Page 147 - Arabian Studies (V)

British Financial Advisers in Muscat 137
The difficulties with the FAs seemed to have left a deep impres­
sion on Sa‘Id b. Taymur. Having seen how his father’s neglect of
government had allowed external control over all aspects of
administration and policy, Sa‘Id was determined from the
beginning to concentrate authority in his own hands.29 Sa‘id also
sought to lessen the British grip on his state and was determined to
regard the PAM only in his Foreign Office capacity of ‘Consul’, as
he felt that the presence of a Political Agent in an independent state
was something of a slight. Recognising the central importance of
control over finances, Sa‘id assumed personal authority over state
funds and budgets. Henceforth, the PAM saw only copies of the
budgets after they had been prepared by the Sultan, and Sa‘Id even­
tually dropped them altogether after World War II.
The quarrels engendered during the tenure of the FAs almost
certainly heightened Sa‘Id’s mistrust of subordinates and caused
him to retain personal control of nearly every aspect of the
administration. Throughout his reign, he was suspicious of family
members and expatriates alike. Some of the most capable A1 Bu
Sa‘Ids—such as his half-brother, Tariq b. Taymur, educated in
Germany and India—were excluded from responsible positions and
left the country in frustration. When the expectation of oil income
became apparent in the 1960s, Sa‘Id acquired expatriate advisors at
British urging but kept them isolated in Muscat while he resided in
Salalah, and rarely took their counsel.
In short, the long-term effect of the FAs was evidenced more in
the development of SaTd’s character than in any lasting influence
on the Sultanate’s administration or finances. By the time oil
revenues were finally realised decades later, and the stagna­
tion under Sa‘Id b. Taymur was swept away by a coup d’4tat, the
new government of Oman had to begin almost entirely anew.

Notes

1. He had sought to abdicate ever since becoming Sultan and had even
requested permission to do so during an interview with the Viceroy in India
in 1920. India Office Records (hereinafter cited as 10), R/15/3/52;
Foreign Secretary of the Government of India, to the Political Resident in
the Persian Gulf (PRPG), No. 1496-E.A., 6 October 1920. His application
was rejected by the British as there was no suitable successor among the
ruling family. Taymur finally received his wish in 1931, when his son Sa‘Id
reached the age ot twenty-one.
2. After taking his degree from Trinity College, Cambridge, and follow­
ing a stint in the Civil Service and action in the army during World War I,