Page 47 - Gulf Precis(II)_Neat

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Part II—Chap. IX.

CHAPTER IX.

STATE OF MASKAT AFFAIRS AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF
THE 19TJI CENTURY.*
58. At tbo commencement of the 19th coutury Seyyid Sultan was the
ruler of Mnskat. He with his brother Seyf were born of the same mother, who 12IF«c 1S02, °
was heiress of a family formerly ruler* of the country as far as Katif. Their p* 4506
father Ahmed was of an alien family, for many years settled as a merchant at datedoth
Sohar of which ho was made Yali. Seyf bon Sultan the last Imam of the July 1802.
family of Yarabi being put to death by the Arabs for his dissolute conduct,
Ahmed carried it all over his competitors and was elected Imam at Rostak in
1745 and settled Sheikh IChulfun his relation as Yakil at Maskat. Of his six
sons ho very much neglected Soyf and Sultan, the third and fourth. During
his life he placed Ahmed the eldest at Maskat and Ghias the second at Sohar.
Seyf and Sultan dispossessed Ahmed of Maskat and were again driven out by
their father; whilst they wero shut up in the fort, a French sloop of war of 20
guns and 100 men anchored in the Cove. One of these vessels had shortly be­
fore taken an Arab ship, and Syed Sultan coming down from the fort with
thirty or forty followers, went in the Cabrass brig and wounding forty men,
brought on shore the others. They were kept as prisoners and employed at the
guns against his father. The French from Mauritius sent a vessel in return
for the Arab one they had taken and indemnified them for their loss. This was
Sultan’s first connection with the French. Ou being driven from Maskat,
Sultan and Seyf took shelter with Navab Nassier Khan who gave them Gwadur
for their residence and support. From Gwadur Seyf went to the coast of
Africa and died there: he was some time at Mosambique with the
Portuguese.
69. On the death of his father Sultan returned to Oman, and established
himself through his mother’s relations to the exclusion of his brothers. His
dominions consisted at this time of the Oman from Ras-ul-hud to Kabora, a
hundred miles to the westward of Maskat. "Within this on the hills are two
strong forts Rostak and Nukhel, he was never able to take. The first was
in possession of his brother Ahmed and the other of Malik bin Seyf, the head
of the family of Yarabi of which tribe only about sixty men now remained.
He had nothing to fear from his brothers on the Coast of Africa: he had
Zanzibar, part of Mombassaand Melinda and other places acknowledged him as
they had done the Portuguese. On the Coast of Persia he had Gwadur, Minab,
and Bunder Abbas with the Islands of Ormus, Kishm, and Angam, and the fort
of Rupeb, opposite Augam on the Arab Coast, and he was endeavouring to take
Bahrein.
60. His revenues from Maskat were Rupees 8,00,000, from Sowaik Dollars
40,000, from Bunder Abbas salt, depending on the English when they permitted
the importation, it would be one Lao. The Land Revenues of Oman wore applied
to the support of hi3 relations and friends to his household, and to pay a kind
of Militia, who receiving a small pay, must turn out on every emergency; he had
large Estates of date plantations which he accummulates for his children!
61. Every Arab is a soldier and when called on must turn out with his arm. !
With the assistance of his brothers, the Imam could raise 20,000 men, but his I
own force consisted of 300 slaves, and 1,700 Sindis, Baluchis, and Arab
relations, and the inhabitants of Sur, and Jahelan about 4,000 men which
wero all he could depend on for foreign service. Whon ho went to Bahrein
he had only 7,000 men, of whom 2,500 were Persians.
62. The Imam had much ill-feeling against Basrah, as the TJtiubi the most
enterpriziug merchants in the Gulph were much favoured there, and oarriod
• For an interesting history of Mnskat nt this period, see Col. Miles' Sketch of the career of Seyyid
Sultan bln Ahmed of Maskat—Appendix A to Part II of tho Administration Report of the Persian Gulf
Residency ani Maskat Agency for 1SS7—1S88.

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