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entrusted the dcfonco of tho post to his confidential servant, Meerdow. It was
a place of no consequence at first, but under the rule of Hajco Jaabcr, the son
of Moordow, its favourable situation attracted commerce, and it rapidly rose
into eminence as the mercantile town of Mohammorab.
Sheikh Thamir, the younger brother and successor of Sheikh Ghais, has
cultivated during the last 30 years a more
proiociionT'1 *mir nlono "to,VB R d5,i,0,ilion to court friendly connexion with the Turkish Gov­
ernment than any of his predecessors, for
he appears to have been fully sensible of the advantage of an uncertain depen­
dency in deterring Persia from attempting to increase the extent, or to sys­
tematize the character of her interference in the affairs of the Chaab tribe,
without accordingly in any essential point admitting the authority of Bussorah,
ho has frequently made presents of money and horses to the Turkish Governor,
independently of the rent of tho lands on the Shatel-Arab, and ho has been
gratified to receive occasionally, from the kloossclim a khclaat or dress of
honour.
The first direct exercise of the power of Turkey in the affairs of the Chaab,
however, in modern times, uas the attack on Mohammcrah by Ali Pasha in
A. D. 1837, and his subsequent appointment of Sheikh Abdool ltazaq to the
Government of tho tribe in the place of Sheikh Thamir. To justify this
measure, tho old assertion of the right of Turkey to the allegiance of the Chaab
has been revived, and it remains a “ quccstio vexata ” to the present day. But
if the Chaab have thus become virtually independent of Turkey, it may he
inferred that they must, to the same extent, have become virtually dependent
upon Persia, and it is necessary therefore for the verification of this point, that
the preceding sketch of their relations
Comparison with the above of tho connexion
during the snmc period of the Chaab with Persia. with Turkey, since tho death of Sheikh
Salman, should he compared with the
nature and progross of the connexion of the tribe during the same period with
Persia.
Kerim Khan then withdrew his forces without coming to any definite
arrangement with the Chaab Sheikh, regarding the liabilities of the tribe and
during the wars between tho Zend and Kajar dynasties which broke out shortly
A pccuninry liability attaches to tho tribo, but after the establishment of Fellahiah as
nndcfinnl in iu nature and extent. tho capital of the Chaab, the matter of
course escaped discussion.
From the commencement of the reign of Agha Mahomed Khan the
JPeeshlcush of the Chaab seems indeed to have been reckoned by the Government
of Fars, as a part of the annual income of tho province, and to have been
demanded accordingly; hut still there was great irregularity in the payment,
and a still greater uncertainty as to the amount of the liability. As far as I can
discover, the annual tribute was calculated by tho Persian Government at about
4.000 tomans, such being the aggregate amount at which the former Afsliar
occupants of the banks of the Jcrrahi had been assessed, but tho sum
realized did not, it is said, on an average, exceed oue-fourth of this true or
assumed liability. In the time of Fatteh Ali Shah the first attempt was made to
exact a regular and as far as it went a defined payment, the aunual salary
of Hassun Khan, one of the chief officers of the Shiraz Court, amounting to
1.000 tomans, being drawn by bcrvcit upon the Chief of Fellahiah. But it does
not by any means appear that this was considered by Persia as a full acquit­
tance of tho liabilities of the Chaab, or that it was ever settled upon what par­
ticular account the sum was levied. On the contrary independently of Uassan
Khan’s salary, a year rarely passed without presents of horses and money to a
considerable amount being mado by the Chaab Sheikh to the Governor of Shiraz
and when Mahomed Ali Mirza in 1818 marched against Fellahiah, ho demanded
and received 13,000 tomans from Sheikh Thamir on account, as it was alleged,
of accumulated arrears of revenue.
Persia, nevertheless, can hardly, I think, substantiate a legal claim to the
dependency of the Chaab by the precedents
Dependency on Persia for a long period iliawn to
hsvo been out/ partial. of this poriod. She ccrtaiuly in practico
was more elosoly connected than Turkey