Page 189 - Arabia the Gulf and the West

i86 Arabia, the Gulf and the West

allegiance to Bahrain and to discontinue the payment of tribute. The attempt
failed, but the Al Thani tried again in 1867, with somewhat more success. The

Al Khalifah retaliated by attacking and sacking Dauhah, Wakra and other
ports with the help of the war fleet of Abu Dhabi. The Al Thani and their
followers were subsequently saved from further depredation by the interven­
tion of the British political resident in the Gulf. The ruler of Abu Dhabi was
required to make reparation for his breach of the maritime truce, and when the
ruler of Bahrain refused to make similar reparation he was deposed. It emerged
from investigations made by the political resident into the origins of the

outbreak that the shaikh of Bahrain had not been remitting the due portion of
the tribute he received from Qatar to the Naim tribe, with the result that the
Naim had been marauding in the Al Thani domains. An agreement was
therefore drawn up by the resident whereby the Naim’s portion of the tribute
was to be paid directly to them by the Al Thani. The latter, however, were bent
upon discontinuing the tribute altogether, and with it their political depen­

dence upon the Al Khalifah. Their chance came four years later, in 1871, when
a Turkish expeditionary force wrested control of al-Hasa from the Saudis.
Abdullah ibn Sabah, the shaikh of Kuwait, came down to Dauhah on a
Turkish steamer in July of that year to persuade the aged ruler of the town,
Shaikh Muhammad ibn Thani, to acknowledge Ottoman suzerainty. The old
shaikh refused to do so, but his son, Jasim, saw in the adventitious appearance

of the Turks a chance to rid Qatar of its Al Khalifah overlords. He promptly
accepted appointment as Ottoman qaim-maqam of Dauhah and ran up the
Turkish flag. No further tribute was paid to Bahrain, and when Muhammad
ibn Thani died in 1878 Jasim attacked Zubara and razed it to the ground. The
town has never been rebuilt, although the site was occasionally occupied by Al

Khalifah subjects in later years, and the Al Khalifah today still look upon it as
rightfully theirs.
After successfully challenging Bahrain’s supremacy in Qatar, Jasim ibn
Muhammad set out to extend the limits of his territory in the south. Here he ran
into opposition from the Bani Yas of Abu Dhabi, whose tribal grazing groun s
extended to the base of the Qatar peninsula. The contest between the Al an1
ruler and the Bani Yas shaikhs focused upon the inlet of Khaur al-Udaid at e

eastern foot of Qatar, which fishermen from the Bani Yas were accustome to
visit. Shaikh Jasim was never able to make good his claim to the^Aaur up to e
time of his death in 1913; but he bequeathed the claim to his successors w

were to pursue it down to our day. . •
A short time before Jasim’s death the Turks had renounced their suzer
over Qatar in the Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 29 July I9I3- ^0WeV^^-kiSh
convention remained unratified up to the outbreak of war in a
garrison stayed on at Dauhah. It was expelled in the early toon s 0 ment
and on 3 November 1916 a treaty was concluded by the Brins gov
with the ruler - Jasim’s son, Abdullah - which brought Qatar into