guard, God only knows.) I went immediately to the Moollah, who assured me that what I had heard was true; so without delay I hurried after Mar Shimoon, who was then at his house at Kochânes. On hearing my report he was at a loss what course to pursue, but finally determined to seek safety in flight, and accordingly set off that same night for Jelu. The night following a party of Noorallah Beg's followers attacked the Patriarchal residence, and burned it with fire. Mar Shimoon remained in Jelu for some months, when a partial reconciliation was effected by Melek Ismaeel, who brought him back to his own house in Dez.'"[1]
This state of things, however, did not remain stationary for any length of time: some of the principal Nestorians held with the Emeer, whilst others espoused the cause of the Patriarch, who at a loss what to do, applied to the Pasha of Mosul, and made known to him the critical position of his people. The Pasha, as we have already seen, itched to have a finger in the affairs of Coordistan, and intrigued to widen the breach between the two contending parties, in the hope that he himself would eventually succeed to the government of the mountains. I have in my possession the copies of twenty letters which he sent to Mar Shimoon about this time, all of which show the exquisite cunning of his deep-laid schemes. As the Patriarch could not read Arabic or Persian, these letters were translated into Syriac by a Jacobite deacon at Mosul, who presented me with the rough drafts of the same after the Pasha's death.
There can be no doubt, that some fear as to the result of this reference to the Turkish authorities on the part of Mar Shimoon, added to his former jealousy of the Patriarchal influence, instigated the Emeer to strengthen his position so as to be able to crush the Christians at a blow. In order to this, he cultivated the friendship and alliance of all the Coordish chiefs in the neighbourhood, and invited to his court all the disaffected. Ali Beg, who with his brother Hadj Asaad Beg, had created a
- ↑ The burning of the residence of the Patriarch, at Kochânes, was the principal cause of the estrangement existing between him and the Emeer on the occasion of my visit to Asheetha, and the fact itself was referred to in the speech of Deacon Ishâk, as has been recorded in a preceding chapter.
