"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٨‎٦‎٠] (١٧٨٢/١٠١٥)

860
I
Non-inclusion
of the Shaikh
of Bahrain in
the Maritime
Truce, 1835.
Extension
of the
Restriotive
Line to
Bahrain,
1836.
Piracies by
'AmSir and
Bani Hajir,
1837.
Maritime
war between
Bahrain and
Abu Dhabi
averted,
1838.
fche British crew, either on board the ship itself or in one of the Shaikhs
boats alongside.
When the first Maritime Trace was arranged in 1835 among the
Shaikhs of Trucial ^Oman, as related in the history of that region, the
Shaikh of Bahrain, though his position resembled theirs in that he
was a party to the General Treaty of Peace of 1820, was not invited to
become a signatory. The reason for the omission was two-fold : in the
first place it was believed that Shaikh 'Abdullah, whose conduct
in regard to the maintenance of peace at sea had hitherto been unexcep
tionable, would not allow himself to be drawn into a course contrary
to the policy of the British Government, who could easily punish him ;
and, again, it was feared that the Shaikh, if admitted to membership
of the Maritime Truce, might, in the not improbable contingency of
war between himself and the ruler of Masqat, claim the intervention
of the British Government to prevent an attack on Bahrain.
A Restrictive Line, between which and the Persian coast no naval
hostilities were in future to be permitted, was established in 1836
for Trucial 'Oman under the authority of the British Government, with
the approval of the Shaikhs but without the execution of any formal
engagement on their part. In the same year, in consequence of the dis
turbed relations which then prevailed between the ruler of Bahrain and
the people of Huwailah in Qatar, the line was prolonged—-with the
assent of Shaikh 'Abdullah, conveyed in a letter dated 26th March
1836—from the Island of Halul so as to pass 10 mi 1 es north of Ras-
Rakan, the northernmost extremity of Qatar, and theno? through the
island of Qraiyin to Ras-az-Zor, where it met the Arabian coast.
In 1837 the Amair section of the Bani Khalid and some Bani Ha]ir
who were settled at Dammam—the latter being thus, in name at least,
subjects of the Shaikh of Bahrain—took advantage of the anarchy at the
time prevailing in Hasa, as in all other parts of the Wahhabi cominions,
to inaugurate a piratical campaign against the shipping of Qati!. Some
Bahrain boats also having suffered by their depredations, Shaikh
Abdullah sought and obtained the permission of the British Goveinment
to chastise them, and was quickly successful in capturing two of their
boats ; in these operations five of the pirates were killed.
Since his departure from Huwailah in Qatar in 1835, 'Isa-bin-Tanf
and his followers, who^ belonged chiefly to the A1 Bin-'Ali and A1 Bl
Amain tribes, had resided at Abu Dhabi in Tmcial 'Oman and had
been restrained by the influence of the British Resident in the Persian
Gull from committing raids on the territories under the Bahrain chief.
In 1838 Shaikh Abdullah, who insisted that the emigrants should
return and settle in Bahrain—a condition to which they would by no