itself seems to have had no recognized master, and up to the present day the boundary between Persia and Turkey running through Coordistan is a quæstio vexata which Great Britain and Russia have interposed to decide, and a commission appointed by these two powers is actually engaged in settling the difficulty. These rival claims have no doubt tended to secure to the mountaineers generally their political freedom, whilst the occasional efforts which have been made by the two courts to bring the Coordish chiefs into subjection, have led the latter to unite themselves more closely with their Nestorian neighbours, and to avail themselves of their support in repelling any attempt to rob them of their freedom.
The above account agrees with the traditions prevalent in the mountains, and is confirmed by what is actually known of the form of government which prevailed in this part of Coordistan until within the last few years. The Emeer of Hakkari has been for ages the presiding chief, and the predecessors of Noorallah Beg granted to the Nestorians the rights of clanship, which freed them from tribute, and gave them a voice in the election of the Emeer,[1] and in all the councils of the tribes, on condition that they supplied a certain contingent of armed men for the common defence of the state. All the villages of Tyari enjoyed these privileges with the exception of Asheetha, Zaweetha, and Minyanish, from which the Emeer claimed a regular yearly tribute. Besides this he exacted from these three villages, as well as from all the other Nestorian provinces of central Coordistan Kharaj, a kind of humiliation tax, the same as is annually levied by the Turks from all the Christians of the empire. Some villages, like that of Serspeedho in Lower Tyari, purchased immunity from tribute by the payment of 13,000 piastres (about £120,) for which sum they were admitted to all the rights and privileges of clansmen. When in want of their assistance the Emeer generally abstained from levying the Kharaj upon the Nestorians, but when he foresaw no immediate need of their help, he exacted from them as much as policy suggested, lest by
- ↑ The dignity of Emeer of Hakkari is hereditary in one family, but the choice of the individual who shall assume it belongs to the tribes, who can depose their chief, and substitute a relative in his stead. The same is true of the Emeer of the Yezeedees.
