"ملخص عن الخليج العربي. (الجزءان I و II)" [و‎‎٤] (١٢٠/٧)

to Ali Pasha, Viceroy of Egypt. Two expeditions were led and were so far
sin-cesstul that the Amirs intermittently paid a small tribute to Exypt and,
in order to he left undisturbed to pursue their designs of aggrandisement, they
ncknow lodged the Sultan of lurkey as their Suzerain, although the vassalage
wns merely nominal. Ihe Suzerain Power exercised no control over the
aggressive course pursued by these Nejd Amirs.. Numerous remonstrances were
addiessed to them by 15i'itain and only the appearance of a nMval armament at
• Bombay political Department, Vol. 106 a of 1860, Bahrain* (1859) and Maskat compelled
and A.tohi.on's awie,. Vol. xn. page 146. the retirement of the aggressive Sultan
±eysul, not however until he had extorted a tribute from Maskat, though not
Irom Bahrain.
. Eeysul, whom Colonel Pelly visited at Riadh with a view to enjoin on
him the necessity of maintaining general peace and commercial development
in the regions of the Persian Gulf, died in 1865, and was succeeded bv his son,
who, in that year, entered into an engagement with the British Government
not to molest the tribes under British protection.
Ihe succession, however, was challenged and disturbances continued till
1S71 when Abdulla bin Feysul of the reigning Wahabi family being engaged in
a conflict for the throne of Nejd with his brother Saud, applied to Midhat Pasha,
the Turkish Vali of Baghdad, to co-operate in his restoration to power. The
opportunity of extending Ottoman sway was too good to be missed. An expe
dition under ^lidhat Pasha was sent ostensibly to settle differences between
the two brothers but more probably to establish Turkish supremacy on the
coast. There was at the time, also, a rumour reported by Colonel Herbert, His
JVlajesty s Consul-General, Baghdad, "that if the Nejd expedition were success
ful, it would eventually be directed to the acquisition of Bahrain, Maskat
and the Arab Coast " and this rumour gained strength from a statement of
Midhat Pasha, who asserted that Bahrain and its dependencies were countries
t Secret i., 1871. No 9 .581-655. of ^ 0ttom an dominions. The Porte
explicitly deniedf any intention of such
designs. The Turks never penetrated to Nejd, but the military occupation of
the district of Hasa involved the est iblishment of Turkish authority at Katif
and Ojair and the location of a Turkish post at El Bida on the Katar Penin
sula. Prom this expedition resulted the subsequent complications regarding
British and Turkish claims along the Arabian littoral from the Shat-el-Arab
to Odeid at the extreme southern corner of the Katar Peninsula.
6. It will perhaps be convenient here briefly to note the tribes and nilers
Tribes, &o., in occupation of the occupying the Arabian littoral mentioned
Arabian Coast line. ^ succeec ii n g chapters as a help to an
understanding of the whole.
The territory of the Sultan of Maskat extends along the Arabian coast
from Rakhiut in the south to Khor Kalba and from Dibba to Tibba. J he
coast between Khor Kalba and Dibba is under the Shaikh of Sharga. From
Shaam, adjoining Tibba, to Khor-el-Odeid at the extreme south of the
Katar Peninsula, the coast line is divided among the Trucial Chiefs of Oman
Ras-al-Khaimeh, Umm-al-Kowein, Ajman, Sharga, Debai and Abu Thabi.
From Khor-el-Odeid round to Dohat-as-Salwa is the Katar Peninsula with
Shaikhs of its own in the coast towns and villages. From Dohat to Ojair, the
sea-port of the Hasa Sandjaq which belongs to the Turks, the tract is desert,
while from Ojair to Has Tanura above Katif belongs to the Turks. The coast
from Has Tanura to Kuwait may be said to belong to the Shaikh of Kuwait,
who, however, claims jurisdiction down to Qasr-as-Subaih, while Jinnah and
Musallamiya, two islands off the coast, are perhaps under Turkish jurisdiction.