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To mo, I confess, it appears that at the timo of Slioikh Salman’s decease
and ever since, the Cbaab have been virtually independent of Bussorab and that
tlio notion of the indefensibility of their allegiance to Turkey is an invention
of late years, brought forward as a counterpoise to the claims of Persia upon
Molmmmerab. A rapid skotcb of the relations between Cbaab and Bussorab
during the last century will be necessary at the same time to show the grounds
upon which this view is adopted.
There has never been, tlion, any question in the country, but that tho
lands watered by tho Shat-el-Arab,
Rrwioni bciwwn Turkey »nd tho Cbaab during through its entire course, arc dependent
tbo ia»t centurj. upon Bussorab. An unbroken claim of
evidence may bo brought to prove this, from the time of tho building of
Bussorab to tho present day. When the Cbaab, accordingly, interfered with
theso lands, they either acted as conquerors in open defiance of all rights, or they
obtained patcuts from the Government, granting them a farm of the property,
subject to the public liabilities ; or when the lands were exempt from taxation
in virtue of freo grants to individuals from the Sublime Porte, they dealt
directly with the proprietors, sometimes acting as tenants and receiving the
regulated share of produco (one-fourth) for the labor of cultivation, sometimes
buying tho free hold right to the property : but more usually taking forcible
possession without any respect to the previous tenures.
None of the various relations however which the Cbaab thus boro to the
Buasorah Government, as occupants of the banks of the Shat-el-Arab, appear
to me to indicate their national dependency. On the contrary, as they have
continued almost uninterruptedly to pay to the Government of Bussorab the
rent of the lands of Haffar and Tamar above Mohammerah, which they obtained
by a grant from Soolcman Pasha of Baghdad, -while they have long ceased all
'other payments, the presumption is that they have considered themselves liable
on that account only, and that they must have thus regarded themselves in the
light of foreigners holding Turkish lands either in farm or by right of
occupancy.
Tho political connexion moreover which has subsisted between Cbaab and
Bussorab, since the death of Sheikh
Indicative of anything but dependence.
Salman, to times comparatively modern,
60 far from being one of protection and dependency has been marked by open
and almost constant hostility. Thus
ibfebMb* ,ioIcneo ftnd hc,l,lily on tbo PBrt of Sheikh Barkat, the nephew and successor
of the groat chief, seized from the Turkish
proprietors the extensive and fertile district of Boojidee between Tamar and
Haffar, and bestowed it upon the Bawee Arabs into which tribe be had
married.
His son, Qhadbban, again took possession of the entire left hank of the
Shat-el-Arab as far up as Gardelan and even colonized with tho Cbaab, the
right bank of the river from the sea to within 10 miles of Bussorab. He might
have taken possession of the town of Bussorab itself; but he dreaded the too
great extension of his territory, and eventually be deemed it his safer policy to
withdraw altogether from the right bank of the Shat-cl-Arab, and to concen­
trate his forces between the Shat and the Jerrahi.
Sheikh Ghais,* the son of Ghadhban, who succeeded to the chiefship on the
death of his uncle, Sheikh Mahomed, the brother of that chief, restored, it is
true, the ancient limits of the Cbaab territory, as established by Sheikh Salman,
retaining possession of nothing higher up the Shat-el-Arab than the district of
Tamar; but ho was influenced in this withdrawal rather by a disinclination to
come in collision with the growing power of the Muntcfik tribe, and by tho
necessity of preparation against Persia, than by any respect for the rights or
deference to the wishes of the Turkish Government; at the same time or shortly
afterwards he built a fort upon either side of the IfalTav canal, with the
view, as it is stated, of protecting his frontier against the Muntcfik, and ho

• S'* «*ncclogicel Ublc on pago 1, from which it eppreri HatObeU (or Olicylli) w»i ■ dracviidant. of 8boikb
twlioao, cot a too of Qbadbbao.

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