River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1882-10-12
THE KOORDISH CHIEF.
Mystery Of the Escape of Obefd0uIIah
from sOnstantInopIe-A Dang erous
Enemy of the sultan


Mystery of the Escape of ObefdouIIah
from sOnstantInopIe-A Dang erous
Enemy of the sultan
A letter from Constantinople to The
Nea0 York Tribune says: The flight of
the Koordish Sheikh 0beldoullah is
giving the government great anxiety.
Persia and Russia are both insisting
that he be captured and ''interned" in
some safe place. The sheik is now
safely at home in the mountains, where
Turkish troops have never yet been
without his permission. Although he
has telegraphed to ask pardon of the
sultsn for leaving Constantinople with
olt the formalities incumbent upon a
guest he is likely to be disturbed soon.
I understand that the commander of
the Turkish garrisons in Mesopotamia
has reported that he has not force
enough to arrest the sheikh, but that
troops have been ordered forward from
Van and Erzerum for this purpose.
The importance of Sheikh Obeldoullah
arises from his being spiritual chief
to many thousand Koords in both Per-
STA and Turkey. He is known to be
thoroughly restless under Turkish con-
troll. He believes in future for the
Koordish people, and believes that it
is his mission to advance its interests.
The glory of Saladin of the crusades
and of many other renowned Koords
is to him constant impulse TIC resist
the gradual extinction of Koordish in
dividuality which is being brought
about by the Turkish policy of killing
or exiting every K0ord who attalns
education or influence. He has often
declared that he has no evil intent
toward the Armenian Christians, who
have a common origin and a common
destiny with their Koordish neighbors.
Yet the Turkish government knows
very well that any disturbance of Koor-
distan just now would lead to a Russia
intervention. 1t is therefore particu-
larry anxious to get Obeldoullah safely
away from his people.
Personally the sheikh is rather
small man, with hands delicate as those
of a woman, and an eye like that of an
eagle. His face in repose is not pre-
possessing, but in conversation it lights
up with glow that makes one forget
the traditions of his savage wars. Like
most religious dignitaries in this coun-
try, he is extremely ignorant of modern
science. Yet he is profoundly learned
in all that strange philosophy which
finds 4 favoring atmosphere in Meso-
potamia. He is a most fascinating
cow ersationalist, full of wise saws and
quaint or humorous illustrations, and
he can quote unerringly all the great
Persian poets or Arabian theologians.
Among his own people the sheikh ex-
ercises a magnetic power which makes
men cover beneath his gaze as if he
was the arbiter OF their destinies,
which. indeed, to some extent he is.
The question of the manner of the
escape of the sheikh from this city is
still under investigation. The Russians
say the English got him away; the
Eoglish believe that the Russians
helped him of; while the Persians de-
clare that the Turks sent him home on
mission hostile to Persia. He went
by way of the Black sea and the eau
casus. The Turks are hampered in
their pursuit of the parties who got
Sheikh Obeidoullah away by two cir
cumstances: First, by the fact that he
was brought here as guest of the
sultan, and was never forbidden to
leave the city; and, second, by the
declaration of his followers here that
his escape was miraculous, fact that
no Moslem dares publicly deny. His
servants still declare that they see him
so constantly before their eyes that
they are unable to say whether he is
now boldly present with them or not,
and no amount of cutting over the ears
will make them tell different story.
One of the higher grade of his disci-
pies declares that one day he saw a
large green dove fly from the window,
and that on entering the shiek's room
hastily to tell him of it, he found no
one, but the empty garments of the
sheikh lying in q heap near the open
window. He was sure the green dove
was the sheikh himself. The only diff
ficulty with this theory of his escape is
that, although the sheikh's clothing is
there as proof, the sheikh's field glasses
and quite store of revolvers and am
munition must also be accounted for as
having been conveyed away by the
dove. Still, the people believe the
story, and great prices are offered for
bits of the shiekh's clothes or clip
pings from his beard to use as external
applications in cases of neuralgia.
----su, ---
No novelist ever devised a more dra-
matte and pitiful situation than was
witnessed last week beside the track of
- T. 4