These, the property of individuals, are not connected in any way with the “Jaf land”—that is, the country over which the migratory tribe has the right of passage, domicile, and cultivation, and which is theirs by ancient right, gift, and conquest, belonging to the tribe as a whole.
JAF HISTORY
From the time when Bagdad returned to the hands of the Turks in the 17th century, the Jafs have been in contact upon the west with that nation,[63] and have for about two hundred years recognised the Sultan as their overlord, as well as the Khalifa, or spiritual head of Sunni Islam, to which section they belong. They have, however, as a tribe, maintained more than semi-independence up to the present day, Mahmud Pasha holding himself responsible only for a yearly sum payable to the Sultan. In the 18th century, when the bulk of the tribe left their old lands in Juanru of Persia, two sections of the tribe seceded and took up their quarters with the Persian Guran tribe, with whom they still remain. These are the Jaf-i-Qadir Mir Waisi, and the Taishi. Within more recent times, another section—under one, Fattah Beg—separated and retired to Persia, in the Kermanshah province.
Except for these insignificant sections, the great Jaf tribe is as united as it ever was. From time to time it is called upon to undertake the chastisement of smaller tribes who may misbehave, and act for the Turks as Wardens of the Marches, unmolested by their sovereign ruler. The tribe itself—that is, the people who wander every spring from Qizil Rubat to Panjwin and Saqiz—are under the immediate supervision of Mahmud Pasha, who accompanies them. His elder brother, Uthman Pasha, is, as mentioned before, appointed by the Sultan’s ruler, or Qaim Maqam, of the district of Shahr-i-Zur. This is a government of some considerable importance, and is a frontier one, necessitating the possession of armed power upon the part of the ruler. Uthman Pasha, who can call upon the tribe, of course possesses this.
But here we must make a slight digression to bring in Lady Adela, who comes from over the border. The Persian province whose land runs up to the borders of Shahr-i-Zur is Ardalan. This Ardalan was formerly a kingdom under a dynasty of petty Kurdish princes who, though they were virtually independent, yet acknowledged the suzerainty of the Shah of Persia. For five hundred years these princes reigned, holding court at Sina, which is still the capital of Ardalan.
Under their enlightened rule, art and literature grew at Sina,[64] literature of a Persian and Kurdish nature, which is just being discovered now,[65] the town was beautified with fine houses and gardens, and Sina became a place the records of whose beauty are conspicuous in the books of all travellers who have passed by it.
However, dynasties die out, and this was no exception to the rule. The Ardalan Khans (as the rulers were called) made a defensive alliance with the ruling dynasty of Persia, the Qajars, and one married a daughter of Fath Ali Shah, who ruled over Persia at the beginning of the 19th century. This lady succeeded her husband, and ruled over Ardalan with a firm and just hand. After her came her son, and after him, Persian Governors—for Nasir ud Din, Shah of Persia, a strong ruler, whose aim was to bring all the old semi-independent states directly under his rule, forbade the succession upon the death of the last Vali of Ardalan, Ghulam Shah Khan, and replaced him by his own fierce relative, Mu’tamid ud Douleh.
Side by side with these Sultans and Valis there grew up and existed another powerful family, that of the Vazirs, or ministers of the princes, who owned the town of Duaisa, near Sina. This family was not exterminated nor even deprived of office, but continued in place till to-day, when the chief accountant of Kurdistan, as the province is now called, is a descendant of the old family of Vazirs.
ADELA KHANUM
The old Jaf Pashas had been forced to keep upon good terms with the dynasty of Ardalan, and from time to time marriages were effected between the Jaf and Ardalan chiefs and petty chiefs.