Page 503 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

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WAIIABEES.

opportunity, hastened to provide a vessel for the transmission of the
treasure.
The year 1845 is also remarkable for the hostilities that arose be­
tween Abdoolla bin Saeed, the Wahabee Governor of the port of Kateef,
and the Shaikhs of Bahrein. The cause of the quarrel and the pro­
ceedings of either party have been so fully detailed in the Sketch of
the Uttoobees that to repeat them here were idle and profitless ; suffice
it to say, therefore, that dissensions continued to rage until the month
of August 1847, when matters were brought to a peaceable settle­
ment, the Ameer pledging himself in no way
A. D. 1847.
to assist Abdoolla bin Ahmed, the ex-Chief of
Bahrein, in his efforts to recover his position as chief of the island, and
Shaikh Mahomed bin Khaleefa engaging to pay the Wahabee the sum
of 4,000 dollars.
In the ensuing year, the Wahabee prestige received a severe check
from the Shaikh of the Beniyas, who contrived
a. d. 1848.
to reduce the forts of Brymee, to defeat and
discomfit a Nujdee force sent specially against him, and so com­
pletely to paralyse the efforts of Syud bin Mootluk to recover his
lost authority in Oman, that he drove him to seek refuge at Shar-
gah, and there to remain until forces could be collected by the
Joasmee and his allies to give him assistance. These troops were
speedily assembled, and towards the close of the year the combined
armies of Shaikh Sultan, Muktoom bin Butye, and Humeed bin
Rashid, set out from Shargah with Syud bin Mootluk, and the remnant
of the Nujdees, to attack Shaikh Syud at Brymee. Affairs, however,
through the mediation of an envoy deputed by the Sherreeff of Mecca,
to compose the differences that had arisen, precluded the necessity for
a recourse to active hostilities. Peace was concluded, and the Wahabee
commander reinstated in his position at Brymee.
In the following year Ameer Fysul appears to have entertained the
design of reducing the island of Bahrein to sub­
a. d. 1849.
mission to his own authority. From a reference
to the Sketch of the Uttoobees will be gathered how the Ameer came to
the neighbourhood of the island in person; how His Highness induced
the inhabitants of the Guttur Coast to forsake the Uttoobees, and come
over to the side of the Nujdees; how the sons of the ex-chief suddenly
equipped a fleet from the Persian Coast, and, after attacking and forcing
their way through the line of Uttoobee vessels blockading the port of
Kateef, succeeded in joining the Wahabees ; how Shaikh Mahomed was
on the point of being compelled to succumb to the overwhelming force
in league against him ; and, finally, how the timely arrival off the island
of our ships of war, blasting the hopes and ambitious designs of both

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