'Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government' [‎57] (99/733)

8
57
ARAB TRIBES.
those petty rulers, we involved ourselves in hostilities with the Khan,
who iLed orders for the seizure of all English ships wh,eh lus fleets
might fall in with. A good understanding with the Perstan Govern
ment was in some measure restored on the re-estahhshment of the
Factory An East India Company trading post. of Bushire in 1776. * -\nnA
The Muskat fleet, of which we hear nothing from 1736 to 17 01 ,
made its appearance in the latter year, to co-operate m the defence o
Bussora, the reduction of which Kureem Khan was contemplating, and
effected ; one of the pretexts for which was stated to be the aid wine i
the Pacha of Bagdad had granted the Imaum of Muskat, which pie-
vented the Persians from subduing the province of Oman.
Bussora was abandoned by the Persians on the death of Km eei
Khan, in a. d . 1779, and re-occupied by the Turks. The trou cs a
ensued in the interior of Persia on that event left the Gul uncontrolled.
The decline of the Persian influence may be dated from that period, is
maintenance depended exclusively on the attachment and fidelity of its
tributaries. The contests for superiority which arose between le
different petty States involved the whole Gulf in a state of hosti i y.
The fleet of the Shaikh of Julfar (Ras-ool -Khyma), who was at this
period at war with the Imaum of Muskat, being continually on the
cruise, roused every petty chief to equip armed boats, manned by a
lawless crew, who received no pay, but depended so e y on p ,
which they committed on each other. The Uttoobee Arabs, am ltl °" s
of sharing in the spoils, conquered Bahrein from the Persians, the
possession of which, supported by their allies, they have since main
tained, with unimportant intermissions, against repeated efforts on e
part of the Persians, assisted by the Joasmees, and of the Imaum ot
Muskat, for its recovery and reduction. „ . ^ , f
We now come to an important era in the history of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ,—
the rise of the Wahabee power, of which mention is first made in t ic
Bombay Records in 1787. The Persian and Turkish Governments were
at this period in an unsettled state, and but ill calculated to oppose the
progressive ascendancy of that sect. ^ rtrir y
During the whole of this period, and even up to the year 1797, the
molestation which the British trade experienced in the reign of Kureem
Khan may be attributed to that interference which the Government
exercised in the disputes between the petty States in the Gull,
whenever we preserved a strict neutrality, we derived cvciy^ ac \an a & e
from the observance of that policy. To piratical depredations it was
not at all exposed, nor can piracy be said to have been systematically
prosecuted by any of the powers up to 1797, except by the Muskat
Arabs during the period of their ascendancy. r i\t i ♦
The enterprising character of Syud Sultan, the Imaum of Muskat,