Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates Vol 2 - The Search For Mecca

CH. XXIV.] RcconqtLest of the Euphrates. 1 8 r
A new era, however, has now quite recently beenbegun
; and within the last sixteen years the Turkish
Government has recovered a part, at least, of the
of
Northern Arabia for nearly two hundred years.
territory lost so long to the Empire. In 18G2, the
heyday of reform and activity in Turkey, when,
after the Crimean war, ended some time before, the
Porte found itself in possession of a large army and
plenty of money, Omar Pasha, then Governor of
Aleppo, at the head of a considerable number of
troops marched down the valley of the Euphrates
and took military possession of Jaber and Deyr, the
only two inhabited villages then existing on the
Upper Euphrates. Deyr was at that time inhabited
by certain fellahin Arabs, partly descended from the
original founders of the town in the days of the
caliphate,* partly recruited from Mosul and Orfa,
who, having long enjoyed a semi-independence
under Anazeh protection, resented the interference
of the Turks, and defended their town stoutly. But
Omar Pasha had brought artillery with him, and
took the place by storm, and this was all the resistance
he met with. A garrison was placed in
Deyr, and guard-houses were built at intervals
between it and Aleppo. Deyr became a Pashalic
under the Valy of Aleppo, and the Upper Valley
of the Euphrates was declared to be once more 2)art
of the Empire. The Anazeh seem to have contented
* Deyr mu?t be older than the Mussulman era, for its name,
signifying " convent," jioints to a Christian origin.