Isa Bin Tarif

Shaikh Isa Bin Tarif (ArB|الشيخ عيسى بن طريف) Al Bin Ali Al Utbi was the chief of the Bahrain-based Utub Al Bin Ali tribe from the beginning of the 19th Century until his death in 1847.

Biography

Isa Bin Tarif, Chief of the Al Bin Ali Al Utbi Tribe, is a descendant of the Original Utoobee conquerers of Bahrain [The Precis Of Turkish Expansion On The Arab Littoral Of The Persian Gulf and Hasa and Katif Affairs. By J. A. Saldana; 1904 , I.o. R R/15/1/724] .

The Al Bin Ali were a politically important group that moved backwards and forwards between Qatar and Bahrain, they were the original dominant group of Zubara area [ Arabia's Frontiers: The Story of Britain's Boundary Drawing in the Desert, John C. Wilkinson, p44 ] .

Sayyid Saeed Bin Sultan, Imam of Muscat, asked for the assistance of Shaikh Isa Bin Tarif in conquering the town of Mombasa in Kenya in 1837 with his tribe Utub Al Bin Ali [The Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia by John Gordon Lorimer p451 ] . Fort Jesus in Mombasa was named after Shaikh Isa Bin Tarif after he conquered the fort. The translation of Jesus in Arabic is Isa, hence in Arabic it is called the Fort of Isa.

In the year 1843, Shaikh Isa Bin Tarif was one of the men who assisted Shaikh Mohamed Bin Khalifa to overthrow the ruler of Bahrain who was Shaikh Mohamed's great uncle Shaikh Abdulla Bin Ahmed Al Khalifa whom was also Shaikh Isa Bin Tarif's enemy. [ Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman, and Central Arabia, historical, volume 1, part 1 B, p866-870] .Shaikh Isa Bin Tarif was the uncle of Shaikh Ali Bin Khalifa Al Khalifa the fifth Al-Khalifa Ruler of Bahrain, Shaikh Ali was Shaikh Mohamed's half brother sharing the same father. After helping Shaikh Mohamed in ousting Shaikh Abdulla from rulership of Bahrain, Shaikh Isa Bin Tarif and his tribe Al Bin Ali decided to move to the town of Al-Bida (known today as Doha) and re-established it after the removal of the Al-Sudan Tribe from it. In Al-Bida, Shaikh Isa Bin Tarif built a wall to the sea from both the East and West [(ArB|مجموعة الفضائل في فن النسب وتاريخ القبائل - الشيخ راشد بن فاضل آل بن علي بتحقيق من الشيخ حسن بن محمد آل ثاني ص 76)] . In Al-Bida, Shaikh Isa Bin Tarif was considered as the Shaikh of Al-Bida which at that time meant the Shaikh of Qatar since power was centralised in Al-Bida.

His last battle was in the Battle of Fowairat also known as the battle of um sumwaya which took place at the end of 1847 in Qatar against Shaikh Mohamed Bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Ruler of Bahrain in which Shaikh Mohamed's forces were defeated. But hours after the finish of the battle one of Shaikh Mohamed's followers killed Shaikh Isa Bin Tarif.

References

See also

* Al Bin Ali
*
* Utub
* History of Bahrain
* History of Qatar