"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٢‎٤‎٨] (١٧٨٢/١٤٠٣)

lULiunumn] ■Jium.imma 1
pist ■
March 1775.
1248
the position of the British must necessarily he one of neutrality, and
that the British cruisers had been kept at Basrah only for the sake of
embarking the Company's goods in case of need.
Two days later, on the loth of January 1775, news reached the
British Agency at Basrah, via Bushehr, that a Persian army of 50,000
men had actually left Shiraz under the command of Sadiq (popularly
known as Sadu) Khan, a brother of the Vakil, to attack Basrah The
ostensible ground on which Karim Khan thus at length opened the
campaign was the ill-treatment of Persian pilgrims in Turkish'Iraq
when visiting the sacred shrines of Shi'ahdom ; and it appears that more
than one demand for satisfaction * or amendment had, in fact been
addressed by him to the Turks, and neglected by them, before the
final rupture. There is reason, however, as subsequent indications will
show, for holding that the conduct of the East India CompanVs
representatives at Basrah in diverting foreign trade from Persia to
Turkish 'Iraq had at least contributed to bring matters to an extremity.
The annoyance caused at Basrah by prowling Ka'ab meanwhile
continued and even increased ; and on the night between the 25th and
the .6th of January 1775 a gang of 300 men of that tribe entered the
town by scaling the walls, broke open a number of shops in the
prmcxpal bazaar, and retired unpunished with a large booty of fine
India cloth.
Nothing further happened until the 6th of March, when the
unsettled state of the country was exemplified in an attack
committed by a body of armed men on three British officers from the
ompany's cruisers, who had gone to shoot on the left bank of the
river about four miles below Basrah; the officers were dangerously
wounded, stripped, and left for dead; their boat 's-orew were cruelly
beaten and stripped; and the boat itself was taken away. After dark the
victims of this outrage were able to follow the bank of the river to a
point opposite their ships, which they hailed, and were taken on board;
u the condition of one of the officers, whose lung had been penetrated
bj a spear, appeared to be desperate.
On the morning of the 10th of March, news reached Basrah of the
appearance of the advance guard and main body of the Persian army,
amounting to some 30,000 horse and foot, at the mouth of the Snwaib
tnhutaiy o the Shatt-al-'Arab, upon the left bank of the main river
about 3o miles above Basrah; the rear, with which were the artilleiy
head of th. I .aha of liaghdad and the abolition oi a tar on Persian pilgrim,.