Page 8 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

IX*

ment of the Bani Bu Ali tribe by a special British expedi­
tion in 1821 needs to be evaluated. Though not yet men­
tioned, Wellsted’s writings make it clear that this inter­
est was the motive behind his first expedition into Inner
Oman, undertaken in 1834—35. Under the leadership of
General Sir Lionel Smith and with the Sultan’s tacit con­
sent, the Bani Bu Ali tribe, which had been converted to
the Wahhabi Faith a few years previously, was subjugated
and suffered great loss in the course of the campaign against
piracy. Information about the position of this tribe, its atti­
tudes toward the British and above all its importance as a
Wahhabi tribe in an area otherwise entirely of the Ibadite
Faith—and thus about the influence of Saudi-Arabia in the
south of the peninsula—must have been of interest to the
British. Herein lay the political and military motives for
Wellsted’s expedition. For during this period Great Britain
was in the process of systematically expanding her control­
ling influence in this part of the world, too. The occupation
of Aden in 1839 and the punitive expedition to Dhofar
against the mountain tribes were visible signs of British poli­
cy ‘‘east of Suez.”
For the times, Wellsted carried out his scientific goals in
a truly exemplary fashion. Not only his painstakingly exact
cartographical records, which remain valid today, but also
an abundance of minutely described observations of cus­
toms, manners, types of dwellings, of camel breeding, date
harvesting, irrigation and vegetation, among other things,
distinguish the first volume, which is devoted to Oman. It is
particularly striking that his descriptions are almost entirely
free of evaluation, of European reflections and free, too, of
presumptuous prejudices. So it is not at all surprising that
G. Schweinfurth, known to be particularly critical, de­
scribes Wellsted as one of the most conscientious scientific
explorers that ever lived.
Although interest in the southeast of the Arabian pen-