Page 481 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

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WAHABEES.

CONTINUATION OF THE FOREGOING, FROM
1820 TO 1831,

BY LIEUTENANT S. IIENNELL.
Mr. Warden’s account of this once powerful sect concludes by
describing their complete overthrow in ISIS, when Ibrahim Pach.i
captured their capital, Deriah, by a general storm, and sent away the:;*
chief as a prisoner to Egypt. Nothing further appears to have been heard
regarding the Wahabees till 1820, when a report was made to the G;>
vernment that one of their chiefs, who had been taken prisoner in 181: .
had effected his escape into the Desert, and, collecting a considerab! •
number of Arabs together, had taken possessio n
a. n. 1820.
of the State of Deriah. In consequence, lh->
Chiefs of the Beni Khalid, who had been established by Ibrahim Paci; t
in Lahsa and Kateef, marched against him with a large force, an i\
compelled him to surrender himself and followers.
In 1S22 Mahomed Ali Pacha stationed a body of 700 horse, undVr
one of his officers, in the fort of Arrizah, and at
a. d. 1822.
the same time directed them to rebuild the fc.t
and works of Deriah, for the purpose of being garrisoned by a Turkish
force. Shortly afterwards 100 Turkish cavalry, stationed at Riaz, were,
surprised and cut up by the Bedouins in the neighbourhood.
The Wahabces appear to have remained quiet until the beginninT
of the year 1824, when a large body of men was
a. d. 1824.
collected under the command of Shaikh Toorkey
bin Abdoolla oos Saood, who proceeded against the Turkish provinces
to the westward, but was foiled'in his attempt by Ahmed Pacha, the.
Governor of Mecca, and forced to retreat, with considerable losr.
Nothing daunted by this repulse, the Wahabees soon after made another
attempt, in which they were successful.
From this period, the power and resources of this sect appear to have
gradually advanced, and shortly after, their Chief, Toorkey bin Abdoollr*,
commonly known by the name of Toorkey bin Saood, opened a corrc-
!
spondence with all the Shaikhs on the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf,
inviting them to renew the relations which had subsisted between them
prior to the overthrow of the Wahabees by Ibrahim Pacha. On the-
occasion of an interview, about the end of 1825, with the British--
Resident in the Gulf of Persia, Shaikh Sultan bin Suggur made a
dexterous attempt to ascertain the light in which his connection with
the now rising sect would be viewed by the British Government
particularly with reference to the injury which might arise
to tllC:

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