'Extracts from Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia by J G Lorimer CIE, Indian Civil Service' [‎28r] (60/180)

45
greatly protracted the case, and at the time of the conclusion of the Perpetual
Treaty of Peace in 1853 is was still unsettled. The Qasimi Shaikh at first sought
to evade responsibility on the plea that the entire crew of the pirate boat were
natives of Qasbiyat in Batinah, and therefore subjects of Masqat; but in the end
he seems to have agreed to pay whatever compensation might be assessed. Like
wise in the spring of 1852, a boat, belonging to Bani Yas seceders established at
Dohah in Qatar but carrying passengers for Dibai, was seized off Abu Dhabi town,
and then and there appropriated with all that she contained. This affair being
regarded not as a legitimate act of sovereignty over rebellious subjects but as an
infraction of the Maritime Truce, the Shaikh of Abu Dhabi was immediately called
to account; and, though he had in the beginning professed to act under an
authorisation by the Wahhabi Amir to coerce the dissident Bani Yas by confiscating
their boats, he found no difficulty in accommodating himself to the Resident's
demands, made known to him through Commodore Robinson.
The Native Agent Non-British agents affiliated with the British Government. established at Sharjah m 1823 was now, apparently, the
medium of all ordinary communications between the Resident and the Trucial
Shaikhs.
The incumbent during a considerable part of the formative period now under
consideration, when the personal character of the functionary must have been a
matter of great importance, was one Mulla Husain. The relations of Mulla Husain
with Shaikh Salih, a brother of Shaikh Sultan-bin-Saqar, who acted as Deputy-
Governor of the town of Sharjah until 1838 when he was superseded, were
extremely cordial; and the removal of Salih was accordingly regarded by the
British authorities with some dissatisfaction.
In 1852 the relations between the Sharjah Shaikh and the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. Agent,
then Haji Ya'qub, to whom insults followed by reparation were twice offered,
became exceedingly strained: this state of matters was partly due to revelations
made by the Agent in connection with the slave trade, and it was aggravated by
an order of the Court of Directors The London-based directors of the East India Company who dealt with the daily conduct of the Company's affairs. , that compensation payable to persons under
Sharjah jurisdiction should not in future be handed to the Shaikh for disbursement.
The order in question, which was issued in contrariety to the advice of the Resident,
seemed to furnish a clue to a charge of misappropriating money which, among
others, the Shaikh levelled at the Agent.
The article in the General Treaty of Peace referring to the slave trade, on which
Government in 1823 had placed a somewhat restricted interpretation, was expanded
during the period now in question by three separate treaties concluded with the
Trucial Shaikhs. . . , ^ • A i
The first of these, signed in 1838, conferred on British Government cruisers the
ri^ht to detain and search, anywhere at sea, vessels belonging to the ports ol the
signatories which might be suspected of carrying off or embarking slaves, also
the further riaht of seizing and confiscating such vessels in event of suspicion
found correct. It does not appear that the Shaikh of Umm-al-Qaiwain subscribed
this agreement. .. . , r i u
The second treaty, that of 1839, conceded similar rights of detention and search
over a part of the Indian Ocean in regard to vessels suspected of being engaged
in the slave trade, and authorised the confiscation of the same with their cargoes
should they be found carrying slaves. This treaty contained an expiess declaration
that Somalis were " Hurr " or free and therefore not liable to enslavement, and it
made the sale of Somalis punishable. It is not clear that this treaty was formally
accepted by the Shaikh of 'Ajman. ,, i -r • i cu *i Uo
The third and last treaty, dated 1847 and signed by all the Trucial Shaikhs,
prohibited the exportation of slaves from the coasts of Africa and elsewhere on
board vessels belonging to the signatories or their subjects or dependents, ana it
conferred on British warships the power to detain and search suspected vessels
anywhere at sea, and to seize and confiscate the same on proof of the prohibi.ion
having been violated by their means. .u ^ ^ u
From the wording of these engagements it would appear that they bore no
special reference to the slave trade in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , but were rather adjuncts to
larger schemes for the suppression of the trailic on the coast of Alnca.
The Sharjah
Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. .
Treaties
for the
suppression
of the
slave-trade,
1838, 1839
and 1847.
Connection of the Egyptians and the Wahhabis with Trucial 'Oman 1835 53.
The external relations of the Trucial Shaikhs during the period that we have
now reached, other than those which they had with the British Government, were
48533 H 2
*