'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎80] (89/568)

80
HISTORY
the Mongols has endured to this day. The destruction ot the sources
of wealth in Mesopotamia had a profound effect on the Middle East;
it was as if the keystone had been taken out of the ancient structure.
Though Baghdad continued to exist, shorn of its splendour, Meso
potamia practically disappears from history for the next 300 years.
Instead of being the focus of the Oriental world it became a blank.
It followed the fortunes of whatever dynasty or tribe rose to be
a brief power in its neighbourhood. For a short time it was
included in the dominions of Timur. Eventually the Turks laid
hands on it in a.d . 1534, and till 1914, with one short interval, it
has been at least nominally a Turkish possession. In 1603 Shah
Abbas of Persia conquered Mesopotamia, but it was retaken by the
Turks in 1638. At this time the fortunes of Baghdad had reached
their lowest ebb, and the city contained only 14,000 inhabitants.
Turkish sovereignty could not be vigorously enforced. The Kurds
of the northern and eastern hills were practically independent, and in
the plains the nomad Arabs, taking advantage of the absence of
strong government, the decay of irrigation, and the decline of popu
lation, had been gradually encroaching on the settled areas, and
could not be brought under control by the Turks. The most impor
tant movement of nomad Arabs in this period was the Shammar
invasion. About the middle of the seventeenth century the Sham-
mar migrated from central Arabia to the Syrian Desert, pushing
before them various smaller tribes into Mesopotamia. Following on
their occupation of the tracts west of the Euphrates, the Anazeh
came up behind them from Arabia. After a protracted struggle the
Shammar were compelled to move on, and, crossing the Euphrates,
gradually came to dominate the whole of the Jezlreh, exclusive
of the hills, driving out or subduing the Tai, the Jebur, the
Baqqarah, the Weldeh, and others. Similar incursions took
place from time to time in Irak. Till the recent consolidation of
Turkish authority, which gradually asserted itself during the last
century, the pashas maintained a semblance of power by playing
off one Bedawi tribe against another, Anazeh against Shammar,
Muntefiq against Beni Lam, &c. In consequence the condition of
the nomads, except in the vicinity of the cities and settled tracts
along the rivers, varied from semi-independence to complete freedom
from all control. The remaining centres of order and civil life, to
a great extent isolated by the unsettled areas, were beyond the
effective control of the Sultan's Government. When in 1732 Nadir
Shah laid siege to Baghdad, he was driven off by a Turkish pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders.
who was for all practical purposes an independent ruler. From
the end of the seventeenth to the end of the eighteenth century