There is no need to explain the productive capacity of the land in the provinces of Syria and Iraq, and the capacity of the Asi and Euphrates [rivers] to irrigate the land and transport its produce. Further, as the plains of these regions are broad, and their mountainous areas are small, there is no question that roads, passages and land drainage will cost less than in the Balkan provinces. Yet the Ottoman state cannot draw any benefit from the few million Bedouins who wander about the extensive and fertile plains between the lands of Damascus and Aleppo and Iraq, and to the eastward towards Jabal Shammar and the Najd border; on the contrary, there is seen much harm from their attacks on settled areas. Why not draw benefit from them, and why suffer harm? Has this matter ever been put on the agenda and discussed with attention and care? In your humble servant's opinion, no idea has ever circulated in central government, other than the forcible repression and devastation of the Arabs. And they [the Arabs] have never been viewed as potential friends ... The Arabs are not savage, but they fear and hate us.

(Abdüllatif Suphi Pava to Sultan Abdülaziz, 1864)