Mamelukes, but is now always selected from among the highest officers of the Constantinople court, his term of office being usually for four or five years. He is also governor-general of Irak, and possesses supreme authority from Diarbekir to Bahrein, though he does not under ordinary circumstances interfere with the subordinate
governments of Mosul and Kurdistan.[1]The East India Company used to maintain a resident in Baghdad with a large establishment, and his post is now replaced by that of a consul-general and political agent. A French consul is also regularly appointed.
Until recently Baghdad was supposed to be entirely a Mahometan city, dating from the time of Al Mansiir ; but Sir H. Eawlinson discovered in 1848, during an unusually dry season, when the rivers had fallen six feet below the ordinary low-water mark, that the western bank of the Tigris was lined with an embankment of solid brick-work, dating from the time of Nebuchadnezzar, as the bricks were each stamped with his name and titles; and it has been since remarked that in the Assyrian geographical catalogues of the time of Sardanapalus, one of the Babylonian cities bears the name of Bagdad, and may thus very possibly represent the after site of the capital of the caliphs. According to the Arabian writers, however, there were no traces of former habitation when Al Mansur laid the foundation of the new city. It was adorned with many noble and stately edifices by the magnificence of the renowned Haroun el Raschid, who also built on the eastern side of the river, connecting the two quarters of the town by a bridge of boats. Under the auspices of Zobeide, the wife of that prince, and Jaffer the Barmecide, his favourite, the city may be said to have attained its greatest splendour. It con tinued to flourish and increase, and to be the seat of ele gance and learning, until the 656th year of the Hegira (1277 A.D.), when Hulaku the Tatar, the grandson of Genghis Khan, took it by storm, and extinguished the dynasty of the Abbassides. The Tatars retained possession of Baghdad till about the year 1400 of our era, when it was taken by Timur, from whom the Sultan Ahmed Ben Avis tied, and finding refuge with the Greek emperor, contrived afterwards to repossess himself of the city, whence he was finally expelled by Kara Yusef in 1417. In 1477 his descendants were driven out by Usum Cassim, who reigned 39 years in Baghdad, when Shah Ishmael the First, the founder of the royal house of Sefi, made himself master of it. From that time it continued for a long period an object of contention between the Turks and Persians. It was taken by Soliman the Magnificent, and retaken by Shah Abbas the Great; and it was afterwards besieged by Amurath the_ Fourth, with an army of 300,000 men. After an obstinate resistance, it was forced to surrender 1638 A.D.; when, in defiance of the terms of capitulation, most of the inhabitants were massacred. Since that period it has remained under a nominal subjection to the Turks. Achmet, the greatest of the pashas of Baghdad, and the first who rendered the pashalic inde pendent of the Porte, defended the town with such coiirago against Nadir Shah, that the invader was compelled to raise the siege, after suffering great loss. Baghdad, according to Colonel Chesney, had 110,000 inhabitants previously to the great plague of 1830; but in 1853 Mr Layard estimated its population under 50,000. Au estimate made in 1872 on a census taken in 1809 rises as high as 150,000, but this is in all probability an exag geration (v. Allen s Indian Mail, 1874). Long. 44 24 E., lat. 33 21 N. Buckingham s Travels in Mesopotamia (1827); Sir E. K. Porter s Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, and Ancient Babylonia (1821-22) ; Kinneir s Geo graphical Memoir of the Persian Empire (1813) ; Chesnoy s Expedition (1850); Rousseau s Description du pachalik de Bagdad (1809); Wellsted s City of the Caliphs; Grove s Residence in Baghdad (1830-32) ; Transactions of Bombay Geog. Soc. (185G).
(h. c. e.)
BAGHERMI, or Bagirmi, a district or kingdom of Central Africa, lying to the S. of Lake Chad and S.W. of Bornu. It extends about 240 miles from N. to S., and has a breadth of barely 150 miles. The surface is almost fiat, with a slight inclination to the N., and the general elevation is about 950 feet above sea-level. The Shari, a large and always navigable river, forms the western boundary, and throws out an important effluent called the Bachikam, which passes through the heart of the country. The soil consists partly of lime and partly of sand, and is by no means unfertile. In many parts not a stone is to be seen. Negro-millet, sesamum, and sorghum are the principal grains in cultivation, but rice grows wild, and several kinds of grass or poa are used as food by the natives. Cotton and indigo are grown to a considerable extent, especially by Boruu immigrants. Among the trees the most important are the tamarind, the deleb-palm, the dum-palm, the hajilij or Balanites cegyptiaca, the sycamore, and the cornel. The country often suffers from drought, and is greatly plagued with worms and insects, especially ants of all kinds, red, black, and white. The Kungjungjudu, a sort of beetle which does great damage to the crops, is eaten by the natives. A large proportion of the people have their feet mutilated by the attacks of a small worm, which takes up its residence in the first joint of the little toe and eats it gradually away. The inhabitants of Baghermi are a vigorous, well-formed race, who, according to their own traditions, came from the Far East several centuries ago. They speak a language cognate with those spoken by the Sara, who dwell about two degrees further south, and the Dor, who are situated at the confluence of the Dyor with the White Nile. On their arrival they soon extended their power over the Fellata and Arabs already settled in the district, and after being converted to Mahometanism under Abd-Allah, their fourth king, they extended their authority over a large number of heathen tribes. The most important of these are the Sokoro, the Bua, the Nyillam, the Sara, the Tumok, and the Busso. They are almost all in a low state of civilisation, and practise strange superstitions - a belief in a god whom they identify with thunder being the greatest extent of their religion. They are subject to the barbarous raids of their Baghermian masters, who derive from them a constant supply of slaves with which to pay the tribute demanded from them in their turn by the sultan of Bornu. For our knowledge of this district we are principally indebted to Barth and Nachtigal ; the former was for some time a prisoner in Masseña, the capital.
See Earth, Travels in Northern and Central Africa in 1849-53, vol. iii., and Nachtigal, in Petermaun s Mittheil. for 1874, and in Zeitsch. d. Gts.f. Erdkundczu Berlin, 1875.
- ↑ Besides the court of superior officers which assists the pasha in the general administration of the province, there is also a Mejlis, or mixed tribunal, for the settlement of municipal and commercial affairs to which both Christian and Jewish merchants are admitted Much of course, depends on the individual charactei of the pasha, but, on the whole, justice is fairly administered, and with less disposition perhaps to press on the non-Mussulman portion of the population than in any other city of Asiatic Turkey. The Jewish and Christian communities indeed, from their wealth, intelligence, and long standing in the country, enjoy an exceptionally favourable social position, and live on terms of equality with their Mahometan neighbours.Baghdad is also the headquarters of the army of Irak, and regular troops to the amount of five or six thousand men of all arms are usually kept together in the city, while an equal force is distributed in small garrisons in the Arab and Kurdish districts. Baghdad, after paying all its expenses, remits about 100,000 per annum to the imperial treasury, but its resources are capable of almost indefinite development, and there is indeed no reason why the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates should not, under an enlightened government yield a reveuue fully equal to that of the valley of the Nile.
