Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

278 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
tentative excavations at Tello "without any firman from the
Porte." No sooner had he therefore established his workmen,
under native overseers, upon the ruins of Babylon and
Borsippa, than he hurried back to Baghdad, descended the
Tigris on a Turkish steamer as far as Kud(t) el-'Amara, and
sailed through the Shatt el-Hai until he reached the object
of his journev.
But upon landing he found, to his consternation,
that Tello was not within the sphere of British
influence. Shortly before Sir Henry Layard had obtained
vilayets of Baghdad, Aleppo, and Wan, the
his far-reaching permit for simultaneous excavations in the
Ottoman government
had reduced the large province of Baghdad in size
by creating a new and independent pashalic with Basra as
capital, 1 and including all the Turkish territory to the east
and south of the Shatt el-Ha'i. 2 For the time being Rassam
had, therefore, no legal right to make any excavations
at Tello. But having gone to the expense of a voyage
thither, he did not intend to turn away from the ruins without
having convinced himself whether " it would be worth
while to ask the British ambassador at Constantinople to
use his influence with the Porte, so that his license might
be extended to that province." Accordingly he engaged a
1
According to information obtained through the kindness of Dr. H. Gies,
first dragoman of the German embassy in Constantinople, the military administration
of the kolemen was brought to an end in 'Iraq in 1243 (Rumi=.
1827 a. d.). Henceforth Basra was ruled by the Ottoman government
directly through mutesarrifs, subject to the orders of the wali of Baghdad,
or through independent walis. The first wali of Basra, appointed in 1875,
was Nasir Pasha, the famous shaikh of the Muntefik(j). Comp. p. 218, above.
In 1884 the province of Baghdad was again reduced in size by the creation of
the vilayet of Mosul. For further details, see Salname of Basra of the year
1309 (Hijra=z 1307 Rumi').
•
The line of demarcation is at Kud(t) el-Hai. Only generally speaking
the Shatt el-Hai forms the natural boundary between the two vilayets, for certain
portions to the west of it, as, e. g., the ruins of Senkere, and other smaller
sites as far north as Durraji, belong to the southern vilayet of Basra.