'Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf. Vol I. Historical. Part IA & IB. J G Lorimer. 1915' [‎1443] (1598/1782)

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We kept our own counsel of course about our plans, mentioning only that we hoped te
see Bagdad and Bussora and to go on thence to . India, for such was to be ultimately
our route. On the mention of these two towns he at once began a panegyric
of his own administration there, of the steamers he had established on the rivers, the
walls he had pulled down and tramways built. "Ah, that tramway," he exclaimed
affectionately. " It was I that devised it, and it is running still. Tramways are the
first steps in civ ilisation, I shall make a tramway round Damascus. Everybody will
ride in the trucks. It will pay five per cent. You will go to Bussora. You will see
ray steamers there. Bnssora, through me, has become an important place. Steamers
and tramways are what we want for these poor countries. The rivers of Damascus
are too small for steamers, or I should soon have some afloat. But 1 will make a tramway.
If we could have steamers and tramways everywhere Turkey would become rich."
"And canals," we suggested, maliciously remembering how he had flooded Bagdad with
his experiment8 in this way. " Yes, and canal, too. Canals, steamers and tramways
are what we want." " And railways." " Yes, railways. I hope to have a railway soon
running alongside of the carriage road from Beyrout. Railways are important for the
guaranteeing of order in the country. If there was a railway across the desert we
should have no more trouble with the Bedouins. Ah, those poor, Bedouins, how 1
trounced them at Bagdad, I warrant my name is not forgotten there." We assured
him it was not.
* # # #
On the whole, we went away much impressed with Midhat, though not as we had
hoped. He had astonished us, but not as a wise man. To speak seriously, one such
reforming Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. as this does more to ruin Turkey than twenty of the old dishonest
sort, Midhat, though he fails to line his own purse, may be counted on to empty the
public one at Damascus, as he did at Bagdad, where he spent a million sterling on
unproductive works within a single year.
At the present day Mid-hat Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. is remembered in Turkish 'Iraq
chiefly as the leveller of the walls of Baghdad, as the promoter of the
Baghdad-Kazimain tramway, and as the creator of the "new town/" or
more correctly southern suburb, of Karbala. The demolition of the
Baghdad city wall, an undoubted offence against the antique and the
picturesque, was even from the practical point of view a measure of ques
tionable expediency, not so much on military grounds as from considera
tions of octroi ; but the Kadhimain tramway, though a small undertaking,
has proved extremely useful. The extension given to Karbala, though
marring the old-world aspect of the town, especially in comparison with
Najaf, must have greatly improved it as a place of human habitation.
The intended railway to Karbala was not built.
Outside the tow r ns, apart from certain reforms relating to the land
tax, the greatest performance of Mid-hat Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. was his completion
of measures which had been begun from the Aleppo end, some years
previously, for the protection of the direct caravan route between
Aleppo and Baghdad. "It was he who continued the line of
" guard houses as far as Rumady, and made of Ana for Bagdad what Deyr
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