"ملخص لعلاقات الحكومة البريطانية مع قبائل وشيوخ عربستان. بقلم الملازم أ. ت. ويلسون، القائم بأعمال القنصل في عربستان" [و‎‎٦‎٤] (١٤٣/١٣٢)

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their desires and ideas and not forget the duties of patriotism. In fact, if any
one should be found by them to be actuated by personal aims (mughriz) or dis
sonant (mukhalif) or a partisan, the majlis may without fear or trembling an
nounce the fact, and if it be proved, set themselves to alter the state of things.
y—
I
r
APPENDIX XV.
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Rawlinson’s Memorandum on Turko-Persiari Frontier, 1844.
Extract yara. 4- —Although the southern limit of the Turkish Empire is
declared in Sultan Murad’s treaty to be Basrah, and its acknowledged depen
dencies, the definition must only be understood as annulling any claim on the
part of Persia to the territory in question, for the Turkish authority was not
fairly and permanently established in that quarter until A. D. 1688, 30 years
after the conclusion of the treaty.
Great uncertainty also attaches to the extent of territory which was de
pendent upon Basrah at the precise period of the Treaty, from the time of
Sultan Selim to the time of Sultan Murad, the limits of the Pashalic being
greater or less according to the individual power of the chiefs who reigned
there.
I think there can be no doubt, however, that the immediate banks of the
Shatt-al-’Arab were always under the rule of Basrah, the ancient towns of
Mufelleh and Mader which were invariably ranked among the dependencies
of Basrah appear to have been on the left bank of the river near the northern
positions of Mohammerah an'd Girdalan, and when the Jihan Nama was writ
ten shortly after the institution of the Pashalic of Basrah not only were the
forts on either bank of the Shaft under that Government, but the Turkish
power had been extended to the lands of Gaban situated far to the eastward,
on the old bed of the Karun.
The following is the description given of Qubban in the Jihan Nama
under the head of Basrah :—
“ Qaleh Qubban lies on the side of Khuzistan being the extreme position
of the Turkish Government in that direction.
It consists of a fort built upon a river near the point of its disembogue-
ment in the Persian Gulf, and to reach this fort from Qaleh
Jadideh (on the island of Abbadan near the mouth of the Shatt)
it is necessary to cross the Karun, (by this must be meant the
Bahmanshir) the intervening tract being entirely desert.
“ Above Qubban are three other forts close together, and dependent
upon Persia, in the neighbourhood of which is a lake flowing
down from the Karun and falling into the Persian Gulf, and the
lands which lie between the course of this lake and the Karun 1
constitute the territory of Qubban, enclosed on all sides by water
like an island.”
The best evidence probably which is afforded of the claim of Basrah to the
left bank of the Shatt from Girdilan to the sea at the time of Sultan Murad’s
treaty is to be found in the archives of the city, where the revenue liabilities of
the lands are duly registered.
APPENDIX XVI.
Concession for a commercial road between Ahwaz and Tehran with a branch
from Bwrujird to Ispahan, and transport service by waggons, carriages, etc.
Granted by the Persian Government in Au gust 1890 . and subsequently
transferred by the Imperial Bank of Persia, who had acquired it, to the Per
sian Transport Company, the present concessionaires.
Note by Lieutenant A. T. Wilson, I.A.—Presumably Bahmansbir is meant.