Page 398 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

XXII.] TRAVELS IN OMAN. 359

attacked him with so much fury that he was
glad to escape with a miserable remnant into

Egypt, and leave Arabia as unconquered as
before. In the same manner they rid them­

selves at a subsequent period of the Persians,
who at one time, under Nurshivan, possessed
the greater part of their frontier, including

Oman; of the Abyssinians, who ravaged He-
jas and Yemen ; and, finally, of the Turks,

who for a period fixed themselves in Yemen.
It remains to be proved whether the wily

policy of Mohammed ’AH, who is supposed
to contemplate the subjection of the whole

peninsula, will surmount these difficulties.
His former success against the Wahhabis
affords no criterion by which we can judge;

for those sectaries were considered by the

more orthodox Arabians as a common enemy ;
and the union of several Arab tribes with his
own troops alone enabled him to bring that

war to a successful termination. The late
destruction of his army—then well appointed

and well commanded—in the Assai'r country
would rather induce us to anticipate no better

conclusion to his efforts than, as I have just
shown, attended those of former invaders.