File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎30r] (68/834)

f,lV'- v r,\ vere ^ lc ^ ne ^ to listen to the voice of the tempter,
i he 1 arks were undoubtedly carrying on extensive propaganda
among the Euphrates tribes, coupled with promises of autonomy
when the Iraq should be restored to the Porte. Rumours of a
rapprochement between Fakhri and the Beni Hasan sheikhs,
formerly so hostile to the town sheikhs of Kerbela, and of com
munications between him and Ajil ibn Samarmad, the powerful
Sheikh of the Zubeid who has not yet made submission, were
not reassuring. In any case, supply to the Turkish troops on
the Euphrates could not be permitted to continue.
On September 7, the Civil Commissioner summoned Fakhri
to present himself at Baghdad on the 9 th. He complied
immediately, and on his arrival it was explained to him that his
undoubted participation in and encouragement of trade with the
enemy had made his presence in Kerbela incompatible with
military interests and that he would be sent to India as an
officer prisoner of war. He accepted with resignation a decision
which could scarcely have been unforeseen by him. The
following day Mohammed Ali also received a verbal summons
from the Civil Commissioner, through the Intelligence Officer at
Kerbela, to come to Baghdad. He expressed himself willing to
leave next morning, but subsequently, having received news of
Fakhri’s internment, he declined to go, though given hadh 7 ca
halht (assurance of personal safety) by the Intelligence Officer.
The Civil Commissioner therefore despatched to him a letter by
the hand of the Nawab An honorific title; an official acting as a provincial deputy ruler in South Asia; or a significant Muslim landowner in nineteenth century India. Mohammed Husein Qizilbash, an Indian
subject and a well known inhabitant of Kerbela, who has been,
since the occupation, employed in the Political Office in Baghdad,
explaining the reasons for the action taken with regard to
lakhri and adding that since, in view of what had happened, it
was not considered in the interests of the administration that
Mohammed Ali should continue to act as Government Agent, a
British Officer had been appointed A.P.O. If Mohammed Ali
under existing circumstances preferred to retire from Kerbela,
the Government would make arrangements for his residence in
comfort in some other place or town in the Iraq to be agreed
upon.
After some hesitation Mohammed Ali agreed to obey the
original summons and come in to Baghdad. In this decision he
was largely swayed by the advice of Sheikh Husein Mazandarani.
the leading Mujtahid of Kerbela, who urged him strongly not to
disobey the orders of the Civil Commissioner, at the same time
reminding him that the British Government in no wav resembled
the Ottoman, and that promises of security given by us might
safely be trusted. The part played by the leading iVlujtahid of
Nejef, Seyyid Mohammed Kadhim Yazdi, who is the most
revered of the Shiah l lema of the Iraq, was not less satisfactory.
In reply to an appeal from Mohammed Ali to intervene on behalf
of Fakhri, he said that he had long since retired from the world;