'Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf. Vol I. Historical. Part IA & IB. J G Lorimer. 1915' [‎1364] (1519/1782)

T'f. ''
Government
of 'Abdi
Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. and
difficulties
with the
Northern
Shammar,
1849-50.
1364
may be suppoBed to admit a greater or less latitude for the indulgence of his rancor
The Christians, to whom in public he invariably attaches the opprobrious epithet of
" Giour," have chiefly to complain of an indifference to their wrongs, of a disposition
to enforce against them civil disabilities which in other parts of the Empire have
either fallen into disuse or have been formally annulled, of systematised endeavours to
confirm, if not to aggravate, their social depression.
It is interesting to compare* this opinion, the fruit of experience, with
that which Major Rawlinson had enunciated five years earlier;
In his internal administration Nejib Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. evinces the same energy and firmness
which have ever been his distinguishing characteristic. The repression of robbery and
disorder, the establishment of the authority of the Porte over the tribes subordinate to
the Pashalic, the severe, but not extortionate, exaction of the dues of Government, and
the introduction of system and arrangement into the various branches of administra
tion appear to be the chief objects of his care, and it is only reasonable to suppose
that, il these objects aie carried out with the same vigour and constancy that have
marked their first adoption, the increased prosperity of the province must be a neces
sary consequence.
Najib Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , though he left debts at Baghdad unpaid, did not fail to
carry a large sum of money away with him on quitting the province.
He was followed in office by two incompetent successors, the earlier of
them being 'Abdi Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , the former Army Commandant, to whom a liberal
salary was allotted by the Porte in order to place him above the necessity
of committing extortion. 'Abdi Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , as a civil governor, disappointed
such expectations as might have been founded on his successful handling
of the Hindiyah rebellion; he resigned himself absolutely to the guidance
of Mulla 'Ali, a favourite eunuch and buffoon; and the state of the
country went from bad to worse. The post of Kifl, not far from Hillah,
w as captured hy Arabs and the whole Turkish garrison of about 60 men
put to the sword. Baghdad itself was virtually besieged by the tribes,
and travellers could hardly venture to leave it in any direction on account
of the Bedouins, whose camps beset it to the very walls. 'Abdi Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. 's
main idea was to reduce to obedience the so-called Ma'dan tribes of the
western marshes, including the ; Afaj whose yearly asse^ment of £900
he was anxious to double. For this purpose he endeavoured, with a force
of 2,000 men, not counting irregulars, to close the head of the Shatt-al-
Hindiyah, down which nearly one-half of the water of the Euphmtes
was now pouring; but the current washed away his dam nearly as
fast as it was constructed. He succeeded in completing it, however,
* It is an almost invariable rule at Baghdad that each new Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. or Wfili makes s
favourable impression on the British representative at first arrival, and that this
impression is gradually replaced, as the Turkish official's character reveals itself, by a
depreciatory and even hostile estimate on the part of the Resident.