and the connection of the Ka'ab Arabs with Persia dates from this event, although the payments to the Turkish authorities were continued for some years. In the troublous times which in Persia and Turkey marked the middle of the last century, the fortunes of a tribe such as the Ka'ab Arabs greatly depended upon the personal character of its sheikhs. Sheikh Selman, who, in the year 1750, was chief of the Ka'ab, possessed all the qualities of a leader of men, and enjoyed to the full the confidence and attachment of his people. He took advantage of the hostilities between Persia and Turkey, and of the contests between the Zends and the Kajars for the crown of Persia, to establish himself as far as the Hindián River in the Persian province of Fars, and northward along the Karunk to Band-i-Kir. From Turkey he obtained the large island of Abadan, in the Shatel-Arab, the territory of Dowasir, on the right bank of that river, and on the left bank a tract of country in the neighbourhood of the Haffar canal, including the present town of Muhamerah.

Upon the final establishment of the Kajar dynasty in Persia the affairs of the Ka'ab Arabs attracted attention, and little by little the tribe succumbed to Persian influence. In 1812 the Ka'ab were ousted from their possessions on the left bank of the Shat-el-Arab by the Montefik Arabs, and Muhamerah, which originally comprised only two petty mud forts on either side of the mouth of the Haffar canal, was built as a protection against their further inroads. The Turkish authorities left the Ka'ab alone until 1837, when Ali Pasha, Vali of Baghdad, attacked and plundered Muhamerah, which, having become a commercial town of some local importance, injured the revenue of Basrah. At this time the Chief of Muhamerah was a certain Haji Jabir, the son of the Ka'ab sheikh by a slave mother. The conduct of the Turks in destroying Muhamerah caused Haji Jabir to throw himself into the hands of the Persians, who took advantage of the feud between him and the legitimate sheikhs of the Ka'ab to occupy Muhamerah with Persian troops; and though these were subsequently withdrawn, the authority of the Persian Government has been recognised ever since in a greater or less degree. In the Persian war of 1856 Muhamerah was bombarded by the vessels of the Indian navy, and occupied by the British invading force, but was restored to Persia on the conclusion of peace. Haji Jabir died at a very advanced age about two years ago, and the Persian authorities have divided the Government between his two sons, Sheikh Muhammad and Sheikh Mizal. But the arrangement may be safely regarded as merely provisional, for the dissensions that are sure before long to break out between the brothers will afford a pretext for more detailed supervision by the Persian authorities and for the appointment of a Persian governor.

The situation of Muhamerah at the point of the junction of the

Karun-the only navigable river in Persia-with the Shat-el-Arab, and its greater proximity to the sea, give it advantages as a trading mart superior to any which Basrah, on the Turkish bank of the river, possesses. The loss of Muhamerah and of the adjoining territory on the left bank of the Shat-el-Arab and of the island of Abadan, is therefore, on commercial grounds alone, a misfortune to Turkey. Its real importance, however, lies in the fact that the acquisition of Muhamerah not only confers on Persia co-riparian rights on the Shatel-Arab, but places in Persian hands a strategical position of the highest value in the event of war with Turkey. If at the conclusion of the Persian war we had not restored Muhamerah this position of vantage would now be in British keeping, with great profit to British political influence at Teheran and to British trade with Persia and Mesopotamia.

The country which lies between the right bank of the Tigris and the left bank of the Euphrates is known to the Arabs as "ElJezireh," "the Island," and to Europeans as Mesopotamia, or the country between the rivers. A line drawn from Hit on the Euphrates, to Samara on the Tigris, would follow the geological formation of the soil and demarcate the natural boundary which separates Upper from Lower Mesopotamia. Below this line the country is flat and of a low elevation, and the soil purely alluvial; above it the formation is secondary and the country an undulating plain rising gradually towards the north. The people of Mesopotamia are Arab in nationality and Muhammadan in religion; in the upper division Sunnis predominate, and in the lower Shias, especially in the neighbourhood of the holy cities of Kazmain, Kerbela, and Nejef. The principal Arab tribe in Upper Mesopotamia is the Shamar Jerba, who migrated from Nejd about a hundred years ago, and who are still Bedouins. The Shamar wander over the whole of Northern Mesopotamia. In the summer their chief encampment is at Shergot, on the Upper Tigris, a short distance below Mosul, and in the winter they approach Baghdad to buy supplies. The Shamar pay no tribute, but their present Sheikh, Ferhán-ibn-Sfúk, has accepted from the Turkish government the title of Pasha with a yearly allowance (which is rarely, if ever, paid), and in return for which he is supposed to guarantee the safety of travellers in his territory.

The Shamar are at feud with the neighbouring tribes, such as the Anizeh, the Dilem, and the Montefik- a state of things which the Turkish authorities naturally regard with entire satisfaction, for the stability of Ottoman rule in Mesopotamia depends in a great degree on the quarrels and animosities which divide the Arab tribes. In the feud with the Montefik, which originated in the following circumstances, Arab sympathies are on the side of the Shamar. A few years ago Abdul Kerim, brother of Ferhán, the present Sheikh of the

VOL. XXXV. X.S.

Shamar, being hard pressed by the Turks, took refuge with Nasir, Sheikh of the Montefik, and claimed sanctuary from him. Nasir granted it, and in accordance with well-known Arab usage became responsible for the safety of his guest. Nasir, however, by all accounts was anxious, for reasons of his own, to make a display of loyalty to the Porte. It happened that just at this time he was Mutasarif or Lieut.-Governor of the Montefik country, and on the pretext that his duty as an Ottoman official was paramount to his obligations as an Arab Sheikh, he surrendered Abdul Kerim to the Turks, who took him to Mosul and hanged him on the bridge.

The Montefik proper are comparatively a small tribe, and in point of fact the country which is known as that of the Montefik Arabs comprises the lands of a number of Fellah tribes who have attained a considerable degree of prosperity through trade and agriculture and who have accepted Montefik protection. The Al-Sadun-the particular clan to which the ruling sheikhs of the Montefik belong-claim descent from the Sharifs of Mecca. Consequently, they are of course Sunnis, but most of the tribes subordinate to the Montefik hold Shia tenets. In July, 1880, one of these subject tribes—the Al-bu-Muhammad, who dwell in the marshes of the Tigris between Basrah and Kornah-laid wait for and endeavoured to capture the British steamer Khalifa. The attack was delivered at a well-chosen spot, where the Tigris takes a sharp bend in the shape of the letter S. It is necessary in order to double this bend to approach close to the bank where the water shallows, and where the slightest mistake in steering must inevitably beach the vessel. As the Khalifa entered this bend the Arabs on the bank fired a volley, killing two of the crew and wounding the captain and chief engineer. The native Lascars at the wheel fled below and all was in confusion. The situation was critical, for in less than five minutes the Khalifa would have run ashore, and great loss of life must have ensued. Fortunately, however, Captain Clements, notwithstanding his wound, which was severe, maintained his presence of mind, and steering the vessel by her engines rounded the point in safety and steamed out of reach of harm. Various motives have been assigned for this daring outrage, unprecedented in the history of British relations with the Arabs of Mesopotamia. Some people said that the Al-bu-Muhammad, driven to desperation by the misgovernment of the Turkish authorities, resolved to stop all traffic on the Tigris and to compel, by attacking a British mail steamer, the attention of the British Government to their wrongs. A plot of this nature, however, could scarcely have originated in the unassisted intelligence of an ignorant and half-savage tribe like the Al-bu-Muhammad; if the attack on the Khalifa was really planned with the intention of forcing, as it were, the hand of the British Government, it is probable that results were hoped for altogether beyond the mere redress of grievances of the tribe in question.

From Fao, the telegraph station at the mouth of the Shat-el-Arab, the Pasha of Baghdad claims jurisdiction as far as El-Katif, on the Arab littoral of the Persian Gulf. Turkish authority in these parts is, however, merely nominal; it may be said to date from 1871, in which year Midhat Pasha dispatched an expedition from Baghdad to support Abdullah-bin-Feysul in his contest with his brother Saood for the chiefship of the Wahabis. The result was the ruin of both brothers and the appointment of a Turkish Kaim-Makam at ElHassa, who also exercises a perfunctory supervision along the coast. British relations with Turkish Arabia date from the establishment by the East India Company, about two hundred and fifty years ago, of a factory in Basrah, under the supervision of the Company's agent at Gamrun (Bandar Abbas), in the Persian Gulf. In the year 1720 Basrah was considered of sufficient importance to demand the appointment of a separate Resident, but owing to Dutch and French competition, the arbitrary proceedings of the local authorities, and the unsettled state of the country, the Company's trade could hardly have been very profitable. War broke out between Persia and Turkey in 1743, and in the autumn of the following year Basrah was besieged for three months by a Persian force. Then came troubles with the Montefik Arabs, who, in resentment for an attempt to enhance the tax on their date gardens, cut the banks of the Shat-el-Arab, and inundated the country up to the walls of Basrah. In these days there were no disciplined battalions to enforce the Sultan's authority, and his behests were very lightly regarded. The Pasha of Basrah, for instance, did not hesitate to oppose by force of arms the imperial firman joining Basrah to the Pashalik of Baghdad. He was obliged to yield only because the Sheikh of the Montefik, who, having 30,000 fighting Arabs at his command, was the real arbiter of the destinies of Lower Mesopotamia, gave his support to the Pasha of Baghdad.

The Company's difficulties were further enhanced by the jealousy with which their representative was regarded by the local Turkish authorities. They endeavoured, in order to prevent the Company from acquiring permanent influence in the country, to insist on the chief of the factory being changed every year. And they might have gained their point, except for the active intervention of the British Ambassador, who succeeded, in 1764, in regularising the position of the Company's representative by obtaining for him a Consular Birat.

Towards the end of 1774 fresh hostilities broke out between Turkey and Persia, and during the whole of 1775 the country round Basrah was the scene of incessant conflicts between the Persians and the Ka'ab Arabs on the one side, and the Turks and the Montefik on the other. In April of the following year Basrah surrendered to the Persian General Sadu Khan, and remained in Persian hands for nearly three years. During this period, owing to the exactions of

the Persian officials, trade ceased to be profitable, and the lives and property of the Company's servants were exposed to constant peril. Fortunately, a local insurrection resulted in the expulsion of the Persians and the restoration of Turkish authority; otherwise the factory at Basrah must undoubtedly have been closed. From this date until the end of the century the relations between the Company's representatives and the Turks were, on the whole, of a most friendly and intimate character. As a matter of fact, his own position was so precarious that the Turkish Pasha could not afford to quarrel with the English. In Lower Mesopotamia he was confronted by two powerful chiefs-the Sheikh of the Montèfik and the Sheikh of the Ka'ab, whose respective territories bordered on Basrah. The Persian Gulf, too, had not yet attained its present tranquil condition. It was infested by pirates, and the Imam of Muscat and the El-Joasim Arabs of Ras-el-Kheimah more than once threatened Basrah with attack. In 1787 Sheikh Thamir of the Montefik seized the Turkish galleys lying in the Shat-el-Arab, imprisoned the Turkish governor, and held Basrah pending a satisfactory settlement of his differences with the Pasha of Baghdad. The Sheikh of the Ka'ab also erected batteries on the right bank of the Shat, with the intention of cutting off all communication between Basrah and the sea, and defeated the Turkish fleet in a pitched battle at the mouth of the Haffar canal. Occasionally, and under great pressure, the British Resident at Basrah lent the Turks the aid of the Company's vessels, but more often British assistance was limited to the supply of arms and ammunition. Experience derived from constant intercourse had given the Company's representatives a very poor opinion of the Turks. "Nothing can be worse," wrote Mr. Moore, "than the policy of assisting such people as the Turks. They have no gratitude. You gain no advantage by it, whether with respect to commerce or anything else. Only assist them once, they always think themselves entitled to assistance hereafter."

In 1798 the Court of Directors appointed for the first time a permanent Resident at Baghdad in the person of Mr. Harford Jones, afterwards Sir Harford Jones-Brydges, British Minister in Persia. The objects of this appointment were entirely political. Mr. Jones was instructed to watch the proceedings of the French, who then held Syria and Egypt; to obtain and transmit news of Buonaparte's movements and intentions, with special reference to the projected demonstration against India by the valley of the Euphrates; and to enlist against the French the sympathies of the Pasha of Baghdad and of the Arab tribes of Mesopotamia. In 1799 envoys from Tippoo arrived at Basrah, en route for Constantinople. They were furnished with presents and letters to the Sultan entreating help, and representing in strong terms the oppression and tyranny which the Muhammadans