"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٣‎٥‎٣] (١٧٨٢/١٥٠٨)

fcior-
'
1353
guns planted there at about 350 yards from the town wall. Inside
the town anti-Snnni feeling ran high ; the Mullas proclaimed the war
to be one of religion; and gross abuse of the Sultan and his army-
was incessantly launched from the battlements at the besieging force.
To meet a scarcity of shot and ball a brass railing was aken from the
shrine of 'Abbas and melted down; and even holy men took their share,
after the Turkish attack began in earnest, in repairing damage to the
walls.
In the end the critical position in which his own force found itself
obliged the Turkish Commandant to resolve_, after holding a council
of war, upon sharp and decisive action. Half rations and exposure to
cold and damp had dispirited his troops, and desertion was rife. On the
11th January, the Turkish* guns began to play upon a portion of the town
wall about 60 yards from the Najaf Gate, and by the next day a practicable
breach had been effected. An Arab named ■'Alwan was then despatched
to the town, under a flag of truce, to summon it to surrender. Terms of
capitulation had been all but arranged with him when the Yaramaz chief
Mirza Salih, drawing his sword and dashing his turban on the ground^
cried out that it was too late to recede. The general opinion veered round
to the Mirza's side; the messenger returned to the Turkish camp; and
artillery fire was re-opened and continued until sunset, by which time the
width of the breach was about 50 yards.
Even yet the Karbala rebels did not realise their danger, and, when on
the morning of the 13th January before daylight the Turks reconnoitred the
breach, the guard on it were found partly absent and partly asleep round a
fire at the foot of the wall. Before the storming party reached the
spot, however, a certain number of defenders had collected there and day
had dawned. The breach was carried with the loss of about 50 men, and
the Najaf Gate was then thrown open from within to admit the Turkish
main body. The troops when mustered inside were divided into three
columns, one of which was ordered to advance through the middle of the
town, while the other two were to follow the inner side of the town wall in
opposite directions until they met, seizing the various gates as they passed
them. One of these two columns, on arriving at the Khaimahgah Gate,
found a crowd of Arabs, Yaramaz, and ordinary citizens of every sort
collected there, unable to escape because the gate was shut. Some of the
Arabs in the crowd fired; the soldiers replied, with fatal effect; and
a stampede followed in which numbers of men, women, and children
Were knocked down and trodden to death. The crowd then retreated^
* The damage done to the date plantatious by artillery fire was still conspicuous in
1849. See Loftus's Travels, page 65.
.