'Precis Containing Information in regard to the First Connection of the Hon'ble East India Company with Turkish Arabia, as far as the Same Can Be Traced from the Records of the Bombay Government, together with the Names of the Several British Residents and Political Agents Who Have Been Stationed at Bagdad [Baghdad] and Bussorah [Basra] between A.D. 1646 and 1846, accompanied by Other Information' [‎59v] (120/226)

88 PRECIS OF INFORMATION REGARDING CONNECTION OF E. I. COMPY.
to the southward as far as Samavat and abounds in grain, herds, and flocks. They are
Shyiah, and when the Persians under Sadeh Khan attacked Bussorah, these Arabs
joined him and were the principal means of his success. The injuries and extortions
they have lately suffered from the Bagdad Government will at all events make them
cool in its defence, and if the Wahabees will receive their submission they will pro
bably be eager to rid themselves of Turkish tyranny. The Montifick Arabs possess
the country nearly from Tamaval to the walls of Bussorah, and have hitherto been the
bulwark of this Government against the Wahabees ; it is most interesting therefore to
know what effect the Wahabees' late increase of wealth, power, and reputation, will
produce on this tribe. The Government here has not certainly now the means of
rendering them any effectual assistance ; they apparently are much too weak to defy
the threats of the Wahabee, and being so are probably too wise to decline his invita
tions to submission and proselytism should this happen. \our Excellency irom that
moment must look on Bussorah as lost to the Turks. I cannot conclude this short
and imperfect account of the Arabs under the Pacha's Government without repeating
his own emphatical words, ' enfinit il faut pas compter ne sur les Tribes Arabes,
qui out toules les yeuax sur les vehabes' which is verified since the afiair of Meshed
Hossein, by two of the neighbouring small tribes, embraced their doctrines and received
their protection.
The only exterior relations of consequence and worth noticing, which the Govern
ment of Bagdad has, are with Persia and the Wahabees. From the time the present
royal family came to the supreme power in Persia, the Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. of Bagdad has been
obliged to manage every circumstance relative to the natives of that country with
more delicacy and circumspection than was formerly manifested towards them. It is
pretty generally credited that had the uncle of the present King lived much longer, he
would have attacked Bagdad, and the conduct of Path Ali Shak, the present King, has
frequently given cause of uneasiness and apprehension to the 1 acha.
197. On the death o£ " Soliman " Pacha of Bagdad, which occur
red on the 7th August 1802, the Sublime Porte appointed the Minister*
o£ the deceased his successor, under the title of " Ally Pach." On the
Phirman from the Sultan conferring this appointment on the Ministei
reaching Bagdad on the 6th January 1803, the latter addressed a letter,
from which the following are extracts, to the Chairman of the Ilon'ble
the Court of Directors The London-based directors of the East India Company who dealt with the daily conduct of the Company's affairs. , intimating his having been raised to the dignity
of Pacha of Bagdad, &c., and expressing his desire to continue on the
same friendly footing with the Hon'ble Company's Government as his
predecessor had done :—
"Prom His Highness Ally Pacha, Governor of Bagdad, Bussorah, Merdin,
Kerbook, &c., &c., Lieutenant-General of Coordistan, to the Hon'ble the Court of
Directors for affairs of the Hon'ble United Company of merchants of England trading
to the East Indies."
" And as nothing is more certain than that a long, sincere, and uninterrupted
friendship was always observed between our predecessors, and the persons high in office
of the English nation, which was so perfect in its nature, that what was a matter to
the one was equally regretted by the other, and as we must suppose that ere now the
decease of our late honored and glorious predecessor of famous memory, has reached
your ears, and that on the principles of amity abovementioned it has created concern in
your breast, we with pleasure embrace this fortunate opportunity of ameliorating your
friendly sorrow by informing you that in these happy times, by the favor and special
condescension towards us of the King adorning the throne, the Sultan, the refuge of
the world, the Emperor endowed with the wisdom of Solomon, and the power of
Jemshid, the Vizarat and government of these countries has been conferred on us
as amply and fully as it was heretofore on our predecessor, and from the special grace
of the great Kakan, the ensigns of the Vizarat, and the glorious mantle of investiture
have an-ived at Bagdad. In consequence of which we have seated ourselves on the
musnud of Bagdad "both by the consent of the Emperor and by making apparent
our just pretensions to it from family connection, and from tried valour; we are
* Who was the son-in-law of the deceased Pacha.