'Extracts from Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia by J G Lorimer CIE, Indian Civil Service' [‎43v] (91/180)

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An appeal to arms was at first threatened; but eventually Shaikh Sultan agreed,
with much reluctance, to accept an annual tribute from his son and to abstain
from direct interference in the affairs of the port. In December 1840 however.
Shaikh Salih, the ex-governor of Sharjah, and some other principal residents of
the town, disgusted at the influence which the Shaikh of Dibai had acquired over
their new Shaikh, banded themselves together to put an end to the usurpation;
this they effectually did by surprising Shaikh Saqar asleep and handing him over
a prisoner to his justly offended father. Shaikh Sultan then arranged to remove
Saqar to Ras-al-Khaimah; but the latter, on the way to his appointed place of
exile, broke his arrest and took refuge with the Shaikh of Dibai. Military move
ments followed which are described in the history of Trucial Oman A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. , and Shaikh
Sultan, after basely betraying his allies, concluded an arrangement with the Shaikh
of Dibai, and even replaced Saqar in the government of Sharjah without so much
as requiring of him a guarantee not to molest Shaikh Salih and the other loyalists
in the town of Sharjah.
Administra- Shaikh Saqar continued in charge of Sharjah until his death in battle with the
tion of Shaikh of Umm-al-Qaiwain in 1846. He appears to have been succeeded^ by
Sharjah town. 'Abdullah, another son of Shaikh Sultan, whose mother belonged to an A1 Ali
1840-55. family of Tavuneh on the Persian Coast. 'Abdullah's government was signalised
chiefly by his treacherous attempt, noticed elsewhere, to seize the fort of Ajman
in 1848;' but he continued in office until 1855, when he was killed in fighting at
Hamriyah.
Rebellion of In 1854 occurred the first of a series of rebellions by the inhabitants of
the headman Hamriyah, a township on the coast, against the authority of the Shaikh of Sharjah,
?854-55 riyah " their lawful ruler - The cause of the trouble on this occasion was a blood-feud that
arose between the Huwalah of Sharjah town and a body of the Shwaihiyin, recent
immigrants into that place, who numbered about 500 fighting men. On the
interested advice of Ahmad-as-Sadairi, the Wahhabi representative in Trucial
'Oman, Shaikh Sultan-bin-Saqar somewhat hastily transferred the Shwaihiyin to
Hamriyah; and here they immediately began to concert measures with Abdur
Rahman-bin-Saif, the headman of the village, for asserting the independence of the
place against Sharjah. When Captain Kemball, the British Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. ,
visited the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. on his annual tour in September 1854, he was approached
by Shaikh Sultan with a request for permission to coerce the people of Hamriyah
by maritime operations; but Captain Kemball, though unwilling to encourage the
rebels, persuaded the Shaikh—chiefly on the ground that, as Hamriyah was situated
between 'Ajman and Umm-al-Qaiwain, the Shaikhs of those places might be
drawn into the fray—to promise that he would postpone proceedings by sea and
not undertake them, even in the last resort, without a further reference to 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. .
Affairs at Lingeh, where his young relation Khalifah-bin-Sa'id—a minor—
was chief, obliged Shaikh Sultan after This interview to spend several months on
the Persian coast. During his absence he rashly entrusted the handling of the
Hamriyah affair to Ahmad-as-Sadairi, the Wahhabi representative. This faithless
individual, after doing his utmost under pretence of mediation to aggravate the
quarrel, attempted to introduce a Wahhabi garrison of his own into the fort of
Hamriyah; and, on the failure of this scheme, he induced Shaikh Sultan, who
had meanwhile returned home, to undertake operations by sea and land against the
refractory township. Captain Kemball, arriving off Hamriyah in the " Clive "
on the 31st of May 1855, found that the place had already been invested for 25 days,
during which period no letter on the subject from Shaikh Sultan had reached
him, though it was stated that one had been despatched. The besieging force
consisted of the Qasimi Shaikh's own levies, of the Wahhabi agent's retinue of
150 men, and of a contingent from 'Ajman upwards of 3,000 strong; and their
artillery amounted to five guns, of which two had been brought from Lingeh,
two from Sharjah by sea, and one from 'Ajman. The strength of the besieged was
about 800 fighting men only; but they enjoyed the countenance, if not the actual
support, of the Shaikhs of Dibai and Umm-al-Qaiwain, to whom the embarrass
ments of their powerful neighbour of Sharjah were generally a source of relief.
The fighting had been of an unusually obstinate character and the result highly
favourable to the besieged; for, while the assailants had lost over 60 men killed,
including 'Abdullah, the son of the Qasimi Shaikh, and double that number
wounded, the casualties of the garrison were believed not to exceed 10 men killed.
In these' circumstances Shaikh Sultan eagerly sought the good offices of the
Resident, by means of which he hoped that he might be enabled to retire without