ABSTRACT
CHAPTER XII . " II finissait & peine de parler, que les principaux habitants du village, reunis chez
KASMEYX, February 24.—Bagdad is an abode of political exiles from India, Mussulmans who dislike living under Christian rule, and who have settled here as the nearest place of refuge in Islam. Their position is a pleasant one, for they enjoy the double advantage of religious agreement with the Bagdadis and of foreign protection as British subjects. Many of them are very well off, living on the revenues of their lands in India, and a few are on excellent terms with the Consul General. Of these the most remarkable, by his birth, his wealth, and still more by the dignity of his private
character, is the JNTawab Ikbalet Dowlah, the dispossessed and pensioned king of Oude. With him we are now staying, at his " desert-house" near Kasmeyn, the first step on our journey northwards. I hardly know how to speak of the Nawab without seeming to say too much. lie is an old man now and a philosopher, and he would not care to have his good deeds paraded, and yet I cannot help recording what I feel about him, that, little as he affects the character of ex-king, he is the most truly dignified personage I ever met. I11 manner and way of living he is very simple, having something of the Bedouin contempt for appearances, along with the more real absence of pretension of a well-bred Englishman of fifty years ago. He has travelled much and seen much, and understands the European way of thinking as well as that of eastern people, having besides considerable originality of his own independent of any school of ideas. In conversation he is most agreeable, constantly surprising one with unexpected turns of thought and new ways of saying things, and, if we had been able to understand him better, I am sure we should have found him full of the best sort of wit. He is besides a kind and charitable man. His position in Bagdad is a great one, so great, from a moral point of view, that it may well console him for the loss of his former sovereignty and the splendours of his court at Lucknow. Here at Bagdad he has real power, the power of doing
good, and real freedom to say what he thinks right to consuls, pashas, doctors of divinity and all alike, down to the poor Bedouins who live at his gates. I fancy his advice is asked on most of the political difficulties of the Serai, where his knowledge of men and cities, so essential a part of wisdom in the East, and his wit in expressing his ideas, enable him to speak without offence more truth than is often heard in those high places. The consequence of this is that his name is a power in Bagdad, and that he has made himself friends in all classes of society. Amongst the rest, Ferh&n, the Shammar Chief, is his sworn ally; and, whenever the Sheykh comes to town, it is to the house of his brother the Malek el Hind, or King of India, as the Arabs call the Nawab. This circumstance is most fortunate for our plans, as now we shall start for the desert with letters of recommendation, which ought to give us the best possible reception there.
