"ملخص لعلاقات الحكومة البريطانية مع قبائل وشيوخ عربستان. بقلم الملازم أ. ت. ويلسون، القائم بأعمال القنصل في عربستان" [و‎‎١‎٩] (١٤٣/٤٢)

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diplomacy. He is essentially a man of peace and prefers to exhaust every
means of persuasion before having recourse to arms. Circumstances were
however too strong for him : the Bani Turuf imbroglio soon developed and
the notorious Haji Sabhan returned to Hawizeh to put himself at the head of
the forces of disaffection. After several abortive efforts towards a peaceful
settlement, the Shaikh was obliged to collect a force of from 15,000 to 20,000
men a portion of which advanced on the Bani Turuf in the middle of Novem
ber 1908. After some skirmishing a split in the enemy’s ranks, which may be
counted on so confidently in any emergency in this country, made a settlement
easy. AJi Minaishid and Zair ’Ali were exiled and replaced by Salih
Mutailij and As! : Haji Sabhan was taken to Failiyeh as a hostage where he
remained during 1910.
Ghadhban of the Bani Lam as usual supported the Shaikh without
taking any active part in the affair. Shaikh Mubarak of Kuwait assisted
the Shaikh by the loan of a number of rifles and a large quantity of ammuni
tion.
The meeting of the Shaikh of Mohammerah in April 1908 with certain
of the Bakhtiari Khans, namely, Haji Khusrau Khan, Ghufam Husain Khan
and Nasir Khan, deserve special mention. It resulted in an agreement
signed by Najaf Quli, Samsam-es-Saltaneh, as well as by the above mentioned
Khans, the Shaikh and his son Shaikh Chasib Khan, Nasrat-ul-Mulk* whereby
the two parties agreed to be friends, to prevent disputes, and to assist each
other in all matters. The agreement is reproduced as Appendix 13 to this
report. It has remained a dead letter, however, and its only value lies in its
exposition of the points of possible conflict between the Shaikh and the Khans
and of the proper means to prevent such a conflict.
The year 1909 was comparatively uneventful. Haji Saif-ud-Dauleh left
the province in May 1909 without troubling to wait for the permission of
Government. He lived with the Shaikh for the whole period of his sojourn
in Arabistan, never once having gone to Shushtar or Dizful, which towns,
perhaps in consequence, were fairly quiet, though the road between them
was unsafe for the greater part of the year.
Aqa Rahim, a minor Bakhtiari notable, was occasionally Governor of
.Dizful during the year and did his best to stir up trouble amongst the Arabs
and Hawizah and Northern ’Arabistan against the Shaikh, but his efforts
were not attended with success.
Shaikh Khaz’al found it necessary in June 1909 to replace Hanzal, his
nephew, by his eldest son Chasib, Nasrat-ul-Mulk, in the Deputy-Governorship
of Nasiri. Hanzal was accused of conspiring to murder the Shaikh, but there
was a good deal of doubt as to the genuineness of the charge, which probably
affected the Shaikh less than a desire to instal his son at Nasiri.
Haji Fakhr-ul-Mulk who arrived in Shushtar in October 1909 as Gover
nor of ’Arabistan at first adopted a somewhat aggressive attitude to the
Shaikh, but this ceased on personal acquaintance and during 1910 no serious
difference of opinion arose between them : it was a year of peace as far as
Southern ’Arabistan was concerned, although Shushtar and Dizful were in
their usual state of chronic anarchy which necessitated the Shaikh collecting
an army at Ahwaz in July for the purpose of restoring order at Shushtar.
On the arrival of the army at Band-i-Qir, however, the usual proposals for a
compromise were made, and accepted by the Shaikh, who withdraw the army
forthwith. The presence of the force at Nasiri under arms also served to
encourage the belief in the mind of Saulat-ud-Dauleh that the Shaikh was
ready to assist him in his difficulties with the Bakhtiari and the Central
Government if need be. In reply to applications for assistance, the Shaikh
told him that the army was all ready, and that no necessary step would be
omitted—a cryptic utterance, designedly vague, but effective for the time
being in enabling the Shaikh to temporize.
In June Farhan Assad had attacked the Shaikh’s Arabs, who had built
a fine dam on the Shaur river. The dam was broken out of pure wantonness,
and several men killed. The army that was intended to pacify Shushtar
served to bring Farhan to heel for the moment, and the Shaikh as usual