"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٨‎١‎٦] (١٧٨٢/٩٧١)

816
Claim of
the Shaikh
of Bahrain
to sovereign
ty in Qatar
disallowed by
the Govern
ment of
India, 1875.
Evacuation
of Znbarah
by the Shaikh
of Bahmin,
1875.
Matters at
Zubarah,
1876-77.
the decision reached in the previous year, the Shaikh should have been
dissuaded from sending men to Zubarah and should have been encouraged
to depend altogether upon the British Government for the defence of
his islands. It subsequently transpired that an absurdly inaccurate
account of the whole affair had been telegraphed to the Porte by
their Wali at Baghdad, representing the Na'im of Zubarah as a tribe in
rebellion against the rightful authority of the Turkish Government
whom the Bani Hajir had been employed to coerce, but who had escaped
punishment through improper interference by the Shaikh of Bahrain.
The dangers which threatened Bahrain from the side of Qatar were
shown by the Resident to be chiefly due to the uncertainty whether the
coast, on the side towards Bahrain, was or was not under the authority
of the Porte.
The Shaikh of Bahrain, though he had intimated his readiness
to be guided by the advice of the British Government, once more
in April 1875 put forth a claim to sovereignty over the whole of Qatar,
which he asserted to be subject and tributary to Bahrain. On the fact
being reported to them, the Government of India observed with regret the
continued disposition of the Shaikh to entangle himself in the affairs
of the continent and ordered that he should be made to understand that,
if he persisted in a course opposed to their advice and thereby became
involved in complications upon the mainland, the consequences would be
upon himself, and they would hold themselves free to take such measures
with respect to him as they might think necessary. The purport of
this letter was communicated to Shaikh 'Isa bv Lieutenant Fraser, the
Assistant Resident, in person ; and the Shaikh, while denying: that his
i • ' v O
lights in Qatar had become invalid or extinct, stated that he bowed to
the orders of Government.
The Shaikh afterwards made a request through his brother that he
might be allowed to postpone the withdrawal of his men from Zubarah
until the end of the pearl season ; but it was not granted. In the
neighbourhood of Zubarah, except for a few raids and counter-raids by
the Bani Hajir and Na'im upon each other's cattle, matters remained
airly quiet ; but in the pearl season some of the Beni Hajir put to sea
to commit piracy,—a proceeding which led, as mentioned in the history
of Bahrain, to excessive action by the Shaikh in very distant waters.
In 1876 the Bani Hajir tribe was temporarily split into two fac
tions, one of which connected itself with Nasir-bin-Mubarak, the
Bahrain outlaw, and the other with the Na^m of Zubarah. The precau
tion was taken of again warning the Shaikh cf Bahrain to refrain from