Page 485 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

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WAHABEES.
Saood, who, having joined the Kali tan, and other tribes in the interior,
had with them refused to acknowledge his supremacy, and was prepar­
ing to establish his position by force of arms. The Beni Khalid and
Amayir Tribes, in consequence of these rumours, had been encouraged
to attack Kateef and Lahsa, but had met with a repulse.
Hostilities continued to be prosecuted, and early in 1832 the
Amayir* seized a boat belonging to Bahrein, lying off Kateef, laden
with dates for the latter place. Of thirty Kaleef people on board, they
killed twelve, and took the remainder prisoners, with a view to their
ransom. After plundering the boat of all property belonging to Kateef,
they permitted it to depart, without offering molestation to the Bahrein
men either in person or property.
The affairs of Nujd about this time, owing to internal dissensions,
became in a most unsettled state, and the power
a. d. 1833.
of Toorkey bin Saood, the Wahabee, threatened
so rapidly to decline, that the Governor of Kateef sought the protection
of the Chief of Bahrein, and offered to transfer his allegiance ; but this
temporary diminution of his authority, occasioned by the opposition of
his relative and competitor, Musharee, who claimed a prior right by
descent, and stated himself to have escaped from confinement in Egypt,
quickly gave way to the superior energy of his character. j
The Zukat or tribute of five per cent, began to be exacted, and his in­
fluence to be completely established over the inhabitants of the coast;
but, unlike his predecessors, he opposed himself to the wishes of the
Joasmecs, and other lawless tribes, desirous of his sanction for the re­
newal of piracy, which they supposed would have ensued on the revival
of his power; whereas they found, that instead of reaping the profits of
old times, arising from plunder, Shaikh Toorkey was inclined to take
from them a portion even of the little they had.
The measures adopted in urging the demands against the Joasmees,
now virtually Wahabee dependents, for the restitution of the property
(or its value) plundered from a vessel belonging to a British subject, by
some men of Khan (three of whom had taken refuge at Aboothabee),

* This tribe was described to consist of about 400 families, separated into the two divisions
of Bedouins and fishermen. The latter, who were at war with Kateef, occupied the small
island of Jinnah, a few miles to the north of Bahrein. They were the weaker of the two divi­
sions, not exceeding 100 families, but had associated with themselves about an equal number
of the Sooedan and Duwad Arabs. Their feud with the people of Kateef originated in a
quarrel regarding the discontinuance of certain payments formerly exacted by the Beni
Amayir. Several on both sides were killed ; but those who fell on the side of the latter being of
greater rank, a claim was made on their behalf for the balance of the price of blood. Both parties
appealed to Toorkey bin Saood, the "Wahabee Chief, who recommended them to make peace •
but in consequence of the high demands of the Beni Amayir, this was not effected, and another
engagement took place, in which Shaikh Abbasce, their chief, was killed, and the whole tribe
took up the feud to revenge his death.