'Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government' [‎449] (491/733)

WAHABEES.
449
under surveillance to Riaz, A movement by Khalid into the districts,
attended by the Egyptian cavalry, for the purpose of confirming his
authority, and receiving the allegiance of the various unsettled tribes,
indicated an intention on the part of his allies to evacuate Nnjd, and
their desire, by putting him forward in a more prominent position of
outward authority than he had hitherto enjoyed, to check the growing
disaffections previous to his being left at the head of affairs.
Just as the blockade of Kateef, Sohat, and Ajeer, held by the Egyp
tian troops, began seriously to be contemplated by the British Govern
ment, intelligence was received (May 1840) that Lahsa had been
evacuated, and that the main body of the Egyptian troops had actually
left Nujd; which being corroborated by the declaration shortly before
made by Mahomed Ali Pacha, the Egyptian ruler, to Her Majesty's
Consul General at Cairo, and subsequently in a measure confirmed by
the despatch of a vessel to those ports, which were now found to be in
the hands of Arabs, adherents of Ameer Khalid, although the Egyptian
Agent still continued to exercise the actual authority and control, rendered
the adoption of this measure unnecessary. The grossly oppressive and
extortionate conduct of the Pacha and his Agent further afforded a
plausible reason for the belief that the Egyptians no longer contem
plated the permanent occupation of Central Arabia,
As a sacrifice to the memory of his deputy, Mahomed Effendi, who
was shot while Governor of Lahsa, Korshid Pacha's last act, previous
to his departure, was to put to death Burgeish, the Chief of the Ali
Humeed. It was evidently intended, that on Nujd being made over to
the charge of Ameer Khalid, that chief should nevertheless continue to
act under the authority of the Egyptian Agent whom it was intended
to establish at Medina, a post whence he could exercise a general super
intendence over the country of the Hujeeb Arabs and Central Arabia ;
but the moral influence of the usurper among the various tribes, which
under the most favourable circumstances had ever been very trifling,
was now entirely lost: despised, disliked, and deprived of the support
of his patrons, he had very shortly his hands fully occupied with the
intrigues which were set on foot to dispossess him of his illegal power.
At the period of the evacuation of Lahsa and Ajeer, one Mooshrif
arrived at Bahrein,^ despatched probably by the inhabitants of those
places, to invite Shaikh Mahomed bin Khaleefa (the grandson of Soley-
man, the brother of Abdoolla bin Ahmed) to come over and claim those
districts, when they would throw off their allegiance to Ameer Khalid.
The spirit of disaffection now developing itself in Central Arabia was
a. d. 1841. in no slight degree promoted and encouraged by
the current report of Ameer Fysul having effect-
yed his liberation from Cairo, and commenced his journey to Medina,