'Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government' [‎437] (479/733)

WAHABEES.
437
CONTINUATION OF THE FOREGOING, FROM
1820 TO 1831,
BY LIEUTENANT S. HENNELL.
Mr. Warden's^ account of this once powerful sect concludes by
describing their'complete overthrow in 1818, when Ibrahim Pacha
captured their capital, Deriah, by a general storm, and sent away their
chief as a prisoner to Egypt, Nothing further appears to have been heard
regarding the-Wahabees til] 1820, when a report was made to the Go
vernment that one of their chiefs, who had been taken prisoner in 1818,
had effected his escape into the Desert, and, collecting a considerable
a. d. 1820. number of Arabs together, had taken possession
of the State of Deriah. In consequence, the
Chiefs of the Beni Khalid, who had been established by Ibrahim Pacha
in Lahsa and Kateef, marched against him with a large force, and
compelled him to surrender himself and followers.
In 1822 Mahomed Ali Pacha stationed a body of 700 horse, under
a. d. 1822. 0ne of llis officers! ' in th e fort of Arrizah, and at
the same time directed them to rebuild the fort
and works of Deriah, for the purpose of being garrisoned by a Turkish
force. Shortly afterwards 100 Turkish cavalry, stationed at Riaz, were
suiprised and cut up by the Bedouins in the neighbourhoods
The Wahabees appear to have remained quiet until the beginning
a. d . 1824. 0f ,' he year 1824, when a large body of men was
collected under the command of Shaikh Toorkey
bin Abdoolla oos Saood, who proceeded against the Turkish provinces
to the westward, but was foiled in his attempt by Ahmed Pacha, the
Governor of Mecca, and forced to retreat, with considerable loss.
Nothing daunted by this repulse, the Wahabees soon after made anothec
attempt, in which they were successful.
From this period, the power and resources of this sect appear to have
giadually advanced, and shortly after, their Chief, Toorkey bin Abdoolla,
commonly known by the name of Toorkey bin Saood, opened a corre'
spondence with all the Shaikhs on the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ,
inviting them to renew the relations which had subsisted between them
prior to the overthrow of the Wahabees by Ibrahim Pacha. On the
occasion of an interview, about the end of 1825, with the British
Resident in the Gulf of Persia, Shaikh Sultan bin Suggur made a
dexterous attempt to ascertain the light in which his connection with
the now rising sect would be viewed by the British Government,
particularly with reference to the injury which might arise to the-