"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٣‎١‎١] (١٧٨٢/١٤٦٦)

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cc powerful territory under the Porte." The affair seems to have ended,
however, in some sort of compromise * with Persia.
The rule of ' Abdullah Pasha, however remarkable his good qualities-}-
may have been, was not destined to last long. At the beginning of
1813 he took the field against the Shaikh of the Muntafik, who was
threatening Basrah with a large force ; but in the first week of February,
on his arriving within striking distance, the 'greater part of his force
suddenly threw down their arms and went over to the enemy.
^Abdullah Pasha then placed himself in the hands of the Muntafik under
assurances of personal safety, but a few days later they teacherously
put him to death. The power of the Muntafik, whose most distinguished
Shaikh at this time was Hamid-bin-Thamir, increased greatly after their
victory over the Pasha of Baghdad; and the country on the Euphrates
almost as far as Samawah came under their sway.
The successor of ^Abdullah Pasha was Sa^id, a youth twenty-one
years of age, who on the circumstances of 'Abdullah^death becoming
W : i
Death of
'Abdullak
Pasba, k illed
by the Munta
fik, 1813,
* See Chapter Eleventh, page 1870»
f The following portrait of ' Abdullah Agha (as he then was) was drawn by Mr. H.
Jones, Resident at Baghdad, in 1802 :—
" Abdullah Agha is native of Baghdad, born of one of the most respectable families
" in the city, and was appointed from the office of Hasnadar to the Pashaw to that of
" Mussalum of Bussora, which he filled for many years with superior credit to himself
" and the greatest advantage to the Pashaw, his master. Ha is about forty-two years
"of age, coarse in his person but most engaging and interesting in his manner and
" conversation, knowing and practising that great and invaluable secret of accommoda--
" ing himself to his company without the smallest loss of his own dignity. He is a
" man of letters, a politician, a financier, and a merchant. He has procured himeelf.
<c what people in these conntries seldom think of, a tolerable distinct and correct
notion of the state of Europe. He has been at uncommon pains to obtain somt
"ideas of geography; and he is the only Turk that I ever conversed with that had
" a knowledge of the local situation and relation of the provinces of his own Empire.
" He is liberal in his religious opinions and would, if policy would warrant it, le stili
"more so. He is liberal to his people without being profuse, and has the happy
" talent of combining great expense with the most exact economy. He is always
" happy to receive information in whatever shape, or by whomsoever it may be
" offered to him, and is seldom or ever contented with knowing a thing superficially
" or by halves. In his government at Bussora he was prompt, decisive and vigilant
"and contrived to procure himself a great character for good faith, humanity,
"and justice. He has been accused of being avaricious, but he certainly never gratified
" that passion by extortion and oppression, . . He has been reproached with timidity,
" —he never showed it in any act of his government, . . . He is (very much to the
"credit of the Kesident at Bussora) most firmly attached to the English and their
"interests, justly and on conviction of tbe truth of it, considering the latter as in-
" separably connected in these countries with those of the Porte."
Government
of Sa'id
Pasha,
1813-1816.
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