Page 616 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

16 ADMINISTRATION REPORT OF TUK PERSIAN GULF
bulk, but not of tho whole of the tribe, and in addition was reputed to be
very wealthy, having for several years collected, but withheld from the
Central Government, the tribal revenue for which he was responsible. Aa
a tribal leader he resented the predominance of the Bakhtiaris in the Coun­
cils of the Central Government and it was this feeling, shared as it was by
many other tribal Chiefs, which alone lent any reality to the so-called “ League
of tie South,1’ which consisted of a paper alliance between the Shaikh of
Mohamruerah, the Wali of Pusht-i-Kuh, the Sowlet-ed-Dowleh and the
Royalist faction of the Bakhtiari Khans.
Ho owed the position of Ilkhani to birth rather than to superior natural
abilities, being related through his mother to the principal factions of the
Kncbgai, whereas his rival, Zaigham-cd-Dowleh, thougn older, was by a
mother of inferior position.
But though without commanding ability, his ambition was boundless,
and he aimed at occupying the same predominant position as a tribal Chief
in the political arena of Fars, as the Shaikh of Moharamerah and the Bakh­
tiari Khans do within their respective limits. He sought to encompass this
end by the adoption of a policy of protecting the trade routes which would
gain him our active support, and which would give him the local predomi­
nance at which he aimed.
Apart from questions of policy involved, and his ability to make good
his promises, the advent of the Nizam-es-Sultaneh as Governor-General,
charged expressly with the restoration of order, and supplied with funds
for the purpose, made it impracticable for any response to be made at the
time to his independent proposals for securing the safety of the roads; which
he put forward at Bushire, in January, and endeavoured unsuccessfully to
pursue, in April, with His Majesty's Consulate at Shiraz. His Majesty's
l.Ciinister instructed Mr. Knox in this connection to let Soviet know that
such proposals cculd not be entertained, but that he night count on our good­
will provided that he maintained a favourable attitude towards British
claims, and assisted the Governor-General in the maintenance of order.
Sov;!et-ed-Bowleh did his best to secure the predominance which he
sought by as silting the Governor-Genera), hoping in this way to make him­
self indispensable and to remove his enemies through the agency of the Nizam.
He nearly succeeded, for the latter freely accepted this assistance, though
doubtless well aware of Sowlet’s ulterior motives; for, shortly after the
murder of Nacr-ed-Dowleh the Nizam assured Eis Majesty's Consul at
Shiraz that as scon as he had broken the power of the Kawami faction, with
the aid of the Sowlet, he would not fail to turn his attention to the latter.
The Kawami brothers.—The Kawam-ul-Mulk and Nasr-ed-Dovleli
were the heads of the Kawami clan, the premier family of Shiraz, who
for several generations had occupied a position of influence under successive
Governors. Their father Muhammad Riza Khan, Kawam-ul-Mulk, in parti­
cular, had acquired considerable wealth and great influence and had more
than once officiated as Governor-General. Constitutional ideas, when they
became popular in Persia, served in Shiraz, as elsewhere, as a rallying cry for
those opposed to the powers that be which happened at the time (1903) to be
embodied in the person of the then Kawam-uf-Mulk, who was murdered in
that year. It was for this reason, namely, that it was anti-Kawami, that
Sowlet-ed-Dowleh, on his own showing, espoused the local constitutional
party, thus throwing the Kawami family into the arms of the Bakhtiaris.
The Kawamis had no regular tribal following, though for some years
the Khamzeh IL had been in their charge; but they were very wealthy land­
owners, and consequently endeavoured always to ensure that the Governor-
General should be on their side; when this was not the case, they endeavoured,
generally with success, to make his position untenable by engineering popular
aisturbances. The Zil-es-Sultan had exiled them, when Governor-General,
in order thus to ensure peace, but on his fall they returned and assumed
their former predominant position.
Both men, particularly Nasr-ed-Dowleh, were men of breeding and cul­
ture, not averse to the society of Europeans, and on terms of personal friend­
ship with successive Consuls at Shiraz, a circumstance of which Sowlet-ed-