Page 395 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

AND THE MASKAT POLITICAL AGENCY FOR TIIE YEAR 1008. 93
iii Sheikh Sultan’s charge, and then, as the latter refused to bo responsible
for him any longer and it was proved to the majlis that Nasir had concealed
some of the pearls which he had taken out of Bahrain, he was taken into
custody in the Agency on the 13th July until the settlement of the case, which
was effected on the 10th August when the creditors of the insolvent signed an
agreement which was ratified by the majlis. Under the terms of this agree­
ment all the creditors dropped half their claims, the mortgagee creditors
were to realize as much as they could with the knowledge and approval of the
majlis from the pearls in their custody and the value of the un-mortgaged
pearls was to be divided up rateably as expeditiously as possible. The debtor
was to satisfy his Katar creditors out of his miscellaneous property, live­
stock, boats, etc., and any balance due to the Bahrain creditors after the divi­
sion of the pearl-money was to be liquidated in three annual instalments.
The amount of this balance has now proved to be R33,096-10-4, and it remains
to be seen whether Nasir bin Shahin will ever be in a position to fulfil his
undertaking.
In Wakra a recrudescence of the trouble, reported last year to have
occurred between Sheikh Abdur Rahaman bin Jasim, the Governor, and the
Al-bu-Ainain section of that town, has unfortunately been witnessed in con­
sequence of the tribesmen’s reiterated objection to paying the annual boat-
tax. For this the Sheikh fined the tribe 10,000 rials and demanded the
expulsion of six of the headmen from the town. The Al-bu-Ainain then
appealed to the Turkish authorities in Basrah for protection, sending as their
envoy a fellow-tribesman named Ahmad bin Khatar, who is resident in
Bahrain, with the request that a military garrison might be established in
Wakra. The envoy returned in due course from Basrah with two letters
addressed to Sheikh Jasim bin Thani “ Kaimmakam of Katar” and the
Turkish Commander of the Doha garrison, which seem to have had the effect
of reconciling the two conflicting parties in Wakra, neither of whom was
really anxious to see a Turkish garrison in the town. A fortnight later,
when a new Mutasarrif of Hasa, Mahir Pasha, was passing through Bahrain,
three members of the Al-bu-Ainain tribe from Wakra called upon him and
informed him of the amicable settlement of their trouble.
The whole incident is an unfortunate one so far as it has given the Basrah
officials an opening for reasserting their authority over the Katar peninsula,
though the claim has been vigorously repudiated by Mr. Crow, His Majesty’s
Consul in Basrah, and for perhaps assuming to themselves with some reason
the credit of having settled the present difficulty. The Turks, however, are
now beginning, to show a very decided tendency to assert their authority
over the independent towns-people and tribesmen of Hasa, and it is reason­
able to conclude that if they obtain any success in this direction, they will not
fail to establish themselves more strongly in Katar with a view to obtaining
some revenue from the district, unless they are checked definitely by His
Majesty’s Government. The Katar political problem is therefore one which
is almost certain now to call for early and serious consideration.
The state of the two oases during the hot weather of 1908 was still more Ha#at Katif
disturbed than at any period of the previous twelve months, and indeed »nd the
possibly than at any time since the conquest of the districts by the Turks in t^ttTDk
1871. The vague news regarding the coup d'etat in Constantinople may fcrritoriM.
have had something to do with this, but the intrigues of Abdul Aziz bin
Saud and his representative residing in Hasa, Abdul Aziz bin Mashuq,
very probably were the more immediate cause. The Mutasarrif at
the commencement of the year, Rashid Pasha, was evidently a weak man who
appealed even to Bin Mashuq for assistance in the detection and punishment
of crimes committed by the turbulent towns-people of Mubarraz and else­
where. Rashid Pasha left Hasa in July; he was succeeded for a few days
by Taufiq Beg, and then came Ahmad Mumtaz Beg who also left for Basrah
in October. The Mutasarrif in office at the close of the year, Mahir Pasha,
seems to he a different stamp of man, one of his first acts having been to
warn Bin Mashuq cither to quit Hasa or to abstain from interfering in public
affairs, and another to apply for strong reinforcements of troops from Basrah.