"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎١‎١‎٦] (١٧٨٢/١٢٨٧)

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the intimidation of the SuJtau had been ordered by the Amir himself,
who regarded Saiyid Thuwaini with the utmost contempt and wished to
enhance his annual tribute from $12,000 to $40/300. In April 1865
on his return to the Persian Gulf, Colonel Felly proceeded to Masqat
where he learned that Saiyid ^Azzaa had now definitively placed himself
under the protection of the Wahhabis, and that tLe latter were demanding
an increased tribute and were threatening an invasion of 'Oman. In
these circumstances Colonel Pelly, whose name the Sultan had already
in 1804 without proper authority proposed to the Amir as that of a
mediator, wrote to his late host Faisal terdering his good offices for a
settlement; but no notice was taken by the vVahhabi of this communica
tion. In August 1865 Masqat was visited by the usual Wahhabi deputa
tion, who demanded on this occasion four times the customary annual
tribute; but, under British advice, the Sutan paid only the established
amount, and stated that, with reference to the balance, he awaited the
result or Colonel Felly's offer of mediaton. In the same month the
Wahhabi agent at Baraimi, in response to an invitation by the disaffected
Jannabah inhabitants of Sur, sent a Wahhabi contingent to that place; a
fort occupied by a garrison on behalf cf the Sultan was taken after two
days' resistance, Suq Sur was plundered, and one British Indian subject
was killed and another wounded. Saiyid Thuwaini then weakly
submitted and paid two sums, aggregiting $16,000, to the Wahhabis as
the price of peace; but the British Government, as we shall see later, did
not allow matters to remain in this position.
Relations between the V/ahhabi Amir and the British Government,
1843-65.
We have still to analyse the policy of the British Government in face
British policy
I f " 17 r J ^ W VClilULlCUlU ill J-auc
vention oq r * of . these 8 - ystematic agressions by the Wahhabis along an extensive line
the Arabian of coast: it may be described as one ot laissez faire in Trucial 'Oman,
coast, 1843.
of modified resistance in the'Oman Sultanate, and of uncompromisin-
opposition in Bahrain. During the occupation of Najd by the Egyptians,
in 1838-40, the British political representatives in the Persian Gulf had
been authorised to resist their encroachments at every point; and when
the Wahhabi Amir, having succeeded the Egyptians in Hasa, showed
himself inclined to pursue the same aggressive policy, they proposed to
counteract it by similar means. The Government of India, however,
considering the danger from the ambitions of a Faisal to be much less