Page 34 - Records of Bahrain (1) (i)_Neat

24 Records of Bahrain

3GG UTTOOUEKS.

Oil the 21st, where they were lo be rejoined by the Shaikhs of Ormus and
Jnlfar. A small force from Shiraz had already arrived at Congoon, to
join the expedition. The death of Ali Moorad Khan, however, arrested
the prosecution of offensive operations against the Uttoobces.
21. The contests for the succession that ensued in the interior of
Persia on that event, in which Shaikh Nassir
a. n. 1/99.
of Bushirc took a part, left the Uttoobces ire
quiet possession of Bahrein, and no mention is made of them until the
year 1799, when the Irnaum of Muskat, in compliance with the wish of
the Bcglcrbcg of Pars, proceeded with four ships and six Dows, and
armed gallivats, to attack the Uttoobces, and subdue Bahrein. Thcr
Uttoobces had only three ships, which were on trading voyages to
India, which were all taken, laden with merchandize, by the Irnaum,
on their return.
22. The Uttoobces at Bahrein wrote on (his occasion to Shaikh
Nassir at Bushirc, stating that the island originally belonged lo the
Turkish Government, but that it was many (about seventy) years
since they were in possession of it; that they were now desirous of
becoming subject to the King of Persia, to whom they would pay a
tribute. Shaikh Nassir availed himself of this invitation, and privately
proceeding lo Bahrein, received the tribute for the preceding year.
23. In the year 1S00, the Imaum of Muskat reduced the island of
Bahrein, and sent all the head men, consisting
a. n. 1800-01.
of twenty-five families, lo Muskat. The Uttoo-
bec Shaikhs proceeded to Zobara with their followers, and solicited the
protection of the Wahabccs, which was readily extended. In the
following year, assisted by all the Wahabce dependents in the district
of Khuttcr, the Uttoobces attacked and retook Bahrein, having forced
the Imaum’s governor and his son to leave the island with only their
private baggage; and in consequence of the Persian Shaikhs having
assisted Syud Sultan in the reduction of Bahrein, the Uttoobces made
prize of every Bussora or Persian vessel they fell in with.
2d. The Ultoobcc Arabs at Zobara became at this period, in
common with every tribe on the Arabian shore of the Gulf, under the
control of the Wahabce power. They would appear, however, to have
been at war with the Muskat Arabs since Syud Sultan lost his life in
an engagement with the Ulloobcs, joined by the Joasmees.
25. It is difficult to trace the varying policy of the different tribes in
the Gulf, influenced as they were, at a period
A. n. 1801-05.
so .unsettled, by those changes which affected
their interests. In 1805 we find the Uttoobces promoting a plan
projected by Syud Beder, the Imaum of Muskat, to destroy the Joas­
mees, and lo throw off the Wahabce yoke, Captain Seton expressed