Muhammad bin Khalifa Al Khalifa

Muhammad bin Khalifa Al Khalifa (محمد بن خليفة بن سلمان آل خليفة; died 1890) was the ruler of Bahrain between 1843 and 1868. He was the sixth monarch of the Al Khalifa dynasty. During his reign Bahrain became part of the Trucial States.

Muhammad bin Khalifa Al Khalifa
Hakim of Bahrain
Reign1843 – 1868
PredecessorAbdullah bin Ahmad Al Khalifa
SuccessorAli bin Khalifa Al Khalifa
Died1890
Mecca, Ottoman Empire
Names
Muhammad bin Khalifa bin Salman bin Ahmed
HouseHouse of Khalifa
FatherKhalifa bin Salman

Early life and struggle

Muhammad was the grandson of Salman bin Ahmed, co-ruler of Bahrain, and had four brothers, Ali, Duaij, Salman and Rashid.[1] He served as the governor of Manama during the reign of his father, Khalifa bin Salman.[1][2] Muhammad succeeded his father as the co-ruler when he died in 1834, but with diminished power.[1][2] In 1842 Muhammad challenged the reign of his grand uncle Abdullah bin Ahmad Al Khalifa and declared himself as the ruler of Bahrain and Qatar.[1] However, Muhammad was defeated in the battle of Al Nasfah against Abdullah bin Ahmad Al Khalifa and took refuge in the Emirate of Najd under the protection of Saudi ruler Abdullah bin Thunayan.[1][3]

Reign and abdication

In early 1843 Muhammad returned to Qatar and then to Bahrain, and in April 1843 he defeated Abdullah bin Ahmad Al Khalifa becoming the ruler.[1][4] During his reign Muhammad paid an annual tribute to Faisal bin Turki, successor of Abdullah bin Thunayan as the Emir of Najd.[5] However, in 1850 he began not to pay the amount,[5] and next year Muhammad attempted to get support from the Ottomans, but his attempt was not fruitful.[6] Abdullah bin Faisal, son of the ruler of Najd, managed to reach an agreement with Muhammad through the mediation of Said bin Tahnoon, the ruler of Abu Dhabi.[5]

Muhammad signed a treaty with the British in 1856 whereby he guaranteed that he would capture the British vessels carrying war slaves in his territories and to ban his or his subjects' vessels from carrying slaves.[7] In 1860 Muhammad asked the Persians to be the protector of his reign due to the restrictions on his actions imposed by the British due the treaty mentioned above, and his proposal was welcomed by them, but was not materialized.[6][8] Muhammad and his brother Ali was forced by the British Resident, Commander Felix Jones to sign a convention, and the convention effectively integrated Bahrain into the Trucial System in 1861.[6]

Muhammad abdicated as a result of the British intervention after an alleged violation of the 1861 convention which prevented him from carrying out maritime depredations.[4][9] In 1867 he and the sheikhs of Abu Dhabi attacked the coast of Qatar which led to great damage in the region, and this incident accelerated his deposition by the British.[9] Muhammad fled country in 1868 and first went to Khor Hassan in Qatar before settling in Qatif.[6] He was succeeded by his brother, Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa,[6] who was killed by the forces of Muhammad bin Abdullah Al Khalifa in 1869.[4][10] The British forces captured Muhammad and sent him to a prison in India.[9] In addition, due to the extensive intrafamilial fractions Britain blockaded the islands of Bahrain and took all of the Al Khalifa members into custody imposing conditions that resulted in the changing the ruler.[11] They appointed Isa bin Ali Al Khalifa as the new ruler of Bahrain.[9]

In 1888 Muhammad was freed from the Indian prison and brought to Mecca where he lived as a pensioner of the Ottomans until his death in 1890.[9]

References
  1. Abdulaziz Mohamed Hasan Ali Al Khalifa (April 2013). Relentless Warrior and Shrewd Tactician: Shaikh Abdullah bin Ahmad of Bahrain 1795-1849 A Case Study of Shaikhly Statecraft in the Nineteenth Century Gulf (PhD thesis). University of Exeter. hdl:10871/12461.
  2. Mohammed Ameen (March 1981). A Study of Egyptian Rule in Eastern Arabia (1814-1841) (MA thesis). McGill University. p. 43. OCLC 891205897.
  3. R. Bayly Winder (1965). Saudi Arabia in the Nineteenth Century. London: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 140. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-81723-8. ISBN 978-0-3330-5541-0.
  4. J. B. Kelly (January 1957). "The Persian Claim to Bahrain". International Affairs. 33 (1): 60. doi:10.2307/2604468. JSTOR 2604468.
  5. Bilal Ahmad Kutty (1997). Saudi Arabia under King Faisal (PDF) (PhD thesis). Aligarh Muslim University. pp. 45–46.
  6. Talal Toufic Farah (1979). Protection and Politics in Bahrain, 1869-1915 (PhD thesis). University of London. pp. 26–27, 51. ISBN 978-0-438-69521-4. OCLC 13992770. ProQuest 2184778942.
  7. Hassan Ali Radhi (2003). Judiciary and Arbitration in Bahrain A Historical and Analytical Study. Vol. 25. London; The Hague; New York: Kluwer Law International. p. 12. doi:10.1163/9789004480407. ISBN 9789004480407.
  8. Mohammed Ghanim Al Rumaihi (1973). Social and political change in Bahrain since the First World War (PhD thesis). Durham University. p. 17.
  9. Frederick Fallowfield Anscombe (1994). The Ottoman Gulf and the creation of Kuwayt, Sa'udi Arabia and Qatar, 1871-1914 (PhD thesis). Princeton University. pp. 24, 261. ProQuest 304117067.
  10. Justin J. Gengler (2013). "Royal Factionalism, the Khawalid, and the Securitization of 'the Shīʿa Problem' in Bahrain". Journal of Arabian Studies. 3 (1): 59. doi:10.1080/21534764.2013.802944. S2CID 145223193.
  11. Mansoor Al Jamri (November 2010). "Shia and the State in Bahrain: Integration and Tension" (PDF). Alternative Politics. 1. ISSN 1309-0593. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 April 2018.
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