"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٨‎٣‎٥] (١٧٨٢/٩٩٠)

885
Ahmad at Dohah. By this visit a great addition was made to what had
before been known, g-eographically and politically, concerning Qatar.
In May 1906, Major Cox, the Political Resident in the Gulf, accom- 1906.
panied by Captain Prideaux, made a tour by sea in the R.I.M S.
"Lawrence" to Lusail, Dohah, Wakrah and Khor-al-'Odaid. At
Lusail a friendly interview with Shaikh Jasim and Nasir-bin-Mubarak,
his son-in-law, took place ; at Dohah a call was made on the Turkish
Commandant and business was discussed ^ at Wakrah, where no member of
the Al Thani family happened to be present, the party visited the headman
of the Al Bu 'Aiuain tribe and inspected the fort and wells ; at 'Odaid
the inlet was traversed for several miles in a steam-cutter, but not a single
human being- was described upon its shores. The visit to Dohah was
afterwards reported by the Turkish military authorities in Hasa to
Constantinople, with a recommendation that efforts should be made to put
down piracy in order to deprive the English of all execuse for interference
on the Qatar coast.
Relations of Qatar with Najd, 1893-1907.
We have seen that before the crisis of 1893, and especially in 1 888, Relations
friendly relations prevailed between Shaikh Jasim and the Amir of Jabal
Shammar : nor were they discontinued, apparently, until the overthrow ^^3-1896.
of Ibn-Rashid's power in Najd. In 1894 Shaikh Jasim sought an inter
view with J.bn-Rashid, which was refused for fear of the Turks ; and in
1896, as already mentioned, the Shaikh at the request of Ibn-Raslnd
caused restitution of animals raided to be made by one tribe of Qatar to
another.
When Hail declined and Riyadh obtained the ascendancy in Central
Arabia, Shaikh Jasim, in his later years a convinced Wahhabi and during s a »ud, 1905.
most ot his life a bitter enemy of the Shaikh of Abu Dhabi, had no
difficulty in adapting himself to the change and began to send money and
other gifts annually to Ibn-Sa^d; but his views in this respect were not
shared by his brother Shaikh Ahmad. A visit paid by Abdul ^Aziz, son of
the Wahhabi Amir, in the summer of 1905 to districts adjoining Qatar
brought out the divergence of opinion in the Al Thani family very clearly :
for, while Shaikh Jasim sent the Amir a letter of welcome, with $ 8,000
in cash and a present of rifles and rice, and himself visited him at the
wells of 'Araiq, Shaikh Ahmad warned him that any attempt on his
part to cross the border of Qatar would be opposed by the united, forces of
Dohah and Abu Dhabi.
62 a