In January 1902 the German group holding the Anatolian railway concession was granted a further concession for extending that railway from Konia, then its terminus, through the Taurus range and by way of the Euphrates, Nisibin, Mosul, the Tigris, Bagdad, Kerbela and Nejef to Basra, thus establishing railway communication between the Bosporus and the Persian Gulf.
This affair prompted the Ottoman Government to close the Darda nelles and Bosporus against all shipping, a course which caused immense loss and inconvenience to neutral Powers and produced such vigorous protest, particularly from Russia, that the straits were reopened in May.
He consented to pay an increased tribute to the Avars and allowed the Persians, who had declared war in 604 under Chosroes II., to overrun the Asiatic provinces and to penetrate to the Bosporus.
It contains a description of the southern coast of the Euxine from the Thracian Bosporus to the river Iris in Pontus.
After the victory of Nicopolis the siege of Constantinople was resumed, and the tower of Anatoli Hissar, on the Asiatic side of the Bosporus, was now built.