"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٤‎٣‎٨] (١٧٨٢/١٥٩٣)

i!
1438
(xovemment, for he and his followers claimed all their booty for them,
selves; but, out of 2,000 camels captured, 142 were secured by some
1 urkish irregulars who had been aent to co-operate with the Shaikh, and
of these 82—very inferior animals—actually reached Baghdad. In the
end compensation to the extent of about one-fourth of the value of the
goods lost was obtained, whereupon Colonel Kemball remarked : "This
" issue, though, indeed, reflecting credit upon the management of Namiq
"Pasha as productive of a result more substantial than that which usually
" attends the ostensible efforts of the Turkish executive to save appear
ances, is an additional instance only of their powerlessness in such cases.
Nor does that result represent an unmixed gain, for the Sabaa and
"Fidaan offenders, angered at the co-operation of Shaikh Abdool Muhsen
against them, have resorted, or pretended to resort, to retaliation, and,
"while seeking to surprise his outlying adherents, have intercepted a
" caravan with money to the amount of 35,000 G. S. P., passing from
" Nejjeff to Kerbela, which they have carried off "
In Decembei the Anizah and Shammar began to return, according to
custom, to their more western and northern pastures in the Arabian desert.
In the autumn of 1866, as frequently occurs, there was a slight
epidemic of cholera at Baghdad, lasting about two months ; but the
number of deaths from the disease registered jier diem at no time
exceeded fifteen. In the summer of 1867 plague appeared, but not in a
severe form, in some of the Euphrates districts of the province, and it
lingered there for some time.
Towaids the end of 1866, as from time to time happens, serious
buiglaries, accompanied in some cases by murder, became common in
Baghdad City; and grave suspicion fell, as has been the case in very
lecent times also, upon the soldiers of the military garrison. The British
Political Agent, in reporting three quite recent cases in which life had
been taken, remarked :
In no case, however, can I recall the conviction of the burglars; the official
opinion being that the institution of the Tanzimat when not supplemented by the
machinery of police as organized in Europe forms an effectual bar to the detection of
malefactors. In one of the three instances above mentioned the office of a British
'This man lndi an merchant was forced and his watchman* killed ; but as on a former occasion
.as laid _ when the same office was robbed of £1,500 the perpetrators were discovered and lodged
hr^tdei jad, yet fected their escape under circumstances which implied the connivance of
erately cut 6 ^ ^ m i " 0n P ?<!Sent oc casioii anticipate no better result when the burglars
succeeded in putting out of the way the only witness of their act. Lest murder should
0 ow, peop e, conscious of the inefficiency of the police, though aware of the presence
ot thieves in their houses, abstain from giving the alarm.
Cholera and
plague,
1866-67.
Burglaries
at Baghdad,
1866.