Assassination on the beach: The death of Shaikh Khalīfah
In the 19th century, the ruler of Abu Dhabi had significant wealth and power in the Persian Gulf. It was also a precarious position. Multiple holders of the title (referred to as the ‘Chief of Abu Dhabi’ in contemporary records) died violently. The India Office Records tell the story of one such death - the 1845 assassination of Shaikh Khalīfah bin Shakhbūṭ Āl Nahyān, by his own relatives.
Map of Arabia and Syria - 'The Map which Lady Anne Blunt took to Nejd', 1878-1879. Shelfmark: Add.54083 Images Online
A detailed account of the assassination can be found in a letter from Mullā Ḥusayn, Agent at Sharjah , to Major Samuel Hennell the Resident in the Persian Gulf. Ḥusayn provides some background to the assassination: Shaikh Khalīfah’s brother had tried to convince him of the danger posed by their relatives, specifically their nephew, ‘Īsá bin Khālid al-Falāḥī. Khalīfah was unconvinced by this, and refused his brother’s suggestion to banish ‘Īsá from Abu Dhabi. Khalīfah attempted to win his relatives over by treating them ‘with great favour and kindness’.
The plan backfired spectacularly as the assassination happened during a meal by the beach in July 1845. Ḥusayn paints a picture of a relaxing day, with ‘conversation on indifferent and frivolous subjects’, taking place while ‘the usual eatables’ were enjoyed in the shade. As Khalīfah’s brother walked towards the beach, the assassins, under orders from ‘Īsá, ‘suddenly drew their daggers and struck him’. Khalīfah drew his sword to defend his brother, but the assassins turned on him. As the brothers lay dying, the assassins ‘seized the fort, then entered the houses of the Sheikhs, [and] ejected their women and children’. ‘Īsá then secretly wrote and sent a letter in the name of Shaikh Khalīfah and his brother, requesting that members of their tribe bring horses and camels to Abu Dhabi, presumably with the intention of capturing and using them himself. Ḥusayn’s comment that this caused ‘great consternation’ in the surrounding area may, perhaps, seem a bit of an understatement.
After receiving Husayn’s letter, British authorities displayed a surprising calm. They acknowledged that the assassination had been ‘atrocious’, and they especially lamented the loss of a Shaikh they had been working with efficiently. ‘The demise of Shaikh Khalīfah is much regretted,’ wrote Hennell , ‘[because] he thoroughly understood and appreciated the power of the British Government’. Hennell explained the strategic advantages that Britain had achieved by co-operating with Khalīfah , demonstrating that relations had been effective and mutually beneficial. However, British officials wrote that they did ‘not anticipate that this event [would] disturb the tranquillity of the Gulf’. To them, this unhappy event was a local matter that would not have monumental wider impact on the region.
The aftermath of the assassination saw further politically motivated murders, with multiple relatives of Shaikh Khalīfah being assassinated as they vied for control of Abu Dhabi. The series of murders demonstrated that, in this region at the time, power went hand-in-hand with danger.
Miriam Gibson
Content Specialist Archivist, British Library/Qatar Foundation Partnership
Further Reading:
Details regarding the assassination, its reporting to the British, and reactions to it – British Library IOR/P/931/32 ff 235-244.
More information about the assassination can be found in:
J G Lorimer, Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf Vol I. Historical. Part IA & IB (1915).
Frauke Heard-Bey, From Trucial States to United Arab Emirates : a society in transition (2005)