"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٦‎٣‎٤] (١٧٨٢/٧٧٧)

634
Qasimi inter
vention in
Bahrain,
1782.
llaid, pos-
siblj Qasimi,
on Rustiq in
'Oman, 1783.
Capture
of the
" BasSein,"
May 1797.
Attack on
the " Viper,'
October
1797.
scoured the eeas plundering all indiscriminately ; and their fiucceesful
example eoon found imitators in every Arab port. Towards the end of
1778 the Qawasim captured a vessel belonging to the East India
Company on its way from Bombay to Basrah, and sold the crew and
passengers as slaves; and in 1779 they seem to have been in possession
of a ship named the " Expedition/' belonging to the Shaikh of Bushehr,
which they declined to restore.
In 1782 the Shaikh of the Qawasim, after mediating unsuccesBfully
between the 'Utub and the Persian claimants of Bahrain, took part with
a contingent of his subjects in the unsuccessful assault by the Persians on
the 'Atbi stronghold of Zubarah ; his attitude on this occasion appears
y cnt outon the part of the 'Utub ;
who had captured a boat belonging to his Shaikhdom and put 18 of the
crew to death.
About 1783 Ibn-Kahmah, a Shaikh of the Pirate Coast-as the
modern Truaal 'Oman may most appropriately bo styled at this time-
11 a senou6 attack on R'istaq, then the capital of the Imam of 'Oman •
but the identity of the chief cannot now be fixed* nor the significance
or his raid ascertained.
Some years of peace followed, during which nothing was heard of
the Qawasim ; but in 1797 a state of war again prevailed between
Masqat and Ras-al-Khannah and hostilities had been declared between
he l mm of 'Oman and the Government of Persia,-circumstances
which may have conduced to the commission in this year of two remark
able and unprovoked outrages by the Qawasim.f
atta^V 8 ' 11 . 0f . May lm ' 0ff Ram6 ' a ^ of " boats
lud cam Ca n , 6n0W " BaS8ei11 ^ UndCT Bri «
nd carrjing public despatches, and took her to Ras-al-Khaimah, where
she was detarned for two days and then released by order of the SWlL
^ cparation seems to have been exacted for this insult to the British
a flfeZTo y b0re ^ natUral frUit ' In the m0nth of 0ctober following
were tb^nTr.: ^ ^ of the Shaiki '
lying m the barbour ^ Bushehr, their purjiose being to inte re ept
father's name 1 "™ fehMh!' 111 i>a ' lar ^ l!5s - al - K:hi ' iaa1 '. "hose grat-great-grand-
si :r nothet eiplanation of
tions, (1) that the PrU* ^ u a ' ' au ^ two sugges-
-d fai,el, r ia
Sa'id of ' Omin and his brother S If- Wi ' ,tn 81086 a C0n<e8t between the Imam
brothe, Sultan, a pp ear t„ be equally uufounded.