"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٤‎٢‎٧] (١٧٨٢/١٥٨٢)

J427
thonsed dues ; and (he local system of taxation was to be assimilated to
that of the Ottoman Empire at large. All suits, criminal and civil, were
to be decided in future by a Majlis or court composed of landowners,
meichants, and other notables upon the spot, whose appointment as
judges must be confirmed by tho Pasha of Baghdad. As the instrument
for carrying out this policy, which they foresaw would be unpopular,
Namiq Pasha appointed Mansur, one of the Muntafik Shaikhs, to be
the first Turkish Qaim-Maqam of the Muntafik country, with head
quarters at Suq-ash-Shuvukh. He associated with him, as Muhasibahji
or Accountant, one Sulaiman Bey, a Turkish officer who had been
Mudir of Khanaqin, and to whom he gave instructions to show produce
and leniency, at the outset, in his dealings with men of local influence.
Shaikh Mansur, who was secretly determined to thwart the Pasha's
intended subversion of Muntafik autonomy, no sooner reached home
fiom Baghdad than he suppressed the notifications curtailing his exe
cutive authority, virtually imprisoned his colleague Sulaiman Bey by
surrounding him with guards on the pretext that his life was in danger,
and sent emissaries out in every direction to misrepresent the intentions
of the Government and to invite the headmen of clans to join with him
in making a stand for Arab rights, so that at least their semi-indepen-
dence as mere tributaries might be preserved. The small tribes dependent
on Shaikh Mansur complied to the extent of stopping the navigation of
the Euphrates and, apparently, of attacking Turkish steamers besides
plundering grain destined by the Government for exportation to
Jiddah j but they showed at this time no very decided preference for
the rule of their own Shaikhs over that of the Turks, and their attitude
seemed to be on the whole one of expectancy. The large Bani Lam,
A] Bu Muhammad, and (vhaza il tribes did not respond at all to over-
tuies which were made to them. Shaikh Mansur in the meantime also
wrote to Namiq Pasha, professing his own loyalty but declaring that
the chiefs under his authority were opposed to the new kind of govern
ment, that iiis brother * Nasir was stirring up the tribes against him,
and that he and Sulaiman Bey were in personal danger and powerless to
vindicate their authority unless aided by troops from Baghdad.
Is amiq Pasha, on receiving this missive, recalled Shaikh Mansur and '
Sulaiman i'eg to Baghdad, pretending sympathy with the former in his
difficult position; but at the same time, in January 1864, he sent troops
fiom Baghdad to Diwaniyah and Kut and despatched a steamer to
t an tnis have been the Nasir, Muntafik Shaikh, who afterwards became Wali of
Basrah ? See page 1447,
^ 99 i