'Extracts from Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia by J G Lorimer CIE, Indian Civil Service' [‎40v] (85/180)

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of the inhabitants of the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. . The Persian Government, in consenting
to remove the evidences of their usurpation, had stipulated that the ownership
of the islands should be discussed at leisure between themselves and the British
Government; but as mentioned in the history of the Persian Coast they failed to
convince the British Government of the existence of Persian rights; indeed they
did not seriously attempt to do so. Here it only remains to add that the Persians
subsequently complained of the erection by the Shaikh of Sharjah of new buildings
on Tunb, but that the complaint—in itself inadmissible as maintenance of the
status quo formed no part of the mutual understanding—was proved by local
investigation, and by the visits of British officers to Tunb in 1904 and 1905, to be
groundless.
Relations of Trucial 'Oman with the Wahhabi power, 1892-1907.
Designs of
Ibn-Sa'ud
on Trucial
'Oman. 1905.
Behaviour of
the Trucial
Shaikhs.
Attitude of
the British
Government.
Correspondence between Trucial 'Oman and Central Arabia had not at any
time entirely ceased; and in 1902 it was reported that the Shaikh of Abu Dhabi
had sent a present of camels to Ibn-Sa'ud, the Wahhabi ruler, and had received
four horses in return.
In September 1905, Wahhabi supremacy having meanwhile been re -established
in Najd, where for some years it had been in abeyance, 'Abdul 'Aziz, the son of
Ibn-Sa'ud, addressed letters to all the Trucial Shaikhs informing them of his arrival
in Qatar and of a reconciliation which he had effected among the Bedouin tribes
ot the A1 Morrah, Bani Hajir and 'Ajman; he added that he hoped to visit Trucial
'Oman in the spring of 1906.
These communications were received with dismay by the Hinawi Shaikhs of
Abu Dhabi and Dibai, who foresaw a great diminution to their own prestige as a
result oi the intrusion of the Wahhabis, and with corresponding relationCsic] by the
othei or Ghafiri Shaikhs, who were longing for deliverance from the twenty years'
hegemony of Abu Dhabi. A correspondence was at once opened between the
Abu Dhabi Shaikh and his lellow Hinawi and ally, the Sultan of Oman, against
whose authority the advent of the Wahhabis would dispose his Ghafiri'subjects
to rise, indeed the Shaikh of Dhabi considered the matter of sufficient importance
to warrant a visit by himself to Masqat in November 1905.
A caution against engaging in intrigues with the Wahhabis was at once
addressed to all the Trucial Shaikhs by Major P. Z. Cox, the British Political
Resident, who happened to be passing through the country on a journey to
Baraimi; and later it was repeated under the authority of the Government of
India. The matter was then brought unofficially to the notice of Shaikh Mubarak
of Kuwait through Captain Knox, the British Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. at that place, a hint
being at the same time thrown out that the British Government would view with
disapprobation any interference by the Wahhabis in Trucial 'Oman. Shaikh
Mubarak, who at first explained the proceedings of Ibn-Sa'ud as a mere device
to extort blackmail, and who professed to have remonstrated with him on the
subject, afterwards stated that Ibn-Sa'ud had written disclaiming all unfriendly
intentions towards the British Government and regretting any harm that might
have been caused by careless remarks on his own part. Since then nothing more
has been heard of Wahhabi designs in Trucial 'Oman.
Relations of Trucial 'Oman with the Sultanate of 'Oman, 1892-1907.
constant friendl y intercourse was maintained between the Shaikh of Abu
Dhabi and the Sultan of Oman, culminating, as we have seen, in 1905 in mutual
consultations regarding the Wahhabi danger
1892-95. In September 1892 the Shaikh ot Dibai made a journey to Masqat; and
towards the end of 1895 his successor and a son of the Shaikh of Abu Dhabi
visited that place, but the object ol their excursion could not be ascertained.
1904. In July 1904 Khalifah and Sultan, two sons of Shaikh Zaid of Abu Dhabi,
were received with much honour at Masqat; were dismissed, after a prolonged
visit, with costly presents; and were conveyed as far as Sohar on their return
iourney by the Sultan's yacht " Nur-al-Bahr