"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٣‎٧‎٨] (١٧٨٢/١٥٣٣)

1378
Turkish fleet in preventing his escape by water. The Turks hesitated
whether to assist or to disown their new vassal; and Shaikh Thamir took
refuge, for a second time, at Kuwait. The Persian Governor then
occupied Muhammareh and threatened to advance to Di'aiji; but the
attitude of the local Arabs prevented the execution of any further designs
on his part. A tardy protest and demonstration were made by the Turks
against the action of the Persians, but they were ignored, and the
Persian Governor confirmed a double appointment which he had made to
the. vacant Shaikhship of the Ka'ab.
In ! 842, on the flight of the new joint Shaikhs and the retirement of
the I eisian Governor northward to deal with difficulties which had arisen
in another part of his charge, the Turkish Governor of Basrah was
instructed by the Pasha of Baghdad to reinstate Shaikh Thamir and to call
upon the Persians to leave Muhammareh ; but Shaikh Thamir's influence
over his own tribe was now clearly lost, even his patrons the Turks had
begun to slight him, and no material action was taken on his behalf. To
the demand for the evacuation of Muhammareh the Persians seem to have
replied by claiming the whole left bank of the Shatt-al-^Arab up to
Quinah, where the Shatt-al-^Arab was at that time formed by the
junction of the Tigris and the Euphrates.
Tn the following year Shaikh Jabir, the chief of the Muhaisin and
the real ruler of Muhammareh, having heard rumours that the Erzeroum
Commission, which had lately assembled, were likely in the end to assign
the Muhammareh district to Turkey, seems to have approached the
Fi u Lish authorities with proposals as to the terms on which he might be
allowed to hold it under them. His action seems to have been prompted,
a ^ 0 i hy difficulties in which he found himself involved with the Persian
revenue authorities ; but it had no definite result.
Meanwhile Thamir, the ex-Shaikh of the Ka ; ab, had migrated from
Kuwait, his first asylum, to Basrah, and there had settled down as a
wealthy private owner of houses, lands, and gardens. In 1884, at the
suggestion of the Pasha of Baghdad and helped on his way by the British
authorities, most of whom at this time favoured the claim of Turkey
to Muhammareh, he appeared before the Commission at Erzeroum and
gave evidence before it, on the Turkish side, regarding the international
position of the Ka'ab tribe. On his return journey, however, in April
1844, the ex-Shaikh, at the instance of the British Political Agent at
Baghdftd, was detained there lest, in the still unsettled state of the fron
tier (juestion ; his reappearance at Basrah should be the signal for trouble