"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٧‎٩‎٩] (١٧٨٢/٩٥٤)

799
the distressed vessel ; and, as in tlie end they substantiated this story
by an oath of divorce taken in the presence of a Qadhi, the compen
sation monev, which had been recovered from them^ was returned.
Soon after this the promontory of Qatar began to figure, as a scene Affam^in^
of operations, in the struggle between Abdullah-bin-Ahmad and civil war
Muhammad-bin-Khalifah, the rival Shaikhs of Bahrain, of which .the
general course is described in the history of that principality, On the
first occurrence of a breach between the chiefs'iu 1840, Shaikh Muham
mad, the junior of the two, retired to Qatar and established an influence
which was for a time superior to his grand-uncle's in that part of the
Bahrain Shaikhdom. In 1842, however, when Khalid, the ex-Amir of
the Wahhabis, visited Shaikh 'Abdullah from Dammam, he was received at
Khor Hassan in Qatar where the old chief was then residing. Shaikh
Muhammad having in the meanwhile returned to Bahrain; and a little
later on actual hostilities breaking out between the lelativeSj the first
act of Shaikh Abdullah was to recross the straits and land in Bahrain,
whence in the month of June he succeeded in expelling Shaikh Muham
mad. The people of Khor Hassan in Qatar must apparently have sided
with Shaikh Muhammad, for the victor immediately gave up that village
to partial plunder ; and it was perhaps for the purpose of combating the
influence of Shaikh Muhammad, which seems to have been generally
strong upon the mainland, that Shaikh Abdullah soon after made
arrangements to re-occupy the deserted site of Zubarah. Shaikh Muham
mad, however, who had landed in Qatar on his expulsion from Bahrain
in 1842, anticipated his grand-uncle by seizing the fort of Murair near
Zubarah; and not long afterwards he obtained possession of Fuwairat,
and assumed the offensive by launching from that place an expedition,
ultimatelv successful, against the Bahrain islands. In April 184-3, im
mediately after the capture of Muharraq, a Qatari contingent by whom
Shaikh Muhammad was assisted were suddenly recalled to Qatar by an
attack of the Manasir upon their homes ; but their departure caused no
inconvenience to Shaikh Muhammad, whose position in Bahrain was
by that time firmly established.
In the autumn of 1843 'Isa-bin-Tarif, the Al Bin-Ali ally of Shaikh Affairs in
Muhammad, transferred his abode from Qais Island to Dohah in Qatai ; continu-'
the change was welcome to the British authorities both because it brought an^cHbe
that warlike character to the side of the Restrictive Line on which, in t we p]j
certain circumstances, he could be permitted to indulge his tastes, and Shaikh and
because at the eame time it took Dohah out of the hands of a headman Shaikh of
of the Sudan tribe who was more addicted to piracy than to regular war.