'Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government' [‎384] (426/733)

384
UTTOOBEES.
of Kateef, producing annually from its date groves, and the usual taxes,
an income of 30,000 dollars.
The vicious and oppressive conduct of the sons of Abdoolla bin
Ahmed, added to the death on the 31st May 1834 of Shaikh Khaleefa
bin Soliman (nephew and colleague of Abdoolla bin Ahmed), whose
authority upon the island of Bahrein had been little inferior to that of his
uncle, which relieved his turbulent and refractory brothers and sons of
all control, promised eventually to prove a fertile source of anarchy and
confusion.
A party of the Amayir Tribe (before mentioned as having joined the
Shaikh of Bahrein) under the command of one Mooshrif, now made an
attempt to recover their possessions at Lahsa and Kateef, but met
by Omer bin Oofeysan, the Wahabee governor of the former town, were
defeated with great loss, and compelled to retreat under the guns of
Tirhoot, now held by the Bahrein Chief.
Upon the ejection of Abdoolla bin Moosharee, and the failure of the
attempt thereon made by the Wahabees to recover
Tirhoot, Shaikh Abdoolla bin Ahmed resumed
the strict blockade of Kateef and Ajeer, and commenced plundering the
boats belonging to those places.
While the war was being thus carried on with varied success, neither
party gaining any material advantage, the attention of Abdoolla bin
Ahmed was called to the internal dissensions in his own family, and
among his relatives, which, owing to his own misrule, partiality, and
leniency, began to wear a most serious aspect. The Chiefs of Huailah,
until lately dependent upon his authority, now not only opposed him,
but entered into communications of a tendency inimical to his interests
with the Imaum and the Wahabee Chief. They were, moreover, joined
by one of the sons of the old Shaikh, who, obtaining the aid of several
hundred Wahabees, set the power of the father at defiance, and captured
.several boats belonging to Bahrein, within a short distance of that island.
Another son, Ahmed, made his escape from the Coast of Guttur, and
proceeded to Muskat, for the avowed purpose of soliciting His High
ness the Imaum to espouse his cause, and to supply his party with
ammunition and warlike stores. Some seizures having been made at
sea by Ahmed, the circumstances were brought to the notice of the
British authorities, who called upon him to make restitution,—a demand
with which he did not hesitate compliance. His Highness the Imaum
not only declined taking any part in the dispute so unhappily existing
between the Shaikh of Bahrein and the members of his family, but sent
his son Syud Hillal in one of his frigates to mediate between the
contending parties, Syud Hillal's efforts, however, to effect a reconci
liation, were nullified by the proceedings of the nephews and partisans