Southern Arabia | Page 7

bin Seif wrested Bahrein from Persia; in 1784 the Uttubbi of
El Hasa conquered it. They have held it ever since, despite the attempts
of Seyid Said of Oman, of the Turks and Persians, to take it from them.
The Turks have, however, succeeded in driving them out of their
original kingdom of El Hasa, on the mainland of Arabia opposite, and
now the Bahrein is all that remains to them of their former extensive
territories.
The royal family is a numerous one, being a branch of the El Khalifa
tribe. They are the chiefs of the Uttubbi tribe of Arabs.
Most of them, if not actually belonging to that strict sect of Arabians
known as Wahabi, have strong puritanical proclivities. Our teetotalers
are nothing to them in bigotry. If a vendor of intoxicating liquor started
a shop on Bahrein, they would burn his house down, so that the wicked
who want to drink any intoxicating liquor have to buy the material
secretly from ships in the harbour. Many think it wrong to smoke, and
spend their lives in prayer and fasting. Church decoration is an
abomination to the Wahabi; therefore, in Bahrein the mosques are little
better than barns with low minarets, for the very tall ones of other
Mohammedan sects are forbidden. The Wahabi are fanatics of the
deepest dye; 'there is one God, and Mohammed is his prophet,' they say
with the rest of the Mohammedan world, but the followers of Abdul
Wahab add, 'and in no case must Mohammed and the Imams be
worshipped lest glory be detracted from God.' All titles to them are
odious; no grand tombs are to be erected over their dead, no mourning

is allowed; hence the cemetery at Manamah is but a pitiful place--a vast
collection of circles set with rough stones, each with a small
uninscribed headpiece, and the surface sprinkled with helix shells.
The Wahabi would wage, if they dared, perpetual war not only against
the infidel, but against such perverted individuals as those who go to
worship at Mecca and other sacred shrines. The founder of this revival
is reported to have beaten his sons to death for drinking wine, and to
have made his daughters support themselves by spinning, but at the
same time he felt himself entitled to give to a fanatical follower, who
courted death for his sake, an order for an emerald palace and a large
number of female slaves in the world to come.
In 1867 the Shah of Persia aimed at acquiring Bahrein, though his only
claim to it was based on the fact that Bahrein had been an appanage of
the Persian crown under the Suffavian kings. He instituted a revolt on
the island; adopted a claimant to the sheikhdom, and got him to hoist
the Persian flag. Our ships blockaded Bahrein, intercepted letters, and
obliged the rebel sheikh to quit. Then it was that we took the islands
under our protection. In 1875 the Turks caused trouble, and the
occupation of Bahrein formed part of their great scheme of conquest in
Arabia. Our ship the Osprey appeared on the scene, drove back the
Turks, transported to India several sheikhs who were hostile to the
English rule, and placed Sheikh Isa (or Esau) on the throne under
British protection, under which he rules happily to this day.
We went to see him at Moharek, where he holds his court in the
winter-time. We crossed over in a small baggala, and had to be poled
for a great distance with our keel perpetually grating on the bottom. It
was like driving in a carriage on a jolting road; the donkeys trotted
independently across, their legs quite covered with water. We were
glad when they came alongside, and we completed our journey on their
backs.
The courtyard of the palace, which somewhat recalls the Alhambra in
its architecture, was, when we arrived, crowded with Arab chiefs in all
manner of quaint costumes. His majesty's dress was exceedingly fine.
He and his family are entitled to wear their camel-hair bands bound

round with gold thread. These looked very regal over the red turban,
and his long black coat, with his silver-studded sword by his side, made
him look every inch a king.
He is most submissive to British interests, inasmuch as his immediate
predecessors who did not love England were shipped off to India, and
still languish there in exile; as he owes his throne entirely to British
protection, he and his family will probably continue to reign as long as
the English are virtual owners of the Gulf, if they are willing to submit
to the English protectorate.
We got a photograph of a group of them resting on their guns, and with
their kanjars or sickle-shaped daggers at their waists. We took Prince