"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٤‎٤‎١] (١٧٨٢/١٥٩٦)

I
was
jis^
■huh!
wit!
to fonrili.
'cm ''
1m1
ro roraake the embankments of the Jezair territory and so confine the water of the river
to its own bed, and prevent the inundations which yearly immerse a large tract of
country to the south, and reach even to the town of Bussorah.
These inundations convert the whole of that country into a tract of unhealthy and
unproductive marsh, while the loss of tho water from the bed of the river renders tho
latter unnavigable.
His Excellency's mind seems earnestly bent on various schemes for the improvement
of the country.
He at once recognizes the two great wants, viz,, security of property and means of
communication with the world (from which the country is at present excluded^, and of
the transport of produce.
Ho contemplates the construction of a railway hence to Kerbella as a step in this
direction in connection with the navigation of the Euphrates, the importation of several
steamers for river and sea navigation, so as to connect the province with Suez, of
machinery for cleaning the river channels and also for various manufactures, as well
as for irrigation.
i waited on His Excellency, accompanied by officers attached to this Political
Agency and Consulate-General and the members of the British community, on the day
after his arrival and have since paid a private visit.
traveller, from which the following* extracts are taken.
It would appear that, besides and beyond its other misfortunes, Bagdad had the ill
luck a few years since to pass through the hands of an improving Pasha, Midhat,
author of tho famous constitution of 1877, which is now regenerating Turkey,
That singularly unhappy statesman (unhappy, I mean, in his plans) was sent by
the Sultan Abdul Aziz to try his prentice hand upon Bagdad, before being allowed his
way with Constantinople and tbe Empire. He was an honest man, by all accounts,
and sincerely anxious for his country's good, but half educated and belonging to that
school of Turkish politicians, which thinks to Europeaniee the Empire by adopting the
dress and external forms of Europe. He seems to have been allowed almost unlimited
credit for improvement and full liberty in all his schemes, nor can it be denied that
seme of them were, in their design, excellent. Only he was incapable of working out
the detail of what he planned, or of at all counting the cost of each adventure. They
have consequently, one and all, led only to the most impotent if not the most
disastrous conclusions. His first scheme was a good one. He wished to
establish communication with Aleppo by the Euphrates, and in that view
built the forts we saw at Ana, Eumady and elsewhere, to protect the road, while he
ordered steamers from England to navigate the river. The forts, though unnecessarily
large, answered their purpose and still exist; the boats, with one exception, have
disappeared, either left to rot at Bussora or never fitted out with their engines. The
sole representative of tho Euphrates fleet draws too much water to ascend the
river except at flood, and her regular trips were abandoned almost as soon as begun,
Midhat also established, with some success, a tramway between Bagdad and its suburb
Kasmeyn, which still runs. So far so good. But his next venture was not equally
Anne Bluni's Bedouins of the Euphrates, \o\* I, pages 194—97, and her
Pilgrimage to Najd, vol, I, pages 15—17 and 18,
ioo
Administra
tion of Mid
hat Pasha in
Turkish
' Iraq,
1869—72.