'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from January 1847 to May 1849. Edited by the Secretary. Volume VIII.' [‎330] (439/496)

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force, which at the present time amounts to about 800 men, notwith
standing the contrary predictions of his Baghdad friends, who would
have persuaded him that the attempt to organise a regular body from
the mountaineers of Kurdistan would be attended with evil results to
himself. With all his desire, however, for progressive improvement, and
flattering as was his first essay, he finds himself an object of suspicion at
the Baghdad Court. Increased imposts are laid on the province, the
present assessment of which he can barely pay; and moreover, enormous
sums, in addition, are demanded of him, to stop the ears of the Baghdad
Pacha and other officials who are inclined to listen to the tempting of
fers of his brother, Abdullah Beg, now an exile in that city* This
ruinous policy of placing brother against brother, and tribe against tribe,
is the besetting vice of Turkish administration, and the nefarious and ilk
concealed system of bribery indulged in by high and low, though it en
riches the rapacious servant of the State, prevents the spread of that
just principle so necessary to the melioration of the people and the coun
try. It is this that Ahmed Pacha so much bewails, and with justice too,
for the emended condition of the Province must soon give way to the
insatiate demands made upon him. Ahmed Pacha is the eldest dhect
descendant from the originally founder j* of the Bebbeh family, and there
fore the hereditary successor to the Pachalic. His next brother, Abdul
lah Beg, is in honorable exile at Baghdad. He is of an intriguing and
ambitious disposition, and most of the present Pacha’s distresses, I believe,
arise from the envious temper of his brother’s mind. Ahmeds ap
pearance is not prepossessing ; and an impediment in his speech renders
it at times painful to listen to him. When excited, however, an eneigy is
observable in his eye which accords with his actions ; and he bears t ie
character of a persevering man of business. In manner he is mild an
gentlemanly, and, like all Kurds, frank and hospitable. Accustoinec o
but little sleep, he devotes most part of the night to financial and po
cal correspondence, whilst his days are occupied in general affairs, in
* Since this was penned, Ahmed Pacha has been deposed in favor of his brothe ,
Abdullah Beg, now created a Pacha, and Ruler of Sulimaniyeh.
The former, fearing to trust himself to the faith of Nejib Pacha, 0 ^ ^ a ^ r ^ eC I
fled with a few adherents into Persia, but has since thrown himself on P aC h e d
tion of the Sultan, and now resides an exile at Constantinople. Hue mUC h
to the English, and to Major Rawlinson in particular, from whom he recei
sound advice, his deposition is to be regretted.
t Suliman Beg Ghaze, A. H. 1088, first took the name of Baba, or
addition to his own. The name of the tribe, according to Rich, is Rcrn j
Note in his Kurdistan, Yol. II., page 85.