"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٢‎٠‎٠] (١٧٨٢/١٣٥٥)

HUM In
W^mtnrnam
1200
Government Ahmad Pasha, as we have seen, still ruled Baghdad when it was
Pash&. till attacked by the Persians in 1733. He was temporarily removed by the
Sultan, accepting his dismissal with a good grace, about 1734; but his
successors were unablo to maintain order, and about 1736 he was reinsta
ted. In 1741 the Porte proposed to take Basrah from Ahmad Pasha
and give it to a certain Husain Pasha; but they were unable, apparently,
to give effect to their intentions. The Persian attack on Basrah in 1743
was said to have been promoted by Ahmad Pasha for the purpose of
enhancing his own importance, or of preventing his own removal from
office for a second time; it became the means of procuring him money,
guns, and other supplies from the Porte ; and after its failure he remained
in undisturbed enjoyment of power until his death, which occurred from
natural causes in 1747 or 1748, in the course of a campaign against the
Kurds. Ahmad Pasha was a skilful horseman, and his principal recreation
was hunting lions, which he more than once killed single-handed, armed
only with a spear.
In ]74] Ahmad Pasha severely chastised the Bedouins, who had
rebelled, and it was anticipated that they would give no more trouble
for some years; but in 1746 the Arabs near Basrah created dis
turbances, and a force was sent against them from Baghdad under the
Pasha's Kehiyah or deputy. The Kehiyah was anxious to visit Basrah itself,
but he was prevented by the Pasha and had to content himself with
sending for some of the principal inhabitants, from whom he extorted
large presents. In the spring of 1747 a new Mutasallim was sent by
Ahmad Pasha to Basrah with orders for a reassessment of the date groves,
"in order to oppress the Arabs in their tax, whereupon"—so wrote
Mr. Grendon, the British Resident at Basrah—" thinking themselves
" already too highly imposed upon, the tribe called Monteficks are rebelled,
" and to secure themselves and to (cause) the Turks all the detriment
( ' in their power, they have opened the banks of the river which has laid
" the desert quite under water, to the very walls at Basrah ; this accident
" has put the inhabitants into the greatest consternation, being now
" apprehensive lest the disagreeable stench arising from it should cause
" a pestilential fever." In June the inundation became so serious that
three bastions of the Basrah town wall collapsed, and the whole of
the inhabitants were placed on corvee for three days to repair the tottering
ramparts. Shaikh Sa'dun, the chief of the Muntafik was twice captured
by the forces of Ahmad Pasha, and on the second occasion was put to
death by Sulaiman, the Pasha^s Kehiyah; and this measure^ followed by
the treacherous execution ot 15 or 20 leading men among the Muntafik