Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/315

Rh lived in an almost independent state, the only acknowledgment of subjection which the Emeers rendered to the Porte consisting of a nominal tribute of 300 piastres, which they sometimes paid to the Pashas of Van and Amedia, and in return for which they received a robe of investiture. Noorallah Beg had testified his submission in a similar manner, and was confirmed in the authority exercised by his predecessors. The conquests and ambitious designs of Mohammed Pasha, the chief of Rawandooz, whom the Turks, not being able to reduce by force of arms, decoyed to Constantinople, committed to him the government of his native province, and afterwards gave secret orders that he should be poisoned on his return home, which crime was actually perpetrated at Amasia, opened the eyes of the Sultan's ministers, and directed their attention to the political condition of Coordistan generally. Bedr Khan Beg received a decoration at their hands, and Noorallah Beg was more fully and formally recognised as the Emeer of the Hakkari districts. Dr. Grant gives the following account of this latter event, which took place in 1839: "I remained ten days at Van, and had repeated interviews with my old friend Noorallah Beg, the Coordish chief, whom I had cured during my memorable visit to Bash-Kala. … It was gratifying to find him still cherishing the friendly feelings with which he welcomed me; but it remains to be seen how valuable his friendship may yet prove. Changes have occurred which have modified his power, and hereafter the traveller through his heretofore lawless country will have less to fear. It is now placed under Turkish jurisdiction: the chief has bartered his independence for an appointment from the Pasha of Erzeroom, and he was returning, an officer of the Porte, to govern his spirited clans whom he had found too restless to control by his single arm. He also foresaw that the extension of European influence, and the consequent changes occurring in the east, might at no distant day wrest his independence and his country from him. He therefore deemed it wise to make such voluntary overtures as would enable him to retain his station as the immediate head of the Hakkari tribes."

Armed with this new authority, Noorallah Beg soon began