"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٨‎٥‎٨] (١٧٨٢/١٠١٣)

858
Rapproche
ment between
the Wahhabis
and the
TJtub, 1836.
Internal
affairs of
Bahrain,
183(5-38.
committing' some irregularities at sea tor which he ieadil\ aftouled satis
faction on its being" demanded by the British political authoiities, made
his way from Qatar to Masqat with the avowed intention of obtaining
support against his father from ^aiyid Sa id. The latter, however,
instead of complying with the wishes of Ahmad, sent his own son fSaiyid
Hilal to compose the differences among the ,11 Khalifah chiefs ; and an
agreement, more fully noticed in the history of Qatar,* was arranged by
his efforts; but it was almost immediately violated by the partisans of
Shaikh 'Abdullah, who induced the Al Hu Kuwarah to attack the inhabi
tants of Huwailah,—an act for which the Shaikh refused to make any re
paration. This last affair led to the secession of J Isa-biii-Tarif, the principal
man of Huwailah, who at tirst took refuge with the Shaikh of Abu Dhabi
in Trucial 'Oman, and whose later proceedings will claim notice further on.
About the middle of the year 1886 Shaikh 'Abdullah, alarmed by
eymptoms of an intention on the part of the Government of Shiraz to
revise, possibly with support from the Saiyid of 'Oman, the Persian
claim to sovereignty over Bahrain, took steps tor a reconciliation with the
Wahhabi Amir. Faisal-bin-Turki, to whose subjects in Hasa much
inconvenience had been caused by the Bahraini blockade of the Hasa
coast, and whom the Egyptians had now begun to press hard upon his
western frontier, received the overtures favourably, and a settlement was
speedily arranged. The Shaikh undertook to pay a nominal tribute of
$2,000 a year to the Amir ; the Amir in return promised to supply troops
for the defence of Bahrain against attacks from without, and to refrain
fiom calling on the Shaikh for marine transport in case of his deciding
on an expedition against Masqat by sea ; and intercourse between
Bahrain and the ports of Qatif and 'Oqair was re -opened.
Meanwhile, however, the lot of the Shaikh's subjects in Bahrain was
growing, from day to day, less endurable ; and the islands were being
rapidly depopulated by emigration. The towns were in a state of
mm and decay, and house rents had fallen to one-eighth of what thev had
been only a few years before. Six sons of the Shaikh pretended to
exercise separate and independent power, and their attention was chief!v
devoted to extracting money from merchants and other men of means.
The ordinary subject in Bahrain had no acknowledged rights; his
domestic animals, even, were frequently seized on pretext of corvee and
were not returned. The result was a general exodus of the inhabitants
to every quarter of the Persian Gu^f.
Ftde page 794 ante