"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٧‎٩] (١٧٨٢/٣٢٢)

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fanatical and at the same time ag-gressive and even predatory state, which
found in pious principles a warrant for the plunder and pillage of its
neighbours, and against which those neighbours, for want of enthusiasm
and a proper military organisation, were unable effectively to contend.
Before the opening of the period now under consideration the Wahhabis
had begun, in opposite directions, to make war on the Sharif of Makkah
and to harass the Shaikh of Kuwait, and had partially conquered the
principality of Hasa, governed by the Bani Khalid, on the western side
of the Persian Gulf. An expedition despatched against them in 1798
by the Pasha of Baghdad, whose frontier towards the Arabian desert had
already for some time been exposed to their ravages, reached the Hasa
Oasis; but it was unable to expel the Wahhabi garrisons there, or to
proceed any further on its way to the Wahhabi capital of Dara'Iyah,
The Turkish commander, in his retirement upon Turkish ^Iraq, was
beset by a large Wahhabi force and concluded a six years' truce with
the son of the Amir: it was afterwards ratified by the Pasha of
Baghdad but it was not respected by the "Wahhabis In 1800 the capture
of the port of Qatif completed the conquest of Hasa by the Wahhabis
and brought them down to the shores of the Persian Gulf; in the same
year they occupied the oasis of Baraimi, from which they commenced to
threaten both the Pirate Coast and the ; Oman Sultanate; and by 1803
they had established their supremacy over the whole Arabian coast of the
Persian Gulf, including Bahrain, between Kuwait and the 'Oman Sultanate,
on neither of which last, however, they had as yet made any serious
impression. In 1801 the outlying town of Karbala in Turkish 'Iraq
was surprised and sacked in a few hours, with its sacred Shi ; ah shrine of
Husain, by a Wahhabi host, who at the same time perpetrated a frightful
massacre of the unarmed inhabitants ; and the incident was of some general
importance, for it provoked deep indignation in Persia against the Pasha
of Baghdad for his want of vigilance. In 1802, by way of reprisals,
a second expedition against the Wahhabis in their own territories was
organised by the Pasha of Baghdad; but, like the first, it ended abor
tively. Meanwhile, in 1801-02, the Wahhabis, whose energy at this
time was equal to the most distant, diverse, and extraordinary enter
prises, had possessed themselves of Makkah ; in 1804 Madinah also
submitted to their yoke; and they then proceeded to subjugate other
parts of the province of Yaman. Around, upon the circumference of
the Wahhabi empire thus extended, perpetual terror reigned; and the
rulers of Turkish Iraq, Kuwait and 'Oman no longer knew a moment's
repose.
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