"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٨‎٠] (١٧٨٢/٣٢٣)

Outbreak of
piracy in the
lower Persian
Gulf, 1798-
1805.
180
There were also dissensions and difficulties among the principal states
of the Gulf, notwithstanding the fact that the territorial integrity
and even the independence, of most of them except Persia were threatened
by the progress of the Wahhabis. In 1798 there was tension between
the Saiyid of 'Oman and the Pasha of Baghdad, arising out of a
pecuniary claim by the former against the latter, and the Saiyid made
preparations for blockading Basrah ; but a settlement was in the end
reached by mutual agreement without the assistance of the British
Resident at Basrah, whose good offices were at first invoked by the
Turks. In 1799 the Saiyid of Oman, encouraged by the Persian
Governor of Fars, made an attack upon the shipping of Bahrain, which
Shaikhdom he was ambitious of subjecting to his own authority : but
the ruler of Bahrain was induced by the Shaikh to Bushehr to place him
self under the protection of Persia. Saiyid Sultan then proceeded to
indemnify himself for the deception practised on him by the Persians by
occupying Kharag Island, which belonged to Persia and was generally
held by the Shaikh of Bushehr as a part of his government ,• and he
contrived to retain possession of it until the next year. In 1800-01
the ruler of Oman successfully seized, and for a time administered,
the Bahrain Islands; and in 1802, having been dislodged, he again
managed to establish himself in possession ; but he ultimately failed to
make good his footing, and on his departure the Shaikhdom came under
the domination of the Wahhabis. At the end of 1804, on the death
of Saiyid Sultan of Masqat, the Persian port of Bandar 'Abbas and its
dependencies, which he held on lease from the Persian Government, were
seized by the Bani Ma'in, an Arab tribe but Persian subjects; and
another dispute, dangerous to the peace of the Gulf, thus came into
being.
It was in these circumstances of disturbance and confusion that Arab
pirates, who may hitherto have been employing themselves quietly in
harrying native shipping, were emboldened to turn their attention to
British vessels and so became conspicuous. The seizure of the
Bassein " and the unprovoked attack on the " Viper " by the Qawasim
i 1797, already referred to, were premonitory symptoms of trouble;
and it cannot but be supposed that the negligence with which both
cases were treated by the British authorities encouraged the commission
ot fuither offences. The next instances of lawlessness were not precisely
piratical; they consisted in the plunder, in 1803, of the British ships
Hector and Alert which had gone ashore on the Persian Coast,
by the Arab Shaikh of Nakhilu and his subjects; and in these partial