"تقرير الإدارة عن المقيمية السياسية في الخليج الفارسي للأعوام ١٩١٥-١٩١٩" [و‎‎٧‎٨] (٣٩٦/١٦٢)

TOR THE TEAR 1916.
11
common task of expelling the Turks from Arabia As to Ibu Saud's own
position he need have no misgivings for he had been acknowledged by us to
be an independent ruler, and the Sharif must recognize the full import of the
treaty. The British Government has no reason to believe that he entertained
any hostile intentions against the tribes and territories of Najd.
In the negotiation over the tieaty, in December 1915, Sir Percy Cox
had discussed with Ibn Saud the possibility of his giving us assistance against
Ibn Rashid The Hakim of jSajd then thought that Ibn Rash id would either
come in or maintain a strict neutrality. If, however, he showed himself actively
hostile, Ibn Saud wou'd attack him and incite the northern 'Anazah against
him. This intention, however, he failed to carry out. During the spring and
summer of 1916 he was occupied with a rebellion of the Murrah, following
on, and perhaps connected with, that of the Ajman, which endangered his
communications with the Hassa. Though a large proportion of the fighting
men of the Sbammar had gone north with Ibn Rashid against the Iraq, no
effective attack was made onlJailm their absence. In late June or early
July, Ibn Saud's son, Tarki, raided Jabal Shammar, and the news may
have hastened Ibn Rashid's retreat from our frontiers. In September or
October Turki renewed hortilities against some of the Shammar Shaikhs and
an allied section of the Harb, but the affair resulted only in the capture of
a small amount of booty, and Ibn Saud's doctor, passing through Bahrain,
brought a message to the effect that the Amir could do nothing against the
Shammar as long as the fugitive Ajman remained on his flank. The true
reason for his inactivity was no doubt his ow n insecurity at home, but the
implacable hostility which he entertained towards the Ajman, whom he re
garded not only as rebels but as the murderers of his brother Saud, threatened
to become a problem of some difficulty.
When Shaikh Mubarak died, in December 1915, Ibn Saud pressed his son
and successor in Kuwait, Jabir, to drive out the Ajman Shaikhs.
Jabir made a temperate repiy. He was unwilling to eject the Aiman,
fearing that they wculd be thrown into the enemy camp; but he could
not hold out against Ibn Saud's insistance without creating an open
breach and he expelled the tribe in February 1916. As he anticipated,
they turned for protection first to Ajaim and then to Ibn Rashid, but in
May they asked and obtained permission from the Shaikh of Zubair to settle
quietly near Saf wan and, subsequently, several of the leading Shaikhs made
submission to us W hen Xbn Rashid turned to Hail only two of tlie Ajman
Shaikhs remained with Ajaimi and they had little or no following. Ibn
Saud's ardent desire'to direct his energies upon the extermination of this tribe
was net one with which we had any sympathy, at all events at ihe present
juncture.
Shaikh Jabir, new r to his office, could not hope to exercise the influence
over Ibn Saud which had been possessed by that practised and weighty dip*
lomatist his father : moreover, for some years before A! ubarak s death, lelations
between Riyadh and Kuwait had been growing cooler. Ibn baud bitteily
resented Mubarak's attitude during the negotiations betw T eea himself and the
Ottoman Government in the spring of 1914. According to his account the
Shaikh had at first counselled him to accept the Turkish olfeis, but when he
reached Kuwait, in April, Mubarak changed his note, w T ithout explanation, and
advised Ibn Saud not to come to terms with the Turks, refusing at the same
time to be present at his meeting with the delegates. So indignant w T as the
Amir that he expressly stipulated with Captain Shakespear that Mubarak
should not be consulted in the negotiations W'th ourselves. ihe asylum
given to the Aiman was another grievanee, and in 1916 Ibn Saud complained
of the incidence of the transit dues w hich
Arab Fureau, 8th April 1916. from time immemorial, levied
in Kuwait.
While Ibn Saud's anxiety as to the ambitions of the Sharif and his growing
estrangement with Kuwait showed that the chiefs allied with ourselves bad not
reached a satisfactory understanding w ith each other, there was evidence that the
Turks w ere still active in Arabia. News was received from Ibn Saud and fioni
other sou ices of the despatch of an Agent (Muhammad) Taufiq Ibn Faraun of