"ملخص عن الخليج العربي. (الجزءان I و II)" [ظ‎‎٣] (١٢٠/٦)

the Gulf. Ahwaz on the Karun, Bushire, Kais, Kharak, Kishm and
Mohammerali have witnessed the presence of Indian forces. The occupation
of these places was an illustration of the vigour with which in past yeirs
our ascendancy has been maintained. Their abandonment remains an indis
putable evidence of pacific purpose.
The recognition of these considerations is essential to a right understanding
of the attitude adopted by Great Britain in regard to the maintenance, un
impaired, ol her control in the Persian Gulf and to her resistance to the possible
intrusion of a hostile Power in that region.
Lhe grounds on which this claim is advanced and the steps by which her
predominance has been acquired in this maritime field of diverse nationalities
and clashincr interests, will be briefly traced in view of recent Turkish preten
sions to challenge it.
2. In the 17th and 18th centuries the Persian Gulf was the arena of
The Pirate days. successive conflicts between Portuguese.
^ ^ British action. I ) utch> French and British> By the
beginning of the 19th century, the European factories had disappeared and
piolonged internal turmoil had so greatly weakened Persia that her efforts were
ineffectual in establishing supremacy among the tribes on the Arabian shore of
the Persian Gulf. These petty Arab rulers who held sway along the littoral
from the mouth of the Tigris to the Indian Ocean were either independent
tribal chieftains or yielded nominal allegiance to the Wahahi Amirs of Nejd.
Under the proselytising influence of the Wahabi movement which the
lurks were unable to control, and which extended its aetivitv from the
interior of Arabia to the shores of the Persian Gulf, the natural pirates of the
coast were fused into an aggressive force of formidable character which brought
them into sharp conflict with the British Government. The result was that
not only had the naval forces constantly to be maintained in active service to
suppress disorder in the Persian Gulf, but three large military expeditions were
necessary between 1805-1819, before this lawless brood and the Jo was mis
were subdued and a decisive blow dealt to piracy and slave trading. This
vigorous contiict conducted entirely by British agency and means, unaided bv
Persia or Turkey, resulted in 1820 in the establishment of the first General
• Ahchison *8 Treaties, Vol. xn, page 172. treaty* between the British Government
. „ and the combined Arab Chiefs of the
Irucial Coast. Other treaties followed, serving a temporary purpose and was
t Aitciuson's Treaties, Vol. xn, page 180. succeeded in lb53t by a Treaty of per-
t petual peace under which the Chiefs
bound themselves to refer all maritime disputes to the British Resident
Bushire. In 1868 the Shukh of El Katar (Bida)-a peninsula which the
lurks have claimed since 1871 on the ground that it formed an integral
portion of the Wahabi^ dominions to which they had succeeded— signed - l
similar agreement, pledging himself to observe the maritime peace of the^Gulf •
but m 1871, desiring to escape this obligation which was too severe a strain
upon his buccaneering propensities, he placed himself under Turkish protection
and accepted a Turkish flag. 1
3. Up t#that year (1871), Turkish territory on the Arabian Peninsula had
: AitcMson's Treaties, vol. xiii , p^go 4. extended^ only as far south as Fao 'it
Nejd affairs. Turkish expedition and the mouth of flip Shaf al A» i t» j
ocoupatioa of the Arabian littoral. mourn OL llie feliat-el-Arab. But
, • i r • , i ^ events were now ocourrinsr in N^irl
which furnished the Porte with an excuse to meddle in affairs of the Arabian
littoral. It will be necessary therefore hric% to refer to the Wahabi move
ment and to the subsequent Turkish conquest of Neid and the reduction oft
to vassalage, as it is on these conquests that the Porte mainly based its claim fn
interfere in Nejd affairs in 1871. to carve out a portion of Arabia on the Persian
Gulf as its teintory and to claim even sovereignty over Bahrain.
„ O" th . e l r ] i3 t e , of Wahabism in Nejd, the Arxbs of the coast from Oiair to
Katif had to yield their independence to the Amir of Neid. In 1800 Abdul 4
stormed Katil, occupied Bahrain and the adjacent islands of the Persian ft,,if
The task of punishing the VVababis was entrusted by the Turkish Government