Page 124 - Gulf Precis (VII)_Neat

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To mo, I confess, it appears that at the time of Sheikh Salman dcccas’so
and ever sinco, the Chaab have been virtually independent of Bussorih and that
tlio notion of the indofoasihility of their allcgianeo to Turkey is an invention
of late years, brought, forward as a counterpoise to the claims of Persia upon
Mohammerah. A rapid sketch of the relations botween Chnab and Bussorah
during the last conturv will bo necessary at the same time to show the grounds
upon which this view is adopted.
There has nevor been, then, any question in the country, hut that the
lunds watered by the Shat-el-Arab,
RrUlon. between Turkey and tho Clmb during through its ClltirO COUVSC, ai'O dependent
tooiMtovnturj. upon Bussorah. An unbroken claim of
evidence may bo brought to prove this, from tho time of the building of
Bussorah to tho present day. When tho Chaab, accordingly, interfered with
tlieso lands, they either acted as conquerors in open detiance of all rights, or they
obtained patents from the Government, granting thorn a farm of tho property,
subject to the public liabilities ; or when tho lunds were exempt from taxation
in virtue of free grants to individuals from the Sublime Porto, they dealt
directly with tho proprietors, sometimes acting as tenants and receiving tho
regulated share of produco (ono-fourth) for the labor of culiivation, sometimes
buying the free hold right to tho property : but more usually takiug foreiblo
possession without any respect to the previous tenures.
None of the various relations however which the Chaab thus boro to the
Bussorah Government, as occupants of tho banks of the Shat-el-Arab, appear
to me to indicate their national dependency. On tho contrary, as they have
continued almost uninterruptedly to pay to the Government of Bussorah the
rent of the lands of Haffar and Tamar above Mohammerah, which they obtaiued
by a grant from Sooleman Pasha of Baghdad, whilo 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 'lurkish lands either in farm or by right of
occupancy.
The political connexion moreover which has subsisted betwoeu Chaab and
Bussorah, since the d‘*ath of Sheikh
Indicative of anything but dependence.
Salman, to times comparatively modern,
so far from being one of protection and dependency lias been marked by open
and almost constant hostility. Thus
tbftbMb* T*0,CDCfl *nd Lo,tilitjr oa tho P#rt of Sheikh Barkat, tho nephew and successor
c Ja~J of the groat chief, seized from tho 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, Ghadhhan, again took possession of the entire left bank of the
Shat-el-Arab as far up as Gardelnn and evon colonized with tho Chaab, the
right bank of the river from the sea to within 10 miles of Bussorah. He might
have taken possession of the town of Bussorah itself; but he dreaded the too
great extension of his territory, and eventually lie deemed it his safer policy to
withdraw altogether from the right bank of the Shat-el-Arab, and to concen­
trate his forces between the Shat and the Jerrabi.
Sheikh Ghais,* the son of Ghadhhan, who succeeded <o the chiefship on the
death of his uncle, Sheikh Mahomed, the brother of that chief, restored, it is
true, the ancient limits of the Chaab territory, os established by Sheikh Sal man,
retaining possession of nothing higher up the Shat-el-Arab than the district of
Tamar; but he was influenced in this withdrawal rather by a disinclination to
come in collision with the growing power of the Muntcfik tribe, and by the
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 cither side of the naffar canal, with the
view, as it is stated, of protecting his frontier against the Muntefik, and he
• See genealogical table on page 1, from which it appeora tbatGbaia (or Gbeytb) was o descendant of Slieikb
ba'mao, not a ion of Ohadbbao.

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