Page 135 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

96 TRAVELS IN OMAN. [ch.

and ulcers on the legs, were the most pre­
valent complaints: botli seem to arise from

the cold and damp of their dwellings, which
are erected in the neighbourhood of grounds

continually saturated with moisture. At eight,
a.m., we proceeded N.W. | W., along W&di

Bethit, and passed several hamlets on either
side the road. At nine hours forty-five, we

arrived at the suk, or market. This place is
celebrated for two defeats of the Wahhabis,

one in 1811, when their force was under the
,
direction of Abduliziz * and the other a few
months after my visit. On the former occasion,
among others, there fell a chief named Sheikh

Mutlock, whose son, Seyyid Ibn Mutlock, then
but a boy, was with him on the field. With

much of that vindictive feeling which forms
so prominent a feature in the character of the

Arab, the young Sheikh from that moment
continued to cherish the most deadly hatred

* The genealogy of the Wahh&bi chiefs is as follows:—Fasil,
the present Imam, as he is now styled, Ibn Furkey, Ibn Abdallah,
Ibn Mohammed, Ibn Saoud, Ibn Abduliziz, and Ibn Saaud, who, in
1747, became a proselyte of the reformer Abdoul Wahhib. Abdu­
liziz here referred to is the individual who, in 1801, pillaged and
burnt the town and magnificent mausoleum of Im5.m Hassein,
and with ruthless barbarity butchered indiscriminately all the men,
women, and children, that fell into his hands.