File 3939/1926 Pt 6 'Revision of Aitchison's Treaties. Persian Gulf Section.' [‎620r] (675/818)

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PERSIAN GULF—2i«A rein.
1
smd destroyed» and, with the exception of Nasir bin Mubarak, who es
caped to the mainland, all the leading marauders, including Muhammad
bin Khaliia and Muhammad bin Abdulla, were captured, and bisa bin
Ali bin Khalifa, a son of the late Chief, was installed as Chief, on the
(Understanding that the property of the pirate leaders would be con
sidered as forfeited and applied in the first instance towards the reim
bursement of the persons plundered. The prisoners, five in number,
were taken to Bombay and confined as State prisoners in the fort of
Asirgarh, whence they were afterwards removed to Chunar. Two of
them, Nasir bin Ahmad (the Wazir Minister. of Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa,, who de.
eerted to the side of Nasir bin Mubarak) and Muhammad bin Abdulla,
'died there, the former in 1873 and the latter in 1877. The remaining
three prisoners were in 1878 removed to Aden where in 1880 two of them,
Jasim bin Muhammad Hasan, Wazir Minister. of Muhammad bin Abdulla, and
Ali bin Nasir A1 Abdulla, were released. The last of the five, Muham
mad bin Khalifa, was finally released in 1887 on the sole condition of
residence in the holy cities of Arabia. He died at Mecca in 1890. His
numerous sons were provided with certain personal allowances by the
Chief of Bahrein. In October 1888 Shaikh Ahmad bin Ali, the most
influential of Shaikh Esa’s brothers, died. He had, in accordance with
an old custom, enjoyed a moiety of the revenues of the island and exer
cised a considerable amount of power and authority. The Chief of Bah
rein then appointed his own eldest son Selman as successor to his late
brother. On Selman’s death in 1893 the Chief’s second son Hamad was
nominated heir to the Chief ship.
The weakness of Esa bin Ali’s rule more than once led to intrigues
for the xestoration of the exiled (A1 Abdulla) branch of the family:
and in 1874, in 1880, in 1892, and again in 1894, an attack on Bahrein
was threatened by their partisans, the Beni Hajir tribe, but was prevented
by the presence of British vessels and by the warnings addressed by the
British authorities to the various Shaikhs upon the coast. The Turkish
authorities of Hasa, originally at the instigation of Jasim. bin lhani,
on more than one occasion expressed the intention of rebuilding the
town of Zobara on the west coast of Qatar opposite Bahrein and estab
lishing a military post there; but the Chief of Bahrein invaiiably pio-
tested on the ground of his ancient rights there and of the menace to
Bahrein which such proceedings would involve. (Prior to the conquest
of' Bahrein by the Al Khalifa family, Zobara was their head-quarters;
but it was left unoccupied by Shaikh Esa). The Porte as well as Nasir
bin Mubarak and Jasim bin Thani were frequently informed by tho
British Government that no hostile settlement would be permitted at
Zobara.
In March 1895 an act of violence committed by Shaikh Khalid bin
'Ali, for which his brother Shaikh Esa failed to give redress, brought