Page 47 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

8 TRAVELS IN OMAN. [cm.

have endeared him to the Bedowins. These
splendid qualities have obtained for him

throughout the East the designation of the

Second Omar.
SayyidS’aid is the son of Sooltan, the third
son of Ahmed Ibn S’aid, who, in a.d. 1730,

rescued his country from the Persian yoke.

Although the individuals in this line are not
of the Yaharabi ul Azad tribe, by whom
*
the sovereignty of Oman was held for about
two hundred and fifty years, and to whom, in

the person of Saaef, Ahmed Ibn S’aid, of
the Yaharabi ul Azedu, succeeded, yet the

two dynasties are collaterally descended from
the same common ancestor, Azad, which is

* Jarab was the son of Sooltan, the son of Eber, and brother of
Peleg, and from him the ancient Arabians derive their ancestry.
The Yaharabi, therefore, who claim the nearest approach to the
parent stem, trace their genealogy further back than the other
tribes in Arabia, and may, undoubtedly, be pronounced the oldest
family in the world. Saba, the grandson of Sooltan, founded
Saba, and the Sabeans are supposed to be identified with the
Cushites, who dwelt upon the shores of the Persian Gulf. This
was the position the Seceders occupied at the period of the dispute
between Ali and Mowaiyah for the caliphat, and it throws a ray of
light upon the mist that envelopes the history of this remote pe­
riod, when we find some direct evidence bearing on a point which
has heretofore been a matter of mere conjecture. The name of
Arabia, with some show of reason, has also been derived from the
Jarib here alluded to.