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1. Turkish Arabia Affairs
- Description:
- Abstract: This item comprises a copy of an enclosure to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 94 of 1846, dated 26 August 1846. The enclosure is dated 26 June 1846.The primary document is a despatch from Major Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, Political Agent in Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq], forwarding, for the information of the Government of Bombay and the Governor-General of India, copies of his communications to Sir Stratford Canning, HM Ambassador at Constantinople [Istanbul], reporting on affairs in the Pashalic [Pashalik] of Baghdad [also spelled Bagdad in this item]. It specifically concerns events which have occurred in Koordistan [Kurdistan, also spelled Kurdishtan in this item].The papers notably cover the following:An attack on Sulimanieh [Sulaymaniyah] by a combined force under Ahmed Pasha [Aḥmad Pāshā] and his relative ‘the notorious Brigand Abdullah Beg [‘Abdullāh Beg]’, and ‘his tribe of Sharaf Bainis [Sharaf Baynī]’ (f 38, f 36)Ahmed Pasha’s flight to Zohab [Sarpol-e Zahab] following his defeat by a force led by his brother Abdullah Pasha [‘Abdullāh Pāshā] of Sulimanieh, and the defection of many of the former’s followers to Abdullah PashaThe force sent by Nejib Pasha [Muḥammad Najīb Pāshā, Governor of Baghdad] to re-take the province (on the erroneous assumption of Ahmed Pasha’s success), and Rawlinson’s assertion that Nejib Pasha viewed the attack as ‘the invasion of Sulimanieh by a Persian tribe, rather than as a domestic feud among Turkish Kurds’ (f 38)Rawlinson’s concerns that Mohib Ali Khan [Muḥibb ʿAlī Khān], Governor of Kermanshah, has no real authority over Abdullah Beg and would be unable to coerce him or Ahmed Pasha, and that ‘while they continue to hover on the frontier, the country will be kept in a perpetual state of disorder and alarm’ (f 38)Nejib Pasha’s plan for the permanent stationing of Turkish [Ottoman] troops on the plain of Shahrizar [Shahrizor Plain] and Rawlinson’s concern that he will take advantage of the situation to supersede the Baban administration of Sulimanieh altogether with Turkish officials since Baghdad has ‘long been dissatisfied with Abdullah Pasha’s imbecile and unproductive rule’ (f 40) and desirous of securing the territory of southern Kurdistan and Turkish power generally throughout the mountains of the Baghdad PashalicRumours that Ahmed Pasha is said to have colluded with [Rasūl Pāshā] of Rewandooz [Rawandiz, Iraqi Kurdistan], and Rawlinson’s belief that Nejib Pasha will now make a serious effort to disempower him and prevent further opportunities for rebellion.Also included is a copy of Rawlinson’s letter to HM Minister in Tehran reporting and analysing the events, and a copy of a translated letter from Nejib Pasha to Rawlinson covering the background to the situation in Sulimanieh, his previous ‘most marked consideration’ (f 41) towards the ‘transgressor’ Ahmed Pasha including an invitation to Baghdad, and his hope that Persia will refuse him asylum.Physical description: 1 item (12 folios)