"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٤‎٢‎٤] (١٧٨٢/٥٦٧)

424
Early pro
ceedings of
the Wahhabis
in 'Oman.
Hostilitieu
precipitated,
1803.
Naval cam
paign of the
Wahhabis
against
'Omtn. 1803.
In 1800, after the occupation of the Hasa and Qatif Oases by the
Wahhabis, a large Wahhabi detachment, mounted on horses and camels,
made their way thence by land to Baraimi on the confines of the
Oman Sultanate; here their leader Harlq, a Nubian slave, established
" ^Mified settlement; and here the Na'im, Bani Qitab and other tribes
of Dhahirah, who were unfriendly to the central government of ■'Oman,
quickly identified themselves with the Wahhabi cause. Saiyid Sultan,
ever prompt in action, made peace with his enemy the Qasimi Shaikh
of Ras-al-Khaimah and marched, via Wadi-al-Jizi, against Baraimi;
but the result of the first encounter was so unfavourable that he made a
tiuce with Hariq and retired on Sohar. This temporary respite from
hostilities at home enabled Sultan, as we have seen, to prosecute his
designs against Bahrain with some measure of success ; but, in that direc
tion also, the influence of the Wahhabis, which was thrown into the
scale of the (Jtub, retarded the progress of his arms; and a fresh
breach with the Wahhabi Amir, which occurred in 1803, destroyed his
last hope of success in Bahrain.
The immediate cause of the final rupture seems to have been the
favourable reception by Sultan of overtures from the Sharifs of Makkah,
who were then endeavouring to defend the Hijaz district of Western
Arabia against the assaults of the Wahhabis. Early in 1803 Sultan had
himself gone on pilgrimage to the Holy Cities, leaving 'Oman to be
governed m his absence by his young son Salim, assisted by a council of
icgency ; and, though he did not himself take any active part in the
hostilities between the Sharifs and the Amir, he assisted the former
with money and munitions of war, and possibly also with the loan
of a small armed contingent. During the absence of Sultan his nephew
Badar, the son of Saif, after failing in an attempt to obtain posses
sion of Fort Jalali at Masqat, fled to 'Ajman and thence to Zubarah,
eventually making bit? \va_y to Dara'iyah, where he associated himself
closely with the Wahhabi Amir.
The resentment of the Wahhabi ruler at Sultan's conduct in Hijaz
affairs, intensified by the aversion which he already felt for him as
an Ibadhi heretic, at length broke forth in a declaration of war.
As suzerain of the Qawasim of Ras-al-Khaimah and of the 'Utub of
Bahrain and Kuwait, the Wahhabi Amir now called upon them, unwilling
ough t ey were to abandon the pearl fishery for the season, to cruise
agamst the subjects of the 'Oman Government; and they reluctantly
Tv, & p Umm<,nS ' ■^ arrnec l by a new development that seemed to
threaten the future safety of their own coasts, the Persian and Turkish
au on ies m e Gulf at first showed a disposition to make common cause