Page 480 - PERSIAN 4 1899_1905

8 ADMINISTRATION REPORT ON THE PEESIAN GOLF POLITICAL

Part II.—ADMINISTRATION REPORT CP THE MASKAT FOLITI,
CAL AGENCY, 1903-1904u

Tho tribal In tho matter of internal politics tho year under review would have
politics of furnished a generally satisfactory record had it not "been for the sinister
Oman.
activity of the sons of tho Sultan’s old enemy, the lato Salch-bin-ali-al-Hartlii,
leader of tho rebellion of 1895.
Since their father’s death in 1S98, his three sons, Aysa, Ali, and Ahmed
havo seldom allowed many months to pass without seeking unpleasant notoriety
of one kind or another, and making themselves a source of expenso and
anxiety to tho Sultan. The two younger brothers arc restless no’er-do-walls
of a troublesome typo but possessed of littic personal reputation or influence
except among such kindred spirits of their own and allied clans as are ready to
respond to thoir call when any convenient opportunity arises for committiug
depredations upon ill-protected or unsuspecting neighbours.
The eldest of tho three, Aysa, takes after his father, and is certainly a
more dignified and serious character than Ills brothers. He has a considerable
reputation for asceticism and piety of a somewhat bigotted type, and has no
small confidence in his own astuteness as a politician, but though he affects
to disapprove of the turbulent vagaries of his brothers and even writes apologe­
tically of them, he appears unable or disinclined to put any check upon them,
even if he does not give them secret encouragement.
As before stated the family seldom remains in the back ground for long
together, but the last occasion, upon which they made themselves especially
conspicuous, was in 1901, when the first expedition was undertaken on the
Sultan’s behalf to explore the reported coal hearing tract in Janlan. It will
be remembered that on that occasion, realising that organised obstruction to the
geologist’s movements afforded a convenient means of annoying and black­
mailing the Sultan, the brothers collected a considerable retinue and for some
weeks altogether barred the progress of the exploring party, finally contriving
a treacherous ambuscade which only good luck prevented from being fraught
with serious consequences.
During the present year it was in the month of August that the brothers
first drew public attention to themselves. Daring that month His Highness
the Sultan had proceeded to Soor to endeavour to settle certain dissensions
between the two clans inhabiting that port which bade fair to develope into a
sanguinary feud which might have continued indefinitely, but he had hardly taken
the matter in band when be was obliged to burry northwards again in the
“ Noor-ul-Bahr ” owing to the receipt of a disquieting report to the effect that
the sons of Saleh-hin-Ali had suddenly migrated from the Sharkiyeh with a
strong following, and were plotting to possess themselves of the strongholds of
Hazm and Rostak. It was in the first place well understood that, were they
to succeed in this enterprise, they would make the Forts a base of operations
for organised annoyance to the 8ultan, and it was further freely rumoured that
Aysa aspired to set up a religious Imam in the person—if not of himself—of
some puppet who would be in the leading strings of himself and his following.
# It may here be explained that the Forts of Hazm and Rostak with their
environments have been held for some generations past by representatives of
the “ Azzan ” and “ Kais,” collateral branches of the reigning family’s clan,
the Al-bu«8ejyid. Hazm being now held by 8eyyid-bin-Ibrabim-bin-KaiSi
whose sister is one of Seyyid Faisal’s wives, and Rostak by Hamood-bin-
Azzan. The genealogies of both unite with that of the Sultan in the person
of Ahmed-bin-9eyyid *• A1 Imam.” Though outwardly on good terms with
Highness, and in receipt of honorific allowances from him, they are practi­
cally independent of his authority, and being members of rival branches of
the family, it has never been safe for the present reigning family to place tdo
much store on their loyalty. Aysa-bin-Saleh no doubt realised that the
atmosphere of Qazm and Rostak was a congenial one for the development of
his designs.

i