"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٦‎٠‎٣] (١٧٨٢/١٧٥٨)

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At the beginning of 1890 Brigade-Surgeon R. Bowman, the Medical
Officer of the Baghdad Residency, who had eleven years' exnerienee of
the country, visited Karbala and Najaf and reported, at the desire ot
Colonel Tweedie, on the state ot Bequest affairs. He referred, in
concluding his report, to the possibility of establishing a school'for
Indian children, and a dispensary for the treatment of poor Indians, at
Karbala at the cost of the Oudh Bequest.
In regard to the distribution by the Mujtahids, great dissatisfaction State of
prevailed in 1890 and was not of recent origin. Colonel Tweedie ^90* 11
and his predecessors had received representations at various times fc not
directly only from individuals, but circuitously through the Ottoman,
Persian, Bombay, and even Hyderabad Governments, ... to
" the effect that the two Mujtahids appointed to distribute this money
' f treated it as their own, bought lands with it, and diverted it in other
ways from its proper uses." The admonitions addressed to the Mujtahid-
Distnbutors by Major Talbot, and after him by Colonel Tweedie, had
produced no effect; the committees formed to control or support them
had been a failure ; and, though nominal rolls of payees were submitted
fiom both Kaihala and i\ ajaf, they were of little or no practical use.
In regard to these rolls Colonel Tweedie observed :
. ^ doubt remains : (1) how many of the recorded names are real;
how mam dummies . (2) 0£ those that are real, how many merely are the wives,
children, or servants of the Mujtahid distributors, that is, those distributors them
selves in diflerent forms? (3) How many names are those of persons without due
claim to benefit by the bequest, such as landowners and thriving shopkeepers ?
* * * *
The difficulty of course centres in the accounts. The Mujtahid-Distributors post
pone submifting them : and then, with the strong ground behind them that "the
poor are suffering, press by post and telegraph for the prompt issue of more money.
In my humble opinion, if the present system of distribution is to be maintained, the
calling for rolls ot recipients, or at all events the professing to check such when tbey
are before us, is but little likely to conduce to satisfactory results.
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An objectionable feature of the distributions, as made, was the
payment of considerable amounts to the Kilid-dars and other officials of
the Shi'ah Shrines at Karbala and Najaf, who had other sources of
income, and among whom immense sums were often divided bv wealthv
pilgrims from India and other places.
The distributions made of the separate fund for Indians were open
to criticism in different respects, particularly with reference to a large
sprinkling of the late Iqbal-ud-Daulah's relations and their dependents
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