" ملف رقم ١٣٥٦ لسنة ١٩١٢ الجزء ٢ "الحدود التركية-الفارسية:- مفاوضات في القسطنطينية. (حدود المحمرة)" [ظ‎‎٣‎١‎٦] (٦٨٠/٦٤١)

but their personal interests, and to the lack of men acquainted with the administration
of the country the owners of the arable land cannot get the . akr which is their
rightful due, aiid the khans of Aivan have begun to levy this “ akr.
Those who for generations have been m possession ot the arable lands m the Sumar
Plain on the right bank of the River Sumar, from Dubiraleh to a place about one and(
a-half hours from the Kassaba of Mendeli, still levy “ akr” from all cultivators, whether
they belong to the Kalhur tribe, who live in Aivan, or to the Kara Ulouss, who are
subject to^Mendeli. The fact that some of the people of Mendeh levied £< akr ” on
those of those lands which they possess until 1266 a.h. (1852), while some still levy it,
is sufficient to prove that the Kelhur tribe living in Aivan have no right of any kind
over the Sumar Plain; but in spite of this, and of the fact that the arable lands of the
proprietors of land in that plain, from the Tenk Pass, situated at an hour’s distance
from the Kassaba of Mendeli to the Alaneh mill, are nearer to Mendeli itself than the
lands of the other persons mentioned, while until 1266 a.h. (1852) the pronrietors
themselves cultivated the lands and gave up the fifth to the tax-farmers sent them by
Mendeli; in spite of these facts, I say, Shere Khan and Ulfet Khan, khans of the
Kelhur, put pressure on those people in 1266 and 126/ (1852—53) and began to claim
the right to dues such as those paid to the Mendeli tax-farmers, and owing, as explained
abovef to the administrative incapacity of the mudirs of Mendeli, the (and-owners were
forced, in spite of themselves, to give dates or other things to the said khans to the
value of 250 piastres a-year.
The owners used to have title-deeds showing them to have been the proprietors of
the said lands formerly; but when, in the late Daoud Pasha’s time, the Persians
invaded Mendeli, and everything belonging to the people was looted and plundered,
the documents in question were destroyed.
The mutessarifs’ entries have been noted in order by me.
Chapter XXVI.
The Kalhur tribes, references to whom have been made above, are divided first of
all into two parts called Mansury and Shahbazy, and each of these comprises several
branches. A report by a man called Mir Aziz, bey of the Kara Ulouss tribe, who are
now subject to Mendeli, says that in former times, and until Seyyid Bey, one of bis
ancestors, became bey of the Kara Ulouss, the house tax used to be be levied on some
2,000 houses belonging to the Shahbazy tribe and to other branches of the Lek tribe,
and situated in Gilan and Sumar and in other places in the neighbourhood of Mendeli,
and though Seyyid Bey’s son, Khaneh Bey, did not levy it, he had seen his father and
ancestors do so. Until the time of Nadir Shah the house tax was thus levied on the
Persian tribes who came to the said places, but after Nadir Shah’s time some of those
tribes fled from the places mentioned and w r ent to Zohab, and an irade was issued
saying that they should be governed by the mutessarifs of Zohab ; so the beys of the
Kara Ulouss let them alone. Thus he and his father and grandfather had not
interfered with them or attacked them ; and so long as the mutessarifs of Zohab
possessed Zohab on behalf of the Imperial Government of Turkey the usual taxes were
levied on the said tribes.
Chapter XXVII.
This is the information supplied by Aziz Bey; but in 1120 a.h. (1708) an Imperial
firman was issued instructing the mutessarifs of Zohab, with respect to the Lek and Kelhur
tribes, to give 400 piastres a-year to the State and 100 piastres to the beys of the Kara
Ulouss. This firman, which is in the possession of Osman Pasha, who was one of the
late mutessarifs of Zohab and now lives in Bagdad, has been seen and copied in
extenso. The truth of Aziz Bey’s statements is practically proved by the contents of
this firman; but the Kurds, not knowing exactly the dates of events, said that the
tribes in question were annexed to the mutessarifs of Zohab after the time of Nadir Shah,
whereas it is clear from the date of the firman that the tribes in question w r ere annexed
to the mutessarifs of Zohab before Nadir Shah appeared.
Chapter XXVIII.
The tenor of the firman referred to above shows that the Lek and Kelhur tribes
y ere Ottoman subjects. Aziz Bey’s report, however, savs that the Lek tribe is divided
into two parts, oneof w r hich lives in Persian territory, between Khoremabad and Shiraz,
and has been subject to Persia ab antiquo, while the members of the other, who also live