Page 475 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

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WAIIABEES. 431
iheir depredations to India ; of which there was some danger, as the
Imaum had disgusted all his commanders, and stood alone.
17. The conquest of Oman was probably arrested by the murder
of the Wahabee Shaikh early in the month of November, in his capital
at Deriah, whilst at his evening prayers, in a public place of worship,
surrounded by his own immediate adherents, by a religious fanatic,
who was immediately killed by them.
18. Saood, the son of Abdool Azeez, succeeded his father as the
head of the Wahabee Tribe.
a. d. 180-1-05.
19. On the death of Syud Sultan, the Imaum
of Muskat, which occurred in the latter end of 1804, the influence of
the Wahabces prevailed over Muskat, and we find Saood interfering
between the competitors for the government, but throwing the weight
of his power in the scale in favour of Beder.
20. In the month of April 1806 Saood took the field, with about
fifty thousand men. He first plundered the
a. d. 1806.
Dufeeh, and then the Anisa, and proceeded
to Meshid Ali, on which he made an unsuccessful attack, and
afterwards upon Semowka, from which he was also repulsed, with
severe loss.
21. In the following month, Bussora was thrown into the greatest
consternation, by the appearance of the Wahabees near Zobeer, only
a few miles from the gates of the town. Fortunately the Desert was at
the time overflowed to its very walls, and Saood?s troops, being in great
distress, and having a number of wounded with them, no attempt was
made against the place.
22. The Persian and Turkish Governments relaxing in their efforts
to check the rise of the Wahabee power, the
a. d. 1807-08.
Imaum of Muskat having lost the influence
which Syud Sultan had established over its dependent Shaikhs, and
become entirely friendless, and the British deeming it a wiser policy
to observe a strict neutrality as far as regarded the views of that sect,
its preponderance was completely established in the year 1S08, in
Oman.
By attacking the weaker singly, and compelling them to join his
standard against their neighbours, the Wahabee gradually increased his
power to a height which enabled him to overawe the greater States.
The revenues of the upper part of Oman were paid to Saood, and it
was only by a degrading submission that the Imaum prevented their
inroads into the low country; he had appointed his own officers in the
districts of the principality of Seer, and compelled the Joasmce Chief
to abandon his country.