"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٩‎٦‎٩] (١٧٨٢/١١٢٤)

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iSSit
969
capturing there three guns und a (quantity ot aimnuiiition j it proceeded
next to Dammam, whicli fell on the 5th of June. 'Abdul 'Aziz, a son of
the Wahhahi Sa'ud, escaped from Dammam before it was taken ; he left
behind him a prisoner, Muhammad-bin-Faisal; whom the Turks released ;
and nine iron and two brass guns and a quantity of military stores also
came into their hands. At the end of June the Kuwait fleet had returned
home and the Turkish force was still in the Qatif Oasis; but an
advance was contemplated.
On his first reaching Qatif town a manifesto was published by Nafiz
Pasha, the Turkish Commander, in which it was announced that the ^ Q a tif.
expedition had come to restore the authority of 'Abdullah, the Qaim-
Maqam of Najd ; that Sa'ud, the rival of 'Abdullah, and his supporters
would be pardoned if they came in and made submission j and that, in the
meanwhile, the tribes which remained peaceably in Qatif and Hasa would
enjoy Turkish favour and protection.
Early in July the Turkish force left Qatif for Hofuf : the march Advanc^by
across the intervening desert occupied, though unopposed, 15 days. There- i n to the Hasa
after, the Hasa Oasis having been occupied without any fighting, the Arab 0a ^ s -
contingent of Muntafik and others, as also the political intermediaries,
were dismissed to their homes; the cause of this appears to have been, m
part at least, commissariat difficulties ; and the Muntafik, who returned
by land via Kuwait, lost many horses on the way from scarcity of fodder
and of water. From the time of disembarkation the Turkish expedition
had been a prey to starvation, enteric fever and cholera; the march to
Hofuf had further weakened its strength ; and it was now brought to a
complete standstill in Hasa by hot winds and a violent outbreak of
malaria* In August, when the total Turkish force in Hasa was estimated
at 3,400 men,— viz., 2,500 at Hofuf, 500 at Qatif, 150 at 'Oqair and 250
on the march,—one third of the whole were reported sick and ineffec
tive; and the Turkish Commander, who had become uneasy m regar
to his communications with the coast, enlisted 900 natives of the country
as soldiers on pay of |6 a month. A shock was given to Muhammadan
sentiment throughout the province by the arrival at Qatif of a ship- oac
of wine sellers and Baghdad prostitutes; but the trading classes seemed
on the whole to prefer the disadvantages of Turkish administration to the
o-reater severities and exactions of the Wahhabis.
At the time when the Turkish force first landed in Hasa, the Wahhabi Mings
brothers 'Abdullah and Sa'ud were fighting with each other m the interior, Wahhabis.
at a distance of some 200 miles from the coast. The advantage appeared
to rest with Sa'ud, the opponent of the Turks, who had obtained posses-