Page 127 - Gulf Precis (VII)_Neat

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Thus in tho earliest ages the Bamishir was, I believe, one of the true ohnunols
of the Karoon, but when tho science of geography revived undor the enlightened
rule of tho Caliphs of Baghdad and an attempt was made to fix the demurkntion
of the various provinces of the Empire, it is quite certain from tho united
authorities of all authors, that the Karoon joining with the Jerrahi in a large
marsh noar the site of tho modern city of Guban, disembogued into the sea in a
dolta about tho Khur*i-Moosa. There is no trace in the early Arab geograph­
Practical application of it in marking tbo old ers of any connection between tho Karoon
line of froutior.
and Bamishir. On tho contrary, in the
maps of Joghani, which date from tho 1th century of Islam, the lino dividing
Khuzistan and Irak-i-Arab is drawn from the sea coast, midway between tho
mouth of the Bamishir and tho Khur*i*Moosa and is prolonged in a north­
western direction, parallel to the course of the Shat and Tigris, and at a sufficient
distance from these rivers to shut out from Khuzistan all the lands upon their
banks deriviug water from them, as high as the 32 degreo of latitude.
At this poriod, as is oxpressly stated by numerous authors, the Bamishir
river was the left branch of the Euphrates, and the lands receiving water from
it were consequently included in Irak-i-Arab.
About tho 6th century of tho llejra we find the first notice of the dis-
Remiered fluctuating ami perplexed from tbc emboguement of a branch of tlio K aroon
clango io thocounc of tlio rivers. into U,e l)ut jt is Worthy of
remark that the latter river was not tho less considered the eastorn exit of the
Euphrates, from which I infer that the water must have run from the Shat through
the Halfar into the Bamishir instead of as at present from the Karoon through
the Haffar into tho Thai. Of course, under such circumstances, tho country
along the Karoon to the point of its junction with the Bamishir would alone
be gained by Khuzistan that along the Halfar and tho Bamishir, “ drinking ’*
the water of the Euphrates, would continue to belong to Bussorah.
But by degreo the waters of the Karoon appear to have altogether deserted
the eastern branch, and then it must have been, that the whole body of the
river, flowing into the Bamishir, not merely filled that bed exclusively with its
own stream, but forced its way also into the Shat, through the Halfar canal,
and thus effected an important ohango in the limits of the Persian Empire; for,
according to the old distribution, the lands along the Halfar and the Bamishir,
would, undor such circumstances, become subordinate to Khuzistan. If, in­
deed, we follow the original principle of allotment, wo must admit that when
Sheikh Salman threw his dam across the Karoon to replenish theGuban river,
he restored the lands of the Halfar and Bamishir to Turkey, for the pressure of
the water of the Karoon beiug diminished, tho Euphrates doubtless resumed
its former course, and again, when Kerim Khan destroyed the dam, he must have
recovered these lands for Persia, as the force of the Karoon concentrated in one
stream would now prevail over the Euphrates, and appropriate to itself, the
channels of the Bamishir and nallar.
We have, I confess, in modern times, very little proof of the practical
Difficultyof verifying tbc priuciplo in modem working of this distribution; for the
t,a>c*, science of geography has been almost
extinct in the east, since the ago of the Clienghizian Kiugs. Up to that period,
certainly the towns near tho Persian Gulf, which are mentioned in oriental
authors, as dependent on Bussorah and on Khuzistan, are those respectively
watered by the Euphrates and tho Karoon, hut shortly before tho rise of the
Instance of departure from it iu reference to Sulfavcan dynasty, the town of Guban is
laud* of Qubau.
reported in the country, to have been
founded by emigrants from Bussorah, near the site of the ancient Hasn Mehdi,
and to have been placed under the protection of the Government of the former
city, which must have thereby extended its political frontier, far beyond its
proper geographioal limits.
A lino of Princes reigned in this province it is said for 150 years, dignified
by the name of Pashas, and the authority of the Johan nama, a Turkish work
of this period, is brought forward to show, that theso Pashas of Guban were
subordinate to tho Government of Bussorah. As far as I can ascertain, the