"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎١‎٥‎٣] (١٧٨٢/١٣٠٨)

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Meanwhile Mat'ab, the son and successor of the deceased Wahhabi
Amir, maintained a correspondence with the Shaikh of Kuwait, whom he
begged to proceed with the negotiations begun on his father's behalf ;
and the influence of Shaikh Mubarak apparently continued to be exerted
in favour of a settlement. In July peace was arranged in Qasim ; and
hostilities ceased; but a Wahhabi messenger, sent by Ibn-Sa'ud to
apprise the Shaikh of Kuwait of the circumstance, was murdered on his
way in the desert by a Shammar tribesman, either in revenge for the
death of the Amir 'Abdul 'Aziz or because the murderer was not aware
that peace had been made. It is not clear that the Wahhabi Amir
himself ever, during the whole of these proceedings, quitted his capital of
Riyadh.
W e may now enquire in what light the recent proceedings of Ibn-
Sa'ud, exhibiting as they did complete disregard and even contempt
for Ottoman authority in Central Arabia, were regarded by the Turkish
Government. A deputation sent by the Wahhabi Amir met, as we have
already seen, with a not unfavourable reception at Basrah ; but the
sympathies of the Porte naturally lay with the family of Rashid, who had
for some time professed allegiance to the Sultan of Turkey, and by whose
downfall, consequently, Turkish prestige inNajd could not but be lowered.
The Wali of Basrah attributed the disastrous end of Ibn-Rashid to the
intervention of the Shaikh of Kuwait, in the guise of a peacemaker,
between the parties ; but the Porte were inclined to suspect that there had
been undue interference by the military in the work of the civil
officials,—in other words that the commanders of the Turkish army of
occupation had been attempting to exercise too much authority over the
indigenous chiefs.
Before the end of April a telegram was received at Basrah from the
Sultan's Secretary, directing that Mat'ab, the new Amir, should be
informed of the regret of the Sultan at the death of 'Abdul 'Aziz, of the
intention of the Porte to punish the late Amir's murderers, of Mat'ab's
own confirmation as his father's successor, and of the continuance in his
favour of his father's salary and allowances. The subsidy of Ibn-Rashid
from the Turks at this time was reported to amount to £T200 a month
and 200 Taghars of rice per annum, while that received by Ibn-Sa'ud was
£T90 a month ; the former was disbursed from Baghdad through Karbala,
and the latter from Basrah through Kuwait.
At the beginning of July, Sami Pasha, who had been appointed
military commandant and civil Mutasarrif of Najd about a year previously
but had contrived until now to defer his actual departure, left Madinah
83
Peace declared
between Ibn-
Sa 'ud andlbn-
Bashid, July
1.906,
Attitude and
action of the
Turks with
reference to
the successes
of Ibn-Sa'ud,
July to Sept»
ember 1906.