Page 487 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

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WAIIABEES.
ruler, intimating to them that he had been pleased to give him the grant
of Kateef at a stated revenue, from twenty to twenty four thousand
dollars, and directing that he might be permitted to take possession of
and keep the territory committed to his charge, without molestation.
By the Imaum he was .received and treated with much courtesy, and
furnished with a Butccl and provisions to convey him to Kateef, and
letters to Fysul bin Toorkey and Abdoolla bin Ahmed, represented to
be of a conciliatory and peaceful tenor.
On hearing of the arr ival of this personage at Kateef, and the receipt
of the several letters of which he was the bearer, Ameer Fysul imme­
diately marched a body of troops into that place, in order to support the
assertion of his superior right over, and determination to keep it, as well
as the surrounding district, now so unceremoniously farmed away by
the Pacha of Mecca.
Abdoolla bin Musharec did not await the arrival of the Wahabee
troops, who took possession of Kateef, and subsequently attempted, but
without success, to capture Tirhoot, the place already mentioned as
having fallen into the hands of the Uttoobecs during the confusion which
ensued on the violent death of the late Wahabce Chief, and while his son,
the present chief, was engaged in establishing his right to succeed to
his authority, against the pretensions of his father’s murderer, Musharee.
The mission of Bin Musharee was supposed (and the subsequent
arrival of his sons with letters of recommendation, procured from the
Government of Bombay, and the correspondence he was keeping up
with the Imaum, and the Pacha of Mecca, appeared to identify him
with the late events) to have been not unconnected with the design of
Ahmed Pacha to engage the Wahabee Chief in operations towards the
north-east, whilst he was prosecuting his conquest in the south-west
quarter of the Arabian peninsula, and with the wish of the ImaUra to
see his ancient enemy, Shaikh Abdoolla bin Ahmed of Bahrein, engaged
in renewed hostilities with so powerful an opponent as the Chief of the
Wahabees, whose attention he was also interested in drawing in a
direction opposite to his own territories.
The preponderating influence of Mahomed Ali Pacha on the western
side of the Arabian Peninsula began now to
a. d. 1836.
afford a salutary check upon the encroachments
of the Wahabee sect towards the coast of the Persian Gulf,
He sum-
moned Shaikh Fysul to meet Ibrahim or Hussein Pacha, and afford
his co-operation against the Aseer tribe, who had hitherto successfully
frustrated their attempts to reduce it to subjection ; but this chief
declining compliance, on the plea of sickness, sent his brother with
some horses, &c. as a present, and to apologise for him.
It was report­
ed that a very large Egyptian force was at this time collected at Medina.