Page 45 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

THE PERSIAN GULP.

PROVINCE OF OMAN.
The two Arab tribes, Hinavi and Ghafiri, are the most prominent in
the annals of the Province of Oman ; the Yarabi and the Syudi, to
which last belong the family of the present Imaums, being both but
branches merely of the Hinavi. From the Ghafiri the Joasim are
descended.
The following historical paragraphs are from authentic sources of
Arabian Tradition.
Malik bin Fakham, of the Province of Nujd, the first native Arabian
who entered Oman, four centuries before the Christian era, came by the
route of Yemen, where he was joined by little more than a hundred
persons of the Hinavi Tribe of Arabs, who were desirous of following
his fortunes. Malik was of a liberal disposition, and an intrepid mind,
the union of which qualities commanded the admiration and obedience
of his followers.
The first settlement of these colonists was at Bahia, or, according to
others, at Jaalan, two towns of the Dhahirah, or interior portion of the
Province of Oman, south-westward of Muskat about seventy miles.
Here they encountered and overcame the troops of the Persian Mo­
narch, and subsequently fortified the ancient city of Rastag, situated in
the central or mountainous district of Oman, thirty miles westward of
Muskat.
These colonists were shortly increased, by the accession of two hun­
dred persons of Malik’s tribe, the Banu Ilonaifah of Nujd, and a second
company of two thousand of the Hinavi from Yemen, who were attract­
ed by the fame and increasing power of this chieftain. Successive
additions of the same and other tribes, to the numbers of these Arabs,
enabled them at length to expel the Persians from the province alto­
gether, though not without severe and obstinate resistance on the part
of their enemy, who received repeated reinforcements of troops.
Malik at length died, after having possessed Oman for forty years ;
and was interred at Zaki, a town in the central division of Oman,' about