Page 213 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

MUSK AT. 171

t Shaikh Nassir, and became masters of the river. Bussora was in
consequence abundantly supplied. The town,
a. d. 1776.
however, having been ultimately compelled to
surrender to the Persians, the Muskat fleet returned to port.
16. Hostilities next ensued between the Imauin of Muskat and
Shaikh Rashid of Ras-ool-Khyma, who had be­ '
a. d. 1778-79.
come very powerful, by land. He had taken |i
some Bussora craft, on the plea of their having Muskat property on board.
17. The Julfar fleet continued to cruise in the Gulf, rousing every
petty Shaikh to fit out armed boats, which carried on a predatory
system of warfare. The death of Kurcem Khan, which led to the
evacuation of Bussora by the Persians, and to its re-occupation by the .
Turks, having in a great degree dissolved the bonds which kept the
;
various powers under control and subjection,
a. d. 1780-81.
the Gulf was involved in the greatest trouble,
one power carrying on hostilities against another.
18. It was during this period of a general contest for independence,
arising out of the decline of the Persian power
a. d. 1781-82.
in the Gulf, that the Uttoobee Arabs con­
quered Bahrein from the Persians. In the repeated attempts made
by the Shaikh of Bushire, in conjunction with the Chief of Ras-ool-
Khyma, to recover Bahrein, the Imaum of Muskat preserved a strict
neutrality.
19. During the hostilities that were carried on in the subsequent
years between the Turkish Government of Bus­
A. D. 1783 to 1797*
sora, and the Montifik Arabs and their allies, the
Muskat Government also maintained a strict neutrality ; nor did it
interfere in the affairs of the Gulf until the Imaumship of Syud Sultan,
or Sultan bin Ahmed, in the year 1797.
20. Syud Sultan was the second son of Syud Ahmed, the first
Imaum, but being of a restless and enterprising genius, had unjustly
deprived his elder brother, Saud Syud bin Ahmed, the rightful heir and
his immediate sovereign, of power and authority, by confining him to
the city of Bombac, and its immediate vicinity, the usual residence of
the Imaums. Having obtained possession of Muskat, he made it the
seat of his Government, and thence prosecuted his ambitious plans
'
against his neighbours.
21. The turbulence of his disposition urged him into serious disputes
with the Arabs in the Gulf, which involved him in hostilities with
many of them, who had united against him. This rupture rendered
the navigation of the Gulf extremely insecure. The Viper cruiser was
attacked in the month of October 1797, whilst at anchor in the roads
of Bushire, by some Dows, commanded by Shaikh Saleh, the nephew

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