"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٠‎١‎٣] (١٧٨٢/١١٦٨)

1013
years tog-ether, and that it had only been discontinued because trade
carried on under it did not meet at Bombay with treatment so favourable
as that under a recognised flag-: the reason of discontinuance was
thus the same as that which in 1847 inclined the Bahrain Shaikh also
to seek the protection of Turkey. In 1863 there was no mention of
tribute paid by Kuwait to Turkey, but complimentary presents of dates
were sent to Kuwait by the Turks in token of their own suzerainty, and
as payment for the supposed protection by the Shaikh of the mouth of
Shatt-al-'Arab.
In 1866 trouble arose out of the possession by Shaikh Subah of
Sufiyeh, the estate on the Shatt-al-^Arab alleged to have been pur
chased by Shaikh Jabir from a member of the Zuhair family of Zubair
some 30 years earlier.* This property was now sequestrated by a
Turkish Qaim-Maqam in consequence of a claim, raised by the Zuhair,
that the vendor had been owner of a share only and not of the whole of
Sufiyeh. At the same time Shaikh Subah was required to expel from
other lands, owned by him at Fao, some cultivators who had immigrated
from Persian territory. The Turkish officials from the first showed a
strong prejudice in favour of the Zuhair claimants; and "'Abdullah-bin-
Subah, who went to Basrah as his father's agent in the case, narrowly
escaped being thrown into jail there because he refused to make payment,
on his own responsibility, of the value of seven years'" produce which the
plaintiffs were held by the Turkish authorities to be entitled to
receive. Eventually, however, the dispute was settled by the Wali of
Baghdad in favour of the Shaikh of Kuwait. The proceedings of the
Turks in this case were regarded by the inhabitants of Kuwait as in
tended to bring them into collision with those of Zubair ; but they were
prepared for a conflict; and the British Agent at Basrah, in reporting
the matter, remarked that rather than submit to a Turkish Govern
ment at Kuwait the people to a man would abandon the place." The
final order of the Wali, upholding the Kuwait Shaikh^s title to Sufiyeh,
was perhaps due to a report that Shaikh Subah, with the object of
attacking Zubair if the decision should go against him, had obtained
a promise of countenance and armed support from the Wahhabi Amir.
In 1866 Namiq Pasha, the Turkish Governor of ""Iraq, evinced
intentions of converting the nominal suzerainty of the Porte over Kuwait
into a real control; the arrival of two Turkish corvettes from Constanti
nople was looked for; and it was apprehended by Colonel Kemball, the
British Resident at Baghdad, that " the prescriptive freedom of Kuwait
* Vide page 1008 ante.
Dispute
regarding
the Sufi3'eh
estate in
Turkish
territory.
Designs of
the Turks ou
Kuwaitand
suspenaion of
the British
steamer
service, 1866.