Page 294 - PERSIAN 4 1899_1905

10 ADMINISTRATION REPORT ON THE PERSIAN GULF POLlTIOAL

Us. 12,000 was tlio most ho could hope to realise, Sayyid Foisal wisely deferred
to his opinion and expressed his willingness (o content himself with that amount
taking into account the fact that in this typical test ease, lie had effectively
proved his title to a definite royalty outlie value of such prizes.
S. Death of the J’azir Stnjyid Saccd-bui-dlahomcd.—Sayyid Saced-bm-
Mahomcd-bin-Salimin, the Sultan’s Vazir, who had for many years been promi­
nently identified with the political history of Maskat, died very "suddenly on the
11th October 1001. Though he complained of a heavy cold in tiio morning, lie was
present at n Darbar at the palace in the evening, when the Commanders of His
Majesty’s ships Perseus anr Jssai/e visited liis llighucss the Sultan oltlciallv
in company with the Political Agent.
Soon after the Darbar broke up, however, he sent for the Agency Surgeon,
who only arrived to see Sayyid Saecd fall down dead after rising to greet him ;
apparently from an aneurism of the heart.
It will be useful to record here a short outline of the late Vazir's _
career,
which, needless to say, was chequered by those vicissitudes of fortune, which a ix*
ever characteristic of service under an oriental Government. Of Al-Bu-Sauli
stock, his forbears had lived in Maskat for several generations, and the deceased
himself, born in the reign of Sayyid Saccd-bin-Sultan, the present Sultan’s grand­
father, received all his teaching and training at the capital, which, except for a
few brief absences, lie never quitted during the sixty odd years of his life.
Sayyid Sneed was one of three brothers, the sons of Mahomcd-biu-Saliuiiu,
one of whom died young, and the eldest, Thuwaini, became Vazir of his namesake
Sayyid Thuwaini-bm-Saeed, in whose service Sayyid Saccd also first entered
public life, being appointed to the charge of the Sultan’s commissariat and trans­
port arrangements. Subsequently, the two Thuwainis, Sultan and Vazir, became
estranged to an extent which ultimately terminated in the deposition of the latter,
who was deported, or at any rate obliged to migrate, to Zanzibar, and was suc­
ceeded in his master’s favours by his younger brother; and although Thuwaini
returned to Maskat two or three years later, he was never again employed by his
namesake, up to the time of the latter’s assassination at Sohar in 13*30.
Polio wing upon this event came four stormy years, during which Salim-
bin-Thuwaini and the J’os’nk pretender, Azzan-hin-Keis, each in turn held the
reins of Government fur a brief period, and Saced-bin-Mahomcd seems to have
served both one and tbc other. At last, in 1871, Sayyid Turki returning from
exile in India, possessed himself of the Sultanate, aiul appears at first to have
taken both brothers into his employ ; but a few months after his accession the
elder Thuwaini was shot dead in the streets of Maskat, in retaliation, it was
believed, for a previous murder in which the ex*Vazir was suspected of complicity.
Por the next fourteen or fifteen years, Sayyid Saoed’s life seems to have been
uneventful, and lie continued to pass his days peacefully in the service of Sayyid
Turki. Towards the end of the latter’s reign, however, relations between the
Vazir and the Sultan, who was at this time a chronic invalid, seem to have under­
gone a marked change, and matters gradually went from bad to worse, until in
May 1SS8 Sayyid Saecd was deposed, and compelled, much against his. will, to
leave Maskat ; whereupon he took up his temporary abode, first at Kishm and
Later at. I {under Abbas.
Meanwhile Savxid Turki’s state of health became suddenly critical, and .in
July, information reached the exile of his late liege’s death at Barka, on receipt
of which news ho was emboldened to return to Maskat in the confident hope
that Sayyid Poisal, who had now succeeded his father and whose interests he has I
always supported, would welcome him hack. In this however he was disap­
pointed, for in pursuance of some undertaking given by Sayyid Turki’s three
sons to their father on his death-bed, the new Sultan refused to sanction his
remaining in .Maskat, and obliged him to return to Kishm or Bunder Abbas.
Later on lie was allowed to return to bis homo and property in Maskat. #
Meanwhile his distant kinsman, Mahomed-binAzzan, had become Vazir.
This functionary, having got into disfavour in 1800 for corresponding
Sultan’s enemies in the interior, was in turn deposed and heavily fined. I non
Sayyid Saecd'8 chance came again and he was re-appointed. Sinister .influcnc
were at work, however, which brought about his second downfall m Oct-od
1808 ; but in May 1000 he was once more taken into favour and appointed L
Vazir, and from that date up to the time of his death ho remained in harness.