"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٣‎٢‎٤] (١٧٨٢/٤٦٧)

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secret; and towards the close of the period a political party had begun
to take shape in Turkey whose object was the establishment of represen
tative government. It was not apparent then that, as later events
demonstrated, the causes of Turkish decline lay deeper than in the "abso
lutism " of the administration.
In Turkish ''Iraq there was a recrudescence of the tribal disorders whicli
had temporarily ceased, for no ascertainable reason, during the last period.
In 1899-1900 the lower Tigris was disturbed by the depredations of the
Bani Asad. In 1903 the Al Bu Muhammad tribe in the same neighbour
hood came into conflict with the Government, and a massacre was
committed among them by Turkish troops. From 1900 to 1905 SaMun
Pasha, the Shaikh of the great Muntafik tribe on the lower Euphrates,
was almost continuously in rebellion against the Porte, whom he successfully
defied. Three military expeditions were launched against him in vain,
with serious consequences on one occasion to a detachment of Turkish
troops.
The economic condition of the province, however, continued to improve,
— chiefly it is true in consequence of the slow, natural, inexplicable process
by which commercial interests assert themselves amidst military and
unsettled surroundings. Direct official efforts at amelioration were also
not entirely wanting. In 1904 a great impulse was given to steam
navigation on the Tigris through the acquisition by the Administration of
the Sultan's Civil List of all the Turkish steamers on the rivers of
Mesopotamia ; a new department, styled the Hamidiyah Navigation
Office, came into existence ; and effective competition with the operation
of the (British) Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company was
created, by which general trade did not fail to benefit. Sir William
Willcocks, a British irrigation engineer who had gained a high reputation
in Egypt, about the same time turned his attention to the problem of
irrigating Mesopotamia. A vast scheme elaborated by him was brought
to the notice of the Turkish Government in 1905, but failed to obtain
immediately their practical support. The need for action in irrigation
matters had been emphasized by the failure of the original
barrage, with results disastrous to a large tract of country, in 1903.
Ilasa showed no signs of progress in security or civilisation, though
it had now been under Turkish administration for thirty years. In ^' v
a large caravan moving from the interior to a port on the coast was
captured by Bedouins when one march short of its destination; a conside
able military escort which accompanied it was virtually annihilated, a
the value of the booty that fell into the hands of the raiders was estimate