"كتيّب بلاد الرافدين. المجلد I. ١٩١٨" [‎٨‎٢] (٥٦٨/٩١)

82
HISTORY
degree of control, partly by force, but more by the congenial employ
ment which Abdul Hamid found for them as irregular
cavalry in the Sultan's service used for the purpose of repressing
such elements in the population of northern Mesopotamia and
Armenia as were suspected of disloyalty. The were in
fact privileged to behave as they chose; and their excesses, though
mainly directed against Christians, did not spare Moslems : yet
economic development was not altogether checked by their depreda
tions. The efforts of the Government to control the Arabs were
still spasmodic and marked by an impolitic mixture of laxity and
oppression : yet, in spite of outbreaks of disorder, Turkish power
was growing, and cultivation and trade were developing ^ more
or less slowly in the river-valleys. A considerable proportion of
the nomad Kurds and Arabs were compelled or induced to take to
a more settled way of life. The action of the Sultan in converting
into his private property {saniyeh) 30 per cent, of the best cultivated
lands in the vilayets of Basra and Baghdad, and a considerable amount
in the northern provinces, although accompanied by much injustice,
was probably of some economic benefit to the country. The Sultan s
estates were comparatively well managed, and law and order were
enforced at least within their limits. The native population generally
was living in expectation of greatly increased prosperity which was
to be the result of the projected Baghdad Railway. /
Nevertheless the methods of the Sultan's Government—its corrup
tion, fraud, and violence—aroused considerable discontent throughout
Mesopotamia. The Turkish Revolution of 1908 was welcomed by
the bulk of the population, as most sections of it hoped to profit by
the change. These hopes were generally disappointed by the deter
mination of the Young Turks to carry through a centralizing and
levelling policy, and by their methods, which were not more
scrupulous than those of the old regime. The Government achieved
some successes: Ibrahim Pasha, the head of the Milli Kurd
confederacy, was put out of the way; Nazim Pasha obtained the
submission of the Northern Shammar and appointed a paramount
chief in the Turkish interest; and strong measures were taken
against the depredations of the Hamawand Kurds near Kirkuk.
But there was much disorder in Irak, and the unsuccessful Turkish
wars with Italy (1911) and the Balkan States (1912) made matters
worse. The permanent ill feeling of the Arabs against the Turks
was now taking shape in a Pan-Arab movement, and in this way the
Arab disaffection in Mesopotamia was brought into connexion with
the anti-Turkish movement in Arabia. Opposition to the Govern
ment grew even in Basra and Baghdad. Ajaimi Ibn Sa'adun, para-