Page 153 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

friendly attitude towards the Khalifah, sending an envoy, Sekunder
Khan, to Bahrain, bearing presents and robes of honour for the
Shaikhs. Me offered them terms if they would declare their
allegiance to Persia, but they declined to lose their independence.
It was now the turn of the Khalifah to become friendly with the
Wahabis and the Joasmi pirates of the coast, thus producing
another change in the situation. The Joasmi had, for some time,
frequented Bahrain harbours, selling much of their booty in the
bazaars. These constant changes in loyalties, if they can be so
described, arc difficult to follow, but there was one person who m
held steadfastly to the same policy, that was Rahmah, whose idee
fixe was to destroy the Khalifah.
When Loch met Rahmah in November 1819, the old pirate
was trying to persuade the Persians in Bushirc to join him in an
attack on Bahrain. Loch says of him: ‘he was as great a pirate as
those of the Joasmi tribe with this exception, he protected British
trade, and was at peace with Basra and Bushirc, but at war with
every other part of the Gulf. This man was the terror of the
Gulf, not being very scrupulous as to whom he attacked, neither
giving or expecting quarter ... he exercised his crimes under the
cloak of religion... his avarice was equal to his cruelty and
brutality/
Loch describes Rahmah as being ‘about five foot seven, nearly
sixty years of age, stooping considerably, with a quick waddling
gait at this season of the year, wearing a large, black goat’s hair
cloak, the hood similar to that of the Capuchins, drawn close
round his head. Thus his small, but sharp-featured face peered
from under the bonnet-shaped hood, giving him the appearance
of some hellish old sorceress, rather than the man whose name
was enough to create alarm wherever he carried his feuds.’
‘In going through the streets, he was gazed at by all, and fol­
lowed by a crowd of children. Above his cloak, he had slung
over the left shoulder, hanging on the right side, a huge sabre and
in his girdle a pair of pistols. His address was abrupt, and ex­
tremely forbidding, his voice sharp, and loud, speaking as rapidly
as he could pronounce the words. When seated, he had a trick
of placing his sword under one leg and over the other, drawing it
half from its scabbard, and forcing it back with a loud snap.
Again, drawing first one pistol from his girdle, then the other,
examining the priming, as if to be certain all was fit for service,
129