In 1782, war broke out between the army of Sheikh Nasr Al-Madhkur, the ruler of Bahrain and Bushehr and the Zubarah-based Bani Utbah clan, though hostilities arose since 1777 after the Persians saw the Zubarah base as a threat. The prosperity of Zubarah, which is in modern Qatar, had brought it to the attention of the two main powers at the time, Persia and Oman, which were presumably sympathetic to Sheikh Nasr's ambitions. At the same time, Bahrain offered great potential wealth because of the extensive pearls found in its waters.