Page 431 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

392 TRAVELS IN OMAN. [CH.

which induced a considerable number of the

Prophet’s followers to desert their chief, settle
in Oman, and choose an Imam or Kalif of

their own. This event occurred during the
wars in which ’Ali ibn Talib, the son-in-law

of Mohammed, was engaged, in order to pos­
sess himself of the disputed Kalifat; and

these seceders then received the appellation
of “ Khuwarijites,” a term of reproach their

sect still retains.
Excepting during the brief sway of the

Portuguese, the sovereignty of Oman re­
mained in the familv of the Yaharabi el
•/
Azad for two hundred and fifty years. I
think it will be considered sufficient if I be­

gin with Seif
*
.
This Prince, in 1658, drove the Portuguese
from Maskat: he took Zanzibar, and several
ports on the African, a few on the Persian,

and one or two others on the Makran coast,
with Bahrein, Kishm, and many other
islands in the Persian Gulf. His descend­

ants lost Bahrein, which threw off the yoke

towards the close of the last century, but

* The genealogy of the preceding Im&ms is Seif ibn Sooltan,
Ibn Malik, Ibn Adul Arab, el Yaharabi, ul Uzd6, ul Quaitanf.