Qatar: Late 18th Century-Early 19th

Century
Qatar and Bahrain
 The Jalahimah and Al-Khalifa
 Jalahimah settlement in Khawr Hassan
 Their leader Rahma bin Jabir
 His search of new allies against Al-Khalifa
 His first allies were the Wahabis in Saudi Arabia
 Wahabi involvement in Qatar 1787-88
 Rahma’s attacks on Utub of Kuwait and Bahrain
 Attacking Persian ships
 Persian reaction: attacked Khawr Hassan in 1809 but they
were defeated
 Rahma strengthened his alliance with Wahabis
 Wahabis expansion in the Gulf:
 1800 Wahabi controlled all of Hasa
 Same year occupied Buraimi oasis
 1809 Wahabi and Rahma tookover Zubarah
 1810 Al-Khalifa sought the protection of the Wahabi as a
result of Oman threat
 Al-Khalifa surrendered their authority to Wahabis
 By 1810: Hasa, Qatar, Bahrain were all under Wahabi control
Role of Oman
 Oman angered by the Wahabi control of Bahrain
 Sayyid Said bin Sultan could not tolerate Wahabi presence in
Bahrain
 Sayyid Said dislike of Ibn Saud
 Implications for the rise of Ibn Saud
 Threat to Oman
 Threat to the Ottomans
Ottoman Empire in the Gulf
 1802 Wahabi entered Karbala, a major Shia city
 They also took Mecca and Medina, and parts of Yemen
 All together: Wahabi controled central Arabia, Hijaz, part
of Yemen and a good part of the western shore of the
Gulf
 To stop Wahabi expansion: Ottomans authorized
Muhammad Ali of Egypt to recover Hijaz
 1811 Muhammad Ali campaign against the Wahabis and by
1812 they were dislodeged from Hijaz
 Sayyid Said took this opportunity and attack the Wahabi in
Qatar and destroyed Zubarah
 Wahabis withdrew from Qatar and Bahrain
 Fate of Rahma bin Jabir: left Qatar and settled in Dammam
 Death of Saud ibn Abdel Aziz in 1814 and the decline of the
Wahabi movement
 Ibrahim Pasha campaign
 1818 taking over Dariyyah their capital
Oman and Bahrain
 Sayyid Said restored Al-Khalifa to power in Bahrain
 Said Said ability to force Al-Khalifa to be subordinate to him
 Rahma bin Jaber switched alliegance to Sayyid Said and
became enemy of the Wahabis
 He had to leave Damman and ended up in Bushire on the
Persian coast, from where he continued his naval
operations against Al-Khalifa
 British intervention
 Rahma made peace with Al-Khalifa in 1824
 His death in 1826
The Treaty of 1820
 Growing piracy and attack on British ships by the Qawasim
from Bahrain
 British East India Company naval ship destroying Ras al-
Khaimah in 1819
 The treaty of 1820 with chiefs of various tribes of the Trucial
Coast to:
 End piracy and kidnapping of slaves
 Fearing retaliation, Bahrain rulers signed a treaty with the
British
 Bahrain coming under a form of British control
 Qatar did not sign a treaty, but was considered a dependency
of Bahrain
 Qatar tribes were not aware of these treaties and piracy
continued from their shores
 British East India Company attack on Doha in 1823 and the
flight of its people
 As far as the British were concerned Qatar was part of
Bahrain
 Qatar had no prominent leader
 1828 Bahrain imprisoned Muhammad bin Khamis, the
leading figure in Doha for killing a Bahrain resident
 1841 Doha was bombarded again by British ships for piracy
activity
 Until the late 19th century Qatar was not recognized as a
single independent entity