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4 THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE ARABIAN GULF STATES
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: and established an autonomous State there. However, on 28 July
:
1783 the Al-Khalifah rulers of Zubarah launched an attack on the
j
Bahrain Islands, and, having successfully conquered them, expelled
their Arab Governor who then derived his authority from Persia. The
i dynasty of Al-Khalifah has, since that date, continued to rule Bahrain
which outlived unsuccessful attempts by the Sultan of Muscat, the
Persians, the Turks and the Wahhabis to extend their sovereignty
over her.
British treaty relations with Bahrain were established as early as
i
1861, when the British Government signed a friendly Convention with
Shaikh Muhammad Al-Khalifah in his capacity as the ‘Independent
y Ruler of Bahrain’. The present British relations with Bahrain are
-! based on the treaties of protection of 1880-92.1
Qatar
Shortly after 1766 the fUtubi branch of Al-Jalahimah left Kuwait, as
a result of a quarrel with Al-Sabah, and sought the protection of‘their
kinsmen’ at Zubarah. The Al-Jalahimah remained in the Qatar pen­
insula for some time until their ‘almost total destruction’ in tribal
quarrels.
The extension of Turkish influence to Arabia in or about 1871,
brought Qatar under Turkish suzerainty, but she continued to be
governed, directly, by indigenous rulers of the dynasty of Al-Thani.
This same dynasty still rules Qatar today. The first British contact
with Qatar was in 1868, when the Ruler of Qatar at the time, Shaikh
Muhammad ibn Thani, undertook not to commit a breach of the
maritime peace. However, Qatar was virtually brought under British
protection by the treaty of 1916, concluded by Shaikh rAbd Allah ibn
Jasim Al-Thani.2

The Trucial Shaikhdoms
The rulers of the petty Shaikhdoms established their independence at
various places along the Coast of Oman, or the Trucial Coast (for-
1 For the history of the Al-Khalifah branch of *Utub, sec F.O. 60/118 (1845),
op. cit.; I.O. Bombay Secret Proceedings (Historical Sketches on the Powers of the
Arabs of Muscat, the Jassimccs, the Uttoobecs and the Oman, by Mr Warden),
No. 41, Consultn. 37, September 1819, pp. 1657-721; Saldanha, J. A., A Precis of
Bahrain Affairs, 1854-1904 (1904); Al-Nabhani, Muhmmad ibn Khalifah, Tarik al-
Bahrain (Arabic), Cairo, 1342 (1923). On the general history of Bahrain and her
treaty relations, sec Aitchison, pp. 190-7; Oestrup, J., ‘Al-Bahrain’, Encyclopaedia
of Islam, vol. 2 (1913), pp. 584-5; Belgrave, J. H. D., Welcome to Bahrain, 5th cd.
(1965), pp. 61 ct scq.; Belgrave, Sir Charles D., Personal Column: Autobiography
(I960).
2 On the general history of Qatar and her treaty relations, sec I.O., Bombay
Secret Proceedings, op. cit.; Lorimer, pp. 787 ct scq.; Saldanha, J. A., A Precis
of Katar Affairs (1904); Aitchison, pp. 193, 195,258; Admiralty Handbook, op. cit.,
pp. 325-32.