Page 46 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

4 OMAN.

five-and-lwenty miles to the westward of Muskat. This chieftain left
behind him four sons, and a numerous clan of adherents, in the indivi
duals of the tribes of Honaifah and Hinavi, whom he had with
consum-
mate policy united by the indissoluble ties of intermarriage, and
collectively named Hinavi; wishing thus to commemorate the aid the
superior numbers, constancy, and valour of this tribe had afforded in the
attainment of his earliest successes.
In the third year of the reign of his eldest son, who succeeded to the
government, a thousand men of the tribe of Obar, passing out of
Nujd, settled in the interior portion of Oman, in a plain, open spot of
land ; and from this circumstance received and retained the appellation
Banu Ghafir, the ancestors of the present tribe Ghafiri. Zaid, the son
of Malik, noticed this infringement of their territory, but as he was
assured by the strangers, in answer, that they considered themselves as
subjects and dependents on his power, he admitted them at length to
his protection, and in course of time identified them, by intermarriage,
with the clan Hinavi.
The sons and descendants of Malik continued thus in the enjoyment
of power until the birth of the Mahomedan Prophet (a. d. 571), when
one of these, named Jalanda, a powerful and enterprising prince, first
constructed a fleet, with which he seized on the island of Ormus, from
the Persians, and established it as the naval rendezvous of a fleet of
boats, which he gradually habituated to the pursuit of piracy.
Prince Jalanda dying after a reign of forty years (a. d. 615), in the
first year of the Prophet’s mission, his two sons reigned in succession
to him in united and equal authority. In the sixth year of the Mission
(a. d. 621) they and a large portion of their subjects were converted to
Jslamism, by invitation of the Prophet ; and in a year after his death
(a. d. 633) the two brothers departed this life, within a month of each
other.
Discussions now began to divide the hitherto united tribes of Ghafiri
and Hinavi, and each was governed by its respective chief until Khalif
Aboobekr, hearing of a fued so dangerous to the interests of the faith,
sent his General, Walid, against them, with an army of seven thousand
men. Walid investigated the causes of disunion, and finding in the
Ghafiri a superior inclination to be steadfast to the faith, awarded them
the supremacy over the Hinavi; and this remained in their hands till
the Khalifat of Ali (a. d. 655), who, feeling the Hinavi more submissive
to his views and dominion, reversed the order of succession, and gave
the Government into their possession, and thus it remained till the
accession of the Juribah, a branch of the Hinavi, in the year of the
Hijree 158 (a. d. 780).
Both the tribes having tasted of power, each remained impatient o