Page 65 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

BAHREIN. 23

more, as circumstances may influence. The larger crews require 100
Tomans in the year, the intermediate 50 Tomans, and the least 30
Tomans. The modes of payment and indemnification are as has been
related of the people of Ras-ool-Khyma. The Governor of Bahrein levies
a convoy duty on the pearl fleet of 2 Tomans yearly from each boat,
all of which are escorted by seven war Bugalows during the fishipg
season.
The aboriginal inhabitants of Bahrein, now subjected to a foreign
power, suffer from the tyranny of their masters more keenly than
language can express, The island abounds in water, the date, and
other fruit trees. The Bahreinees are 10,000 in number. The number
and names of the Uttoobees and their allies are as follows : A1 Khulefe,
the Governor, 600 souls; Ali Zauyed, J,200 ; Ali Mauzeed, 2,000;
Ali Muhavideh, 3,000; Ali Sulaim, 3,000; Ali Mao Sullim, 1,000;
Ali Sumait, 900; slaves, 2,000; total number of Uttoobees and others,
13,600 souls.
There is considerable difference of opinion as to the origin of the first
inhabitants of Bahrein. Some authors assert that they were ancient
Persians, who, after a long residence, adopted the dialect of the
inhabitants of the nearest coast; while others declare that they were
descended from the Arab Tribe of Thamud, one of the oldest in Arabia
(1900 b. c.), who were driven out of Yemen, or Arabia Felix, by Saba,
son of Hamyar, into Hajar, or Arabia Petrcea, and passed at length into
Awal (Bahrein) subsequent to their dispersion by the Almighty for
their want of religious faith.
Some centuries previous to Mahomedanism (a. d. 420), the idolatrous
Natives were the governors of the island ; but when Bahram, of the last
or Sassanian dynasty of Persian Kings, achieved his partial conquest of
the Arabs (a. d. 615), he possessed himself of it, and nominated a
governor from the royal presence, who retained his seat until the era of
the mission of Mahomed.
At this period the government of the island of Bahrein reverted to the
original people, and remained with them as late as the reign of Keshan
bin Abdool Malik, who vanquished them in the commencement of the
eighth century (a. d. 723), and placed over them a ruler of the
Oommiyyad branch of the Tribe Koraish.
They continued thus under a foreign power until the close of the
Abbaside dynasty, in the eleventh century, when they again became
subject to chiefs of their own race, until the sixteenth century, in the
age of the Saffis (or Soph is), who took Bahrein, and deputed a Persian
nobleman to the office of governor. During an interval of twenty
years at this period, about the middle of the seventeenth century, Suif
bin Sultan, the Yarabi, retained the island under subjection ; when, in