'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' [‎99v] (202/226)

XXX ]
yielded by many of them to the existing loeal Government may
be said to depend on its power of enforcing it, so that the political divi
sions always vary with the strength of the reigning Pacha. At present
it will be seen that of the 26 districts specified, not one-half yield any
revenue whole, of the remaining ones, the obdience and income yielded is
little more than nominal. At this period of feebleness and disorganiza
tion, therefore, the above scheme of division is virtually multiplied, and
the Pachalic may be described as thus occupied ;—
1. That portion of the country on the west of the Tigris from
Mardeen to Kirkessia and along the course of the Kharbour and Hennas
Rivers is entirely overrun by the Millee Koords, who everywhere oppress
the inhabitants and have entirely put a stop to the passage of caravans
by that route from Alleppo to Bagdad, which was formerly preferred to
the desert one by Anah and Hit. These Millee Koords under their leader,
Eyooh Aga, extend their ravages quite up to Beer on the Euphrates. The
Yezeedees of Sin jar until lately have disturbed this district, but Maho
med, late Pacha of Alleppo, the seat of whose government is at Kirkook,
lately reduced them to temporary obedience. He has, however, just been
recalled towards Bagdad, and the road will of course become again
infested by the Yezeedees. No caravan can pass, and no revenue can
possibly be derived from this district.
2. The whole of the lezereh or Mesopotamia from the line of the
Khabour to Bagdad is in a similar manner overrun by the Terbah Arabs,
except in the vicinity of Bagdad, which is infested by the Arab tribe of
Delaim. This district is, therefore, in the same condition as the last, and
pays nothing.
3. A small part of the lezereh embracing the western half of the
city of Bagdad, and between the lines of Teheja, Bagdad, Seleucia, and
Hillahris to a certain extent cultivated and productive, and the income
derived from it forms a large item in the present revenue of the
Pachalic.
4. From the small district last described to the Shat-ul-Hye the
country is entirely in the hands of various tribes of Arabs, the domi
nant tribe being the Zobeid who pqy nothing in cash to Government,
the military and other service they are nominally bound to render being
held in lieu of money tribute : thus this district pays nothing.
5. From the lines of the Shat-ul-Hye to Kooma the country is
occupied by many tribes of Arabs, of whom the Beni Rubbeyah, mater
nal uncles of the Montifick, are the principal; anything they may occasion
ally pay to Goverment is included in what is given by the Montificks, so
that this great district cannot, properly speaking, be said to yield any
money revenue at all.
6. Returning to Mardeen, the country east of the Tigris, from
thence and from Amadia between the river and the Gardian Mountains
to the line of Zohab, Khanaher, and Bakowbah is wholly occupied and
plundered by a multitude of petty Koordish and Arab tribes, each
residing separately in their own villages and strongholds, or in the
grounds they have appropriated for pasturage, none being permanently
predominant, but all offering as much resistance as possible to the orders