Assyrians, Kurds, and Ottomans: Intercommunal Relations on the Pe ...

As early as the Asheetha revolt of October 1843, Rassam had reported on the relations between the two leaders. He stated that the Asheetha affair and the successful siege of the Kurdish forces in Dr. Grant’s castle for nine days had been carried out after agitation by Noor Allah Beg and some aghas of the region of the Zab River. In encouraging the Assyrians to fight his supposedly staunch ally, Noor Allah was moved by his desire to minimise Bedr Khan’s influence, on the one hand, and to annex the country of the Assyrian tribes to his own dominions, on the other. Thus Noor Allah had used the Assyrian victims for his own advantage and designs, and by doing so, Rassam pointed out, he had brought further suffering on them.¹⁶

5. The Ottomans’ Determination to End Bedr Khan Beg

22 March 1847

A few weeks after the appointment of Asaad Pasha (), Bedr Khan finally grasped the real intentions of the Ottoman government towards him. He realised both their determination to bring his role and rule to an end and the crucial part that Great Britain could play in deciding his fate. Accordingly he got in touch with Rassam, who on 22 March informed the ambassador of the sudden arrival of Shaikh Yousif, whom Bedr Khan had authorised to lay before the ambassador his suggestions for settling his affairs with the Porte.

Bedr Khan was ready to respond to the Turkish demands. The message that his secretary Osman Beg and Shaikh Yousif carried to the pasha of Mosul and the British vice-consul there amounted to abject surrender. His envoys declared that he was willing to go to Constantinople to settle his differences with the Porte if Rassam guaranteed his safety. He would spare all parties further bloodshed, no longer interfere in the affairs of Hakkari and Bahdinan, and relinquish the administration of Tiyari and Tekhoma. He would restore all his Nestorian captives and recognise Mar Shimun as the Nestorian patriarch. He would use the name of the sultan in the Friday prayers instead of his own name, abandon the title of immam (), hand over Zenal Beg to Mosul, pay the Porte the determined indemnity, and meet the pasha of Mosul without the escort of a large force.