Page 267 - Journal of Asian History_Neat

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MaNDAVim.k: The. Ottoman Province of al-Hnsd 501

frontier troops ennnot easily bo moved in:m provincial government of Labsti had been
tune
l-'or the time being you must make do with registered in Istanbul. Today, by scanning the
;ll)<lUt.
\\w soldiers that you have."10* land documents immediately available in the
\\though no open warfare with the BanI Istanbul archives, the geographic outlines of the
IJalid is reported after this, it is clear that Otto- province of that period can be roughly re-drawn.107
man relations with them continued to be tense. Town names and the relative administrative
The latest pertinent document that I have found importance of one region to another seem to
is a letter from Murad III to Sa’dQn, dated in differ little from the al-JJaaS. of the present. An
May of 1590. obvious exception to this statement is the garden
complex of Cebrln (spelt in the documents
(summary] To the Emir Sa’dQn: Ycbrin) located some 150 miles south of the
lu the past you have been a model servant of the empire, al-IJasS complex. Then it was registered as
but recently you have been a cause of great trouble. I containing nine distinct “villages” (kariyeler)
nuL-U understand all of the facta of the case. I have there­ and worth in taxes at least 30,000 ofcfc, at that
fore directed the governor general of Labs& Ahmed to • , . - . , , ^ . r . .
meet with you. Explain your grievances with all frank- time the equivalent m tax base of Tarut Island;1*
ness and detail. The} will be rpported to me in full and, now, it is practically deserted.1*
God willing, any oppression which has occured will be I have listed below in tabular form according
with all justice removed (kem&l-i 'ad&Ut lU dtp vt rej' to garden complex the village names encountered
’Mob.'M
during my work on the documents. Many are
Immediately below this entry' in the muhimme mentioned; I could not identify a number of them,
volume are entered orders to the governor general especially those of Cebrln.
of Bagdad which state that the tribes of Labsa al-Kaf!/"• LoAxd111
are on the verge of revolt, and that Bagdad is to Tarut Cutfc
be prepared to send aid quickly should the gover­ Dhahran al-’UyOn
MalAfea W&sit al-HufQf
nor general of LabsS. request it.l0S A year later
PJay^ariya Mubarrax Tuhaymiyoh
Basra was ordered to send to Labs& without de-
Ras Tanura al-FurOl
lav reinforcements which the governor general Selmin BanI Ma’an
of Labsa reported had not arrived as requested.104 Yebnnxlt
Xone of the few documents dating from the ’Umm Nisal
seventeenth century sheds any Light on relations
with the BanI Halid or any other tribal force.
191 I feel confident that as more documents emerge in
Nevertheless the details we have of relations in the Ottoman archives through the seemingly endless
the sixteenth century help us appreciate the final process of cataloging, the details of human occupation
victory of the BanI Halid leaders over the Otto­ of the region during the sixteenth and seventeenth
man garrisons in 1670. centuries will appear in quantities sufficient for useful
analysis. In particular, I have as yet been unable to
II. THE OTTOMAN ADMINISTRATION locate any copy of the provincial land registers.
OF LAHSA 104 Maliye'den 17642, p. 716.
‘••See H. St. John Philby, The Empty Quarter, 1933,
The Districts pp. 86-106.
“•Kafclf: TarOt (Maliye'den 17642 p. 716), Dhahran
By late 1553 the garden and desert territories
(ibid. p. 714), MalAha (ibid), Hayrariyo (ibid.), Selm&n
of Eastern Arabia to be administered by the Otto-
(ibid.), Ras Tanura (M Zeyli 3, p. 128).
“‘Labs*: Ci^e (M 78:17), ’UyOn (M 3:1146, 1633;
*" -''•I 53:282, n.d. (early 992/early 1584). The troops M 6:1138), W&sit (M 3:1146), Mubarrax (ibid.), FuiOl
were said to be needed in LafisA from the beginning of (M 89:240), Bail Ma’an (M 89:237), Huitlf (ibid.),
Receb to the end of $ewal. Tuhaymiye (M 39:297, 346; M 47:229, 230, 366).
,M M Zeyli 4: p. 212, 18 Receb/2l May 1590. Yebrln (Si 3:1414; M 43:568; M 89:237), ’Umm
1,4 Ibxd., same date. Nias! (Maliye'den 17642, p. 716).
1,4 M 73:891-92, ZK 999/September 1591. “» ’BVayr (M 3:1129; M 7:1406; M 27:451).