Battle of Khakeekera

Battle of Khakeekera
Date March 1811 Location Al Khuwayr Result Bahraini-Kuwaiti victory
Belligerents
Bahrain Kuwait	Diriyah
Commanders and leaders
Abdullah bin Ahmad Al Khalifa of Kuwait	Rahmah ibn Jabir al-Jalhami
Units involved
200 ships	60 ships
Casualties and losses
1,000 dead	300 dead

The Battle of Khakeekera (Arabic: معركة خكيكرة) was a naval battle that took place in March 1811 between the forces of Bahrain (led by Abdullah bin Ahmad Al Khalifa) and of Kuwait (led by Jaber I Al-Sabah) on one side, and those of the Emirate of Diriyah (or First Saudi State) led by Rahmah ibn Jabir al-Jalhami, the pirate ruler of Dammam and some villages in Qatar, on the other. The battle took place northwest of Qatar and ended with a Bahraini-Kuwaiti victory.^[1]

Background[]

King Saud bin Abdulaziz bin Muhammad bin Saud wrote to Ibn Jabir, ordering him to prepare an invasion in retaliation for the House of Khalifa renouncing Saudi suzerainty. To this end, the king sent his vassal troops from Najd, Al-Ahsa, and Qatif and a fleet of 60 ships. Learning of this, Al Khalifa asked for aid from Al Sabah to repel the invasion.

Battle[]

Ibn Jabir noticed the reinforcements were inadequate to the task and wanted to withdraw, but he was prevented from doing so by Ibn Afisan, the former Saudi governor and titular Emir of Bahrain. Therefore, Ibn Jabir's fleet proceeded to Al Khuwayr, where they were captured despite killing 1,000 Bahraini and Kuwaiti soldiers, including officers Duaij bin Sabah Al Sabah and Rashid bin Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Khalifa. Ibn Jabir lost 300 troops and was forced to withdraw to defend Diriyah from Ottoman armies invading the western Hejaz from Yanbu on the Red Sea.^[2][3]

Ship burning[]

, the chief historian of the early Wahhabi movement, writes as follows in his 1853 book Unwān al-majd fī ta'rīkh Najd ("The Name of Glory in the History of the Najd"), written around 1853 to 1854 but first published in 1873:

Some of each side’s ships encountered one another at sea near Bahrain in the month of Rabiʽ al-Awwal. In the battle, more than a thousand men were killed among the people of Bahrain and their followers, including Duaij bin Sabah, the ruler of Kuwait, as well as Rashid bin Abdullah bin Hamad Al Khalifa and other nobles.^[4]

References[]