Then Mansur, one of the khans of the Kelhur
tribe, who now live in Aivan, but at that time were in Persian territory, came from
Persia with a number ©f houses of the Kelhur tribe and settled there. While Mansur
was ruling over the said tribe there. Kerim Khan Zend, the autocratic ruler of Persia,
appeared and married a daughter of All Khan, father of Shere Khan, the present ruler
in Aivan, and on account of this connection he gave the khanate of Aivan to his
father-in-law, Ali Khan; and since then the mahal has been in the possession of the
Persians.
Now, there is a stream called the Sumar (the upper part is called Kenker), which
is the life of the town of Mendeli and of two biggish villages, Disheikh and Kazanieh,
which are two hours from Mendeli. The source of this stream is in Mount Manshet,
the highest part of a range called Shere Zul, between Aivan and Dihbala. Now this
stream might be used up in summer before reaching Mendeli, and, if there were no
water in it, the people of Mendeli and of the other two other places mentioned would
not be able to make a* living or to bring vineyards and gardens into existence by
cultivation. So when the frontier was decided upon no thought was given to any
other need, and it is most probable that the mahal of Aivan, which contains the source of
this stream and in which the water could be used and exhausted, was left on the 1 urkish
side of the frontier, for it should not be possible for others to meddle with water
which is the source of the prosperity of the three places mentioned and the very life
of the people there. - Another argument for the said locality s inclusion within the
frontier is the fact that Dihbala is a sanjak on the frontier and Ser Mil is the end of
the frontier.
In the report presented on the 18th Shevval, 1267 (1853), there were a few
statements concerning the Sumar plain, the Sumar River, and the boundary of Mendeli,
but I was recently in Aivan and ascertained that this mahal is within the frontier.
Moreover, it has been established that the Persians have no rights whatever over the
Sumar plain. The tithe of the produce of that plain belongs to Mendeli, and the
khans of Aivan have no right to exact payment for the water of the Sumar, yet for
about forty or fifty years they have found a means and have begun to make an unlawful
levy, whereas in the beginning it was not so. p i i -
The people of Mendeli, who are the proprietors of all the arable part of the plam
of Sumar, are still alive. Now the cultivators in that plain all belong to the Kelhur
tribe, "who are subject to Persia, and until 1266 a.h. (1852; those ot the proprietors
of the said arable lands, who own the lands on the left bank of the Sumar as far as a
place called Dubiraleh, which is the extremity of the Snmar plain, used to take
a twentieth—called “ akr ’ in these parts—as rent from the Kelhur tribe, which
engaged in agriculture there. Since 1266 A.H. (1852), however, owing to the opposition
of the khans of Aivan, to the fact that the officials in Mendeli ha^ e sought nothing
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