Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/19



was during the existence of the Euphrates Expedition sent out by the British Government under the command of Colonel Chesney, R. A., in the year 1835, that the Nestorian tribes inhabiting the mountainous districts of Coordistan, and other Christian sects dwelling between the two great rivers which almost insulate Mesopotamia, were brought into more general notice. The information respecting these communities contained in Rich's "Notes on Coordistan," is very brief, and after him, until very lately, there appears to have been no European traveller in those parts, who had made it a primary object of his research to inquire into the condition of the native Christians. Of the Nestorians in central Coordistan, scarcely anything was known beyond their existence; their isolated position amidst lofty and rugged mountains, as well as the temper of the fierce and lawless Coords by whom they were surrounded, having hitherto presented to the most daring adventurer almost insurmountable obstacles to his attempting to penetrate within their secluded boundary.

These impediments were in a measure removed by the partial establishment of the Ottoman jurisdiction over a large portion of Coordistan. This event took place in the year 1834, when the Turks, roused to a sense of the danger which threatened their eastern territory from the confederate Coords, who under the famous Rawandooz Beg, had plundered and destroyed many villages in the plains of the Tigris, sent a strong army against them under Resheed Pasha, who succeeded in capturing the rebel chief, and for a season effectually weakened the strength