volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

The Confiscated Manuscripts. 285
of the chest was regarded as a masterpiece of the art
of theft, and all Baghdad was delighted when the Government
failed to find the thieves. A report of the theft
was sent to the Porte in Stambul, and the WMi was
told in reply that if the money was not made good
Allah only knew what the Sultan would do to BaghdM.
The result of this answer was a forced levy on the city
of Baghdad, and no one seemed greatly displeased.
On my return to Baghdad I made enquiries about
the manuscripts that had been confiscated, and found
that when they had been sent to the Ministry of Public
Instruction, there was no one there who was able to
read them well enough to make a list of them. The
Mudir of the Ma'arafah in this difficulty applied to
Colonel Tweedie for the loan of his Oriental Secretary,
Ya'kub Thaddeus, and he compiled a list of them, and
when the Mudir had read it he decided that the manuscripts
must remain in the hands of the Government.
Colonel Tweedie appealed to the Wali,^ but both he and
* The following is a translation of one of Colonel Tweedie's letters
to the Wali on the subject
" No. 59.
February 3rd, 1891.
" Sir,—I have the honour to bring under the special and favourable
consideration of the Baghdad Government contents of enclosed
translated purport of letter to me of this day's date from Mr. E. A. W.
Budge. (Please see Baghdad Government letter No. 52, dated
December 28th last.) It seems my duty, in a spirit of friendship,
to indicate to your Excellency that books acquired by Mr. Budge
are not intended for resale, that is, for the making by their means
of pecuniary profit ; that they do not even form Mr. Budge's personal
property, but that of the whole civilized world's central storehouse
of literary treasures, the British Museum, in which are deposited with
the utmost respect the sacred writings or Scriptures of all nations
and that therefore, whatever regulations may be in force in the
Ottoman Empire with respect to the export, by way of traffic, of
records of this description can have no applicability as regards those
for which so wholly different a use and destination are contemplated.
" Asking the favour of being soon informed of the result of the
consideration of my present reference by your High Government, and
giving expression to every sentiment of esteem, I have, etc.,
" (Signed) W. Tweedie, Colonel,
" H.B.M.'s Consul-General, Baghdad."