Nejd, Emirate of

East-West trade through the Persian Gulf dries up in the nineteenth century after the opening of the Suez Canal, which provides an all-water route to the Mediterranean Sea.

Gulf merchants continue to earn substantial income from the slave trade, but international pressure, mostly from Britain, forces them to abandon this by 1900.

Hereafter, the region continues to profit from the gulf pearl beds, but this industry declines in the 1930s as a result of the world depression, which reduces demand, and as a result of the Japanese development of a cheaper way to "breed" pearls, or make cultured pearls.

The British, during the next hundred years, sign a series of treaties having wide-ranging provisions with other tribes in the gulf.

As a result, by the end of the First World War, leaders from Oman to Iraq have essentially yielded control of their foreign relations to Britain.

Abu Dhabi enters into arrangements similar to those of Dubai and Bahrain in 1835, Kuwait in 1899, and Qatar in 1916.

The treaty whose terms convey the most representative sense of the relationship between Britain and the gulf states is the Exclusive Agreement of 1882.

This text specified that the signatory gulf states (members of the present-day UAE) cannot make any international agreements or host any foreign agent without British consent.

Gulf leaders, because of their concessions to the UK, accept the need for Britain to protect them from their more powerful neighbors.

The main threat comes from the Al Saud in central Arabia.

Although the Ottomans had defeated the first Wahhabi empire of the Al Saud around 1820, the family rises up again about thirty years later; it threatens not only the Al Qasimi, who by this time have largely abandoned Wahhabi Islam, but also the Al Khalifa in Bahrain and the Ibadi sultan in Oman.

The Al Saud also threaten Qatar in the early 1900s, despite that country's Wahhabi rulers.

Only with British assistance can the Al Thani and other area rulers retain their authority.

The Al Saud are not the only threat to the Trucial States.

Despite its treaty agreement with Britain, Bahrain on several occasions claims Qatar because of the Al Khalifa involvement on the peninsula.

The Omanis and Iranians have also claimed Bahrain because both have held the island at various times.

Furthermore, the Ottomans claim Bahrain occasionally and try throughout the latter part of the nineteenth century to establish their authority in Kuwait and Qatar.

The British wish to maintain security on the route from Europe to India so that merchants can safely send goods between India and the gulf.

Britain also seeks to exclude the influence in the area of other powers, such as the Ottoman Empire and France.

Muhammad Ali and the Egyptians had been severely weakened after the British and French defeated their fleet off the coast of Greece in 1827.

This action had prevented the Egyptians from exerting much influence in Arabia, but it left the Al Saud with the problem of the Ottomans, whose ultimate authority Turki had eventually acknowledged.

Because the challenge to the sultan had helped end the first Al Saud empire in 1818, later rulers choose to accommodate the Ottomans as much as they can.

The Al Saud eventually become of considerable financial importance to the Ottomans because they collect tribute from the rich trading state of Oman and forward much of this to the ashraf in Mecca, who relays it to the sultan.

In return, the Ottomans recognize the Al Saud authority and leave them alone for the most part.

Whereas the Al Saud are largely successful in handling these two powers in the Persian Gulf, they do not do so well in managing their family affairs.

The killing of Turki in 1834 touches off a long period of fighting.

One of the reasons the Ottomans are unsuccessful is the growing British interest in Arabia.

The British government in India considers the Persian Gulf to be its western flank and thus increasingly becomes concerned about the trade with the Arab tribes on the eastern coast.

The British are also anxious about potentially hostile Ottoman influence in an area so close to India and the planned Suez Canal

As a result, the British come into increasing contact with the Al Saud.

As Wahhabi leaders, the Al Saud can exert some control over some of the tribes on the gulf coast, and they are simultaneously involved with the Ottomans.

During the period from the 1830s to the 1880s, the Al Saud leaders will play off the Ottomans and British against each other.

The Ottomans, however, sometimes try to expand their influence by supporting renegade members of the Al Saud.

When two of Faisal's sons, Abd Allah and Saud, vied to take over the empire from their father, Abd Allah enlists the aid of the Ottoman governor in Iraq, who uses the opportunity to take Al Qatif and Al Hufuf in eastern Arabia.

The Ottomans eventually are driven out, but until the time of Abd al Aziz they will continue to look for a relationship with the Al Saud that they can exploit.

Turki bin Abdullah bin Muhammad and his successors rule from Riyadh over a wide area.

They control the region to the north and south of Najd and exert considerable influence along the western coast of the Persian Gulf.

This area is no state but a large sphere of influence that the Al Saud hold together with a combination of treaties and delegated authority.

In the Jabal Shammar to the north, for instance, the Al Saud support the rule of Abd Allah ibn Rashid, with whom Turki maintains a close alliance.

Later, Turki's son will Faisal cement this alliance by marrying his son, Talal, to Abd Allah's daughter, Nura.

Although this family-to-family connection works well, the Al Saud prefer to rely in the east on appointed leaders to rule on their behalf.

In other areas, they are content to establish treaties under the terms of which tribes agree to defend the family's interests or to refrain from attacking the Al Saud when the opportunity arises.