298 chapter seven
Maladministration
The provincial maladministration could be clearly witnessed in Egypt
and Syria. With an average tenure in office of only two years or less,
the turnover of the appointed Turkish viceroys, pashas, in these two
countries reached a phenomenal figure. In the first hundred and eighty
years (1517–1697) there were one hundred and thirty three pashas
in succession in Damascus and in the two hundred and eighty years
of Turkish rule in Egypt there were no less than a hundred Turkish
pashaschanging office (Hitti, 1963). While the intention for the short
tenure of office was to block the way against any attempt by pashas
to grow in power enough to break away from the central government
in Istanbùl, the policy led to adverse economic effect with devastating
results. Knowing the short tenure of their office, and bearing in mind
the hefty cost they bore in getting the provincial seats, which were
effectively purchased from the Porte, the pashas had a short pay-
back-period in which they could recover their capital and make a
profit. With heavy taxes, relentless treatment from rulers, both the
Turkish pashasand the local Mamlùk beys in Egypt or walis in
Syria, and with no economic reform, the natives fell in a deep mis-
ery and poverty. By the middle of the eighteenth century, what was
once the Fertile Crescent, stretching from east Syria to the Euphrates,
turned into desert and has remained so until the present time (Bonne,
1945). By the end of that century the entire Syrian population had
decreased to about a million and a half and the Egyptian population
dropped to one-third of its size (ibid.). Iraq had similar poor admin-
istration to that of Egypt and Syria. With similar pashas from the
Porte and local lords and Mamlùks struggling for power and influence
in the province, the misery of the populace continued. What distin-
guished Iraq from other countries, however, was that by embracing
the Holy Shrines of the Shì"ah, the tomb of Imam Ali in Najaf, and
his grandson’s al-Œusayn in Karbal’a, and of the seventh and ninth
imams’ in al-Kazimayn, the country was a stronghold of Shi’ism and
as such Iraq had a strong link with the Shì"ah flafawìd Empire to
the east (Armstrong, 2000). It was not unusual for Shi"ìinhabitants
to cross the borders between the Ottoman’s Iraq and the flafawìd
land, and back, to seek help and assistance which was invariably given.
Conceivably the Shì"ah flafawids developed interest in the Shì"ah
holy land in Iraq and their concern grew over their fellow Shi"ìs in
the neighbouring country. The interest, and the concern, developed
into attempts made by the flafawids Shahs to take over Iraq and