Al-Ahsa

In 1331 AH (1913 AD) Abdulaziz decided the time had come to settle the question of Al-Ahsa. He could have taken it much earlier, since its Ottoman garrison was small. But while the Ottomans were backing Ibn Rashid, he did not want to provoke them or open several fronts at once.

Now the timing suited him. The Ottomans were losing wars and were distracted, the Sharif had overstepped at Al-Quwai’iyah, and Ha’il was caught up in its own troubles. His priority was to end the Ottoman presence in the east, leaving the Hijaz as the only Ottoman-aligned power.

Without a drop of blood

He sent men into Al-Ahsa, ostensibly to buy supplies, to survey the situation. The people of Al-Ahsa had been writing to him, asking what was taking him so long.

When his forces entered Al-Ahsa, the Ottoman garrison under its governor, Ahmad Nadeem, was taken by surprise, and stunned to see the people of Al-Ahsa cooperating with them. The soldiers ran to take refuge in Ibrahim’s Palace. There were a few minor skirmishes, but no battle, and no blood was shed.

The people of Al-Ahsa pledged allegiance to Abdulaziz at the house of Sheikh Abdul-Latif Al-Mulla, calling out, “Allah rules first, then Abdulaziz.” Sheikh Abdul-Latif then went to Ahmad Nadeem, and they agreed that the garrison would surrender and leave with its weapons and belongings, by way of Al-Uqair to Bahrain.

At Al-Uqair the garrison tried to attack a force Abdulaziz had sent ahead of them. But he had also sent a second force behind them, and when they heard its horses they boarded their ships and left for Bahrain for good.

This ended Ottoman rule in Al-Ahsa, which had begun with Midhat Pasha’s campaign in 1288 AH, about forty-three years earlier. Abdulaziz then sent a force under Abdulrahman ibn Swailim, which took Al-Qatif straight away.

A door to the Gulf

Al-Ahsa was a food basket, rich in farms, water and trade. It opened the Gulf to Abdulaziz and made him a neighbour of the Gulf sheikhdoms and of Britain’s interests there, and so his dealings with Britain began. This was on the eve of the First World War, which broke out in 1914, and the Ottomans had just suffered losses in the Balkans.