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Pashas of Guban were actually in power at the period of Sultan Morad's treaty
with Shah Tahmasp in A. 1). 1039, but whether their dependence upon
Bussorah was really of such a nature, as to entitle the territory, over which
they ruled, to ho considered ail integral part of Irak i-Arab, in opposition to
all geographical precedent, or whether their connexion with the parent Gov­
ernment., was ot the same loose and undefined character as that of tho Chaab,
who succeeded them, is u point which I have not boon able to resolve, and,
indeed, as tho district of Guban has now become a desert, and has thus lost
Ehmmkvft-inhiof«rprovingth« t.,ri..ri.i r*ht ilU territorial value. it is of no great, con-
of Turkey, to lands upon tboSnatul-Arab, iudepoud* SCqUCUCQ to determine its Ol’igilUll dopeu-
eniiy of uicro gougraphiciprccctici. doucy. Of far moro importance is it to tho
question of frontier at present pending, to find, that from the earliest establish­
ment of Turkish rule in Mesopotamia, that is from tho commencement of
tho 16th century, tho dependence upon Bussorah, and consequently upon
Turkey of tho lands on tho left hank of tho Shat-cl-Arab, from tho soa as far
as Girdelan, has boon acknowledged and recorded; the famous Sultan Salim,
iu about A. 1). 1512 having conferred tho lands in question in free grant
upon four holy men of Bussorah, Sheikh Abdool Salam, Sheikh Ahmcd-el-
Itefahee, Sheikh Habeeb-UUnh, and Sheikh Ibrahim Bodhein, and a great
part of tho original patents passod under tho Sultan’s seal, being as it is
affirmed still in existence. That three years elapsed from the dato of Sultan
Murad’s treaty with Shall Tahmasp before the Turkish authority was fairly and
permanently established in Bussorah is not I think of any material consequonco.
Tho present right of Turkey to the town, according to that treaty, as a depend­
ency of Baghdad and a part of Irak-i-Arab has never been subject of dispute,
and if the claim to Bussorah bo coucuded, tho right to all the lands dependent
upon it will follow as a matter of course.
Now the land upon which the town of Mohammerah was subsequently
built was unquestionably ono of these
Moliamim-rah included in thc«o lands and in poi* dependencies. It was specified, indeed, as I
ie»»ion of Turkey until witliiu tho lull few yean.
understand in ono of Sultan Salim’s grants.
It continued in the hands of the descendants of the original grantees for above two
centuries, it was then resumed by tho Bussorah Government on some trivial
pretext with many other lands in the vicinity ; and it was subsequently farmed
together with the lauds of Haffirand Tamar by Suleiman Pasha of Baghdad, as
I have previously stated, to the Chaab Chief, Sheikh Salman. Turkey is thus able
to show her practical exorcise of supremacy over the lands of Mohammerah for
a consecutive series of above 250 years. But this is not all, so incontestable were
her rights considered to be, that the Chaab, long after they had become virtually
independent of Bussorah, continued to pay the rent or land tax instituted by
Suleiman Pasha for tho districts of Tamar, Halfar and Mohammerah. Throe
hundred tons of dates are indeed still yearly handed over to the officers of the
Bussorah Government as the share of produce of the two former farms, and it
is only since the forcible occupation of tho town of Mohammerah by the Persian
troops, that the payment of the annual land tax of 500 Karoosh (about £ 40)
for the ground upon which the town is built, has been discontinued.
That Turkey is unable in the same conclusive way to prove the acknowledg­
ment of her claim to the remainder of the territory stretching down along the
Shat from Mohammerah to the sea, is owing merely to the lands in this quarter
having been exempt from taxation, agreeably to Sultan Salim’s patent, when
the Chaab violently wrested them from the possession of the descendants of
Sheikh Abdool Salim, the original grantee.
But although tho question of the political dependency of Mohammerah and
the adjoining territory may be thus considered as a mere matter of argument,
to be proved almost to demonstration in favour of Turkey the geographical
appropriation of the lands, is by no means, so easily disposed of.
When Sultan Salim bestowed the grounds of Halfar and Mohammerah upon
Sheikh Abmed-el-Beta bee, they were
Fnrtmr dependency of Mobummerali upou Bassurab
ge-.grupliicully cormt. doubtless strictly dependent upon Busso-
rnh, for the Karoon river still flowed in the
Guban hod and the Halfar Canal upon wliioh tho lands wero situated was thus