Page 61 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

Qasiml Piracy and General Treaty of Peace 51
and firm which wc wish to cement still stronger. ... but do not give car to
bad people such as those of Muscat regarding us. Your messanger came to
our country, ask him if he saw any property belonging to your people,
boats or anything else. I have now deputed Hassan been Gaith to you,
whatever he says consider as from me, and if you wish to renew the
engagement between us he is fully authorized by me to do so, and I have
hopes that you will not be too severe in scrutinizing the past, and request
you will point out [to me] the extent of your possessions towards Scind
[sic] and those who are your subjects. ... 1 have always understood that
your people go about in ships and not in dungees ... [we do not] wish to
molest your people or break our engagements ... our wishes are to be able
to visit India and carry on mercantile concerns and have to request you
will favour me with passes so as to enable our vessels to go there. ...10

Both shaykhs implied that they made a distinction between English
and Indian vessels, and that they did not understand the extent of
British protection. This confusion was regarded by the British as a
poor excuse, and the allusion to Muscati dishonesty was probably
not well-received. The British were aware that disaffected Qawasim
enlisted with Muscat against Hasan, but they never countered
Hasan’s accusation concerning them; nor did the British contend
that any Qawasim might have acted independently of both Ras
al-Khaymah and Muscat. Bombay continued to hold Hasan b.
Rahmah responsible for all alleged Qasiml piracy.
More issues were raised by Hasan b. Ghayth, and to some of
these Bruce was sympathetic. The envoy explained that the
Qawasim were caught between the exigencies of traditional Arab
warfare and the pressures exerted by the proselytizing Wahhabis. If
the Qawasim were forced to cease what the British called piracy,
their enemies—including now all the many enemies of the
Wahhabis—would be at their very doors. The wrath of the
Wahhabis would also be aroused, since they shared in Qasiml
booty. If, ideally, Bombay extended protection to the Qawasim,
neither the other coastal tribes nor the Wahhabis would dare
attack them, and they would be free to engage in commercial
pursuits. As the situation stood, however, the Qawasim wished
peaceful relations with the British, as enjoined by ‘Abdullah, but
also wished to be allowed to hold their own in inter-Arab warfare.
On this basis, the envoy proposed a firmer alliance with the British,
which Bruce recommended to Bombay.11
Despite Bruce’s tentative promise to Hasan b. Ghayth ‘to drop
all claim and forget what has past’, he shortly afterward sent letters
to Ras al-Khaymah inquiring about vessels taken off the coast of
India the preceding month. In protest, the Qawasim seized the ship
which had conveyed the inquiries, an act which Bombay in turn