"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٣‎٠‎٩] (١٧٨٢/١٤٦٤)

1309
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regretted by the representatives of the East India Company in Turkish
Iraq as it was by the native subjects of the Porte. Sulaimau 3 whom the
Turkish Government appointed to succeed him, was a nephew of the
Pasha, similarly named, who governed Baghdad from 1779 to 1802. As
Kehiyah of the late Pasha he had commanded in a war against the
Persians about the year 1806, in which he was taken prisoner; and in
the same capacity he had assumed provisional charge of the administra
tion upon 'Ali's death.
In IMG* Salim Agha, Mutasallim of Basrah, rebelled against
Sulaiman Pasha whose place he hoped to obtain ; but the Munfcafik tribe,
of Mnose support the Mutasallim had been assured, unexpectedly turned
against him. On the 14th of July the Muntafik occupied the town of
Basrah without violence, permitting Salim Agha to retire with his
family and all his property to Bushehr. He was followed in the
Mutasallimate by one Ahmad Baig, regularly appointed by the Pasha of
[ Baghdad, whose entry into Rasrah the Muntafik did not oppose.
In the same year, for reasons not ascertained, the Porte decided on
the removal of Sulaiman Pasha from the Government of Baghdad, and a
special official was sent from Constantinople to carry out the flat. The
Pasha was supported by the troops of the local garrison ; but the Kurds of
the districts under 'Abdur Rahnrnn Pasha, a chief whose difficulties with
Sulaiman Pasha had before this led him to coquet with Persia, arrayed
themselves on the side of the Ottoman Commissioner. The issue of the
struggle remained doubtful for some days, but on the 5th October a
decisive engagement took place in the immediate vicinity of Baghdad.
The fighting began early in the afternoon, when a body of Kurds
charged the Pasha's army, but were driven off by artillery fire. The
Pasha's guns, however, the carriages being ricketty, were soon all
dismounted by their own recoil; and the Kurdish host, which was vastly
superior in numbers, then resumed the offensive and pressed the Baghdad
army hard so long as daylight lasted. A number of Kurds who had
taken service with the Pasha, and on whom he placed much reliance,
deserted him at a critical moment; and on the morning of the 6th,
finding himself all but forsaJien by his followers, Sulaiman fled with a
few faithful Georgians by the Basrah road. Reaching the Diyalah river
in safety, he crossed it and broke down the bridge behind him; but a
strong party of the Shammar Toqah Arabs, in whose country he was.
* Probably an enfranchised Georgian slave of that name who had married an illegiti
mate daughter of the former Sulaiman Pasha. Ho was a man of some intelligence and
of affable manners, but not succegBful as a ruler.
Bebellion
and expulsion
from the
country of
Salim Agha
Mutasallim
of Basrah,
1810.
Removal of
Sulaiman
Pasha by the
Porte, 1810.
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