شؤون مناطق شبه الجزيرة العربية الخاضعة للحكم العثماني [ظ‎‎٦‎٤‎٠] (٢٠/٦)

at Solimaniyeli, to the effect that Saeed Sultan, Chief of theOoraman, with three
of his followers, had been cruelly put to death by Ali Akbar Khan, Governor of
Jowanroo, a District between Solimaniyeh and Saooj-bolagh, w 7 ho had also im
prisoned Abd-oor-llehman Bey, the son of this Chief, that doubts existed whether
this latter had not been murdered in prison, and that Moosa Khan, brother of
Ali Akbar Khan, had marched with a body of troops into the Ooraman country
and pillaged the villages.
The telegram adds that this intelligence has been authenticated from cre
dible sources in that neighbourhood, but it does not appear that any reliable
particulars have reached this as to the cause of this deed, or the manner in
which it was perpetrated.
His Excellency reported to the Porte by telegram the receipt of this com
munication, pointing out that Saeed Sultan w r as one of the Chiefs who returned
to Persian territory in 1869 on the guarantee of the Porte founded on assurances
given by His Majesty the Shah.
He informs me that the younger children and family of this Chief having
come into Solimaniyeh, he has sent instructions thither to give them shelter and
provide for their wants.
This occurrence had no sooner been reported at Baghdad than the idea
was suggested that the deed was done as a reprisal for the execution of Shah
Biza, reported in my telegram of the 7th instant, and more fully in my
despatch No. 40 of 16th idem.
This seems scarcely possible, and in a high degree improbable, and I should
not deem it worthy of mention, but that it is an example of the uneasy feeling
that unhappily exists between the Ottoman and the Persian authorities, and to
which I would venture to solicit Your Excellency’s consideration.
The irritation produced by the conduct of the Persian Government in the
matter of the Hamawands seems never absent from the mind of Midhut. Pasha
and the Ottoman authorities, and is certainly the principal cause of the ill-feel
ing on their part.
The cause of that on the part of the Persians is less easy to ascertain, and
I am as yet unable to trace it to other than long standing and probably religi
ous animosity.
Complaints reach me from both sides.
His Excellency complains bitterly of the non-observance of treaty obliga
tions in this matter, of the numerous petty and vexatious complaints and
claims brought forward by the Persian authorities, of their harbouring and
encouraging Turkish malefactors, and particularly of the late conduct of Husem
Kooli Khan, Persian Governor of Louristan, and of Malik Niyaz Khan,
Governor of Zoh&b.
As regards the former it seems that the gardens and cultivation at
deli, which are very valuable, are watered by a stream called Soomar, which
runs from the mountains now in the possession of Persia.
A dispute seems to have arisen about this water at the time w ^ n ^ am ^
Pasha was Govern! r General of Irak, and in order to prevent the fata c0 ^ se ‘
qumces of a protracted dispute, during which the cultivation wmiM h
inevitably destroyed by the withholding of the water, he induced the P l , • g
Men deli to confirm and augment the payment of a yearly sum to the
for the necessary supply.
This arrangement was of old standing and the payment was then rais ^J?
4,000 kerans a year, it has since been augmented from « Ted the fum
kerans, and has always been duly paid ; but this year, though it is sta
was paid as usual, the water-supply has been cut off ° the vounger
strances, and the large amount of summer crops, as well as all t „ o
trees of the gardens, is said to have been consequently destroyed.
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