"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٠‎٧‎٨] (١٧٨٢/١٢٣٣)

1078
tTnsuccessfuI
Wahhabi
attack on
Zubair and
Basrah, 1S04.
Turkish ex
pedition from
Hillah
against the
Wahhflbis,
1804-05.
Unsuccessful
Wahhabi
attacks on
Najaf, Samft-
wah and
Zubair, 1806.
sugpecied of having instigated, a force of Wah ha hi 8 plundered the
environs of Najaf ; but when the Pasha, who had now taken into his
counsels a chief named Faris of the northern Sham mar, advanced against
them, they retired without fighting.
In 1804 Wahhabi troops overran the neighbourhood of Zubair and
Basrah, but, though they captured a Shaikh of the Muntafik tribe and
by his means brought pressure to bear on his brother, who was
governor of Zubair, they were unable to make any impression upon either
place. A tower, however, covering the water supply of Zubair, was
destroyed by an accidental explosion in which the whole garrison
perished, after having successfully resisted the attempts of the Wahhabis
during several days.
In November 18U4 'AH Pasha, the ali of Baghdad, determined to
try conclusions with the Wahhabis and moved out to Hillah with an
expeditionary force; he was accompanied by 'Abdullah Pasha, by whom
the last attempt had been made in 1803 to conduct the Syrian Hajj from
Damascus to Madmah, and also by his own Arab adviser Faris. The
troops remained inactive at Hillah until early in 1805, when a
column of 400 picked men was detached, apparently to seek a combat
with the enemy in the desert ; but their operations seem to have begun
and ended with a \isit to Ain Said in the modern Qadha of Samawah,
of w Inch place the inhabitants had hitherto professed T\ r ahhabism but
now leadih submitted to the power of the Turks. A few days after
theii departure Sa ud arrived on the spot and reproached those who had
made submission to the infidel, but the people were apparently disinclined
to change sides again and even resented his threats, and a number of
the inhabitants of the district migrated towards Baghdad in order to be
out of the way of his vengeance.
In April 1806, after making a raid on the Dhafir and 'Anizah
Bedoums, 'Abdullah-bm-Sa'ud, doubtless in reprisal for the action of the
Pasha of Baghdad in the previous year, attacked Najaf and Samawah,
but without success, and in the following month he sustained a further
reverse at Zubaii. At Najaf the Wahhabis, whose presence in the
neighbourhood was not suspected, succeeded in gaining the walls by
night, hut the inhabitants of the town rushed to arms and drove them
out again with heavy loss. Samawah was found prepared; and 'Abdul-
ah. after some attempts on the place which were characterised chiefly by
indecision, was fain to retire with a still greater number of casualties
t an he had sustained at Najaf. He next appeared before Zubair and
asi and > thoil & h the surrounding country was at this time Hooded