Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/434

Just after the defeat of the Coords Mar Shimoon effected his escape a second time from the Nestorian village of Shermen, whither he had gone for a change of air. The death of his favourite sister at Mosul, and the intelligence which had reached him of the decease of another of his brothers, together with the long train of misfortunes and disappointments which had fallen to his lot during his exile from home, preyed upon his mind, and almost drove him to madness. Added to all this he had nothing to hope for from the Turks, nor could he tell when they would choose to set him free, so he took advantage of the opportunity which the permission to visit the villages near Mosul afforded him, and fled into Persia to his Church and people. The Coordish power being effectually broken, the Porte annexed the Tyari and Hakkari country to the pashalic of Diarbekir, and committed it to the jurisdiction of Asaad Pasha, its present governor. Bash Kala, Julamerk, and a few other places were garrisoned by the Sultan's troops, and Turkish Mutsellims were appointed to administer justice in other parts of the mountains. As soon as tranquillity was restored Mar Shimoon returned to his home at Kochânes, after an absence of five years; no compensation had been made to the Nestorians for their losses, the Patriarch was not officially recognised by the Porte, and he continues to exercise his spiritual jurisdiction with no other sanction than the love and ready obedience of his impoverished adherents.