Page 410 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

366 UTTOOBEES.

on the 21st, where they were to be rejoined by the Shaikhs of Ormus and
Julfar. A small force from Shiraz had already arrived at Common t
join the expedition. The death of Ali Moorad Khan, however, arrested
the prosecution of offensive operations against the Uttoobccs. '
21. The contests for the succession that ensued in the interior of
Persia on that event, in which Shaikh Nassir
A. D. 1/99.
of Bushire took a part, left the Uttoobees in
quiet possession of Bahrein, and no mention is made of them until the
year 1799, when the Irnaum of Muskat, in compliance with the wish of
the Bcglerbeg of Fars, proceeded with four ships and six Dows, and
armed gallivats, to attack the Uttoobces, and subdue Bahrein. The
Utloobees had only three ships, which were on trading voyages to
India, which were all taken, laden with merchandize, by the Imaum,
on their return.
22. The Uttoobees at Bahrein wrote on this occasion to Shaikh
Nassir at Bushire, stating that the island originally belonged to the
Turkish Government, but that it was many (about seventy) years
since they were in possession of it; that they were now desirous of
becoming subject to the King of Persia, to whom they would pay a
tribute. Shaikh Nassir availed himself of this invitation, and privately
proceeding to Bahrein, received the tribute for the preceding year.
23. In the year 1800, the Imaum of Muskat reduced the island of
Bahrein, and sent all the head men, consisting
a. d. 1800-01.
of twenty-five families, to Muskat. The Uttoo-
bee Shaikhs proceeded to Zobara with their followers, and solicited the
protection of the Wahabees, which was readily extended. In the
following year, assisted by all the Wahabee dependents in the district
of Khutter, the Uttoobees attacked and retook Bahrein, having forced
the Imaum’s governor and his son to leave the island with only their
private baggage; and in consequence of the Persian Shaikhs having
assisted Syud Sultan in the reduction of Bahrein, the Uttoobees made
prize of every Bussora or Persian vessel they fell in with.
24. The Uttoobee Arabs at Zobara became at this period, in
common with every tribe on the Arabian shore of the Gulf, under the
control of the Wahabee power. They would appear, however, to have
been at war with the Muskat Arabs since Syud Sultan lost his life in
an engagement with the Uttoobes, joined by the Joasmees.
25. It is difficult to trace the varying policy of the different tribes in
the Gulf, influenced as they were, at a period
a. d. 1804-05. so unsettled, by those changes which affected
find the Uttoobees promoting a plan
their interests. In 1805 we
projected by Syud Beder, the Imaum of Muskat, to destroy the Joas-
mees, and to throw off the Wahabee yoke. Captain Seton expressed

it: