Page 60 - Su'udi Relations with Eastern Arabi & Uman (1800-1870)

U II

The new ruler of Masqat and ‘Uman, Sultan b. Ahmad, was an able and
ambitious man who resolved to eliminate the power of other rival members of
the family, to reduce or subdue the tribes in the provinces and to embark upon
an expansionist policy in the Gulf. In the last few years of his reign, however,
Sultan was annoyed and busily occupied by an unsuccessful struggle to defend
his throne against the Su‘udls, who had established their supremacy in al-Hasa
and al-Qatlf and the greater part of the coast, and had begun to make their way
into territories under the jurisdiction of Masqat. The Zahirah district, one of
the main habitable frontier areas of the Masqat dependencies, was the first to
have felt the Su‘udl influence. Official Su‘udl documents based on local sources
trace the spread of religious reform and the eventual Su‘udl control over
certain parts of that region to the latter part of the last decade of the eighteenth
century. 399 Nevertheless, it was not until the closing year of the century that
the British first realized that Su‘udl forces were in control of al-Burayml, the
principal centre of the district.400 The Nu‘aym, the Banu Qitab and the
Zawahir, some of the main settled tribes there, became adherents of reform
and contributed to the increasing Su‘udl influence in the Masqat
dependencies.
The earliest direct contact between the Su‘udls and the ruler of Masqat to be
mentioned in the sources available to us was around 1800, when Amir ‘Abd
al-‘ Aziz, in accordance with the tradition of the reform movements, sent a copy
of Kitab Kashf al-Shubahat along with a letter to Sultan b. Ahmad of Masqat,
inviting him to adopt the reformed doctrines and, as a corollary, to
acknowledge and submit to his authority.401 Like other treatises on Tawhid by
Shaykh Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahhab, this book deals with the subject of
the unity of God and its importance for the true believer. It is fairly short, full
of quotations from the Qur’an and Hadlth in accordance with the strictest form
of Hanball doctrine. The book is also polemical in presentation and condemns
Muslims who do not practise true Tawhid*02 It does not seem that Sultan b.
Ahmad paid much attention to the invitation or considered the contents of the
book which were, in the words of Ibn Ruzayq, “no more than a group of
unrelated subjects to which no ‘Uman! gave much consideration”.403 He
furthermore intended to fight the Su‘udis if they should invade the country.
The learned Ibadls also continued to reject the reformed doctrines on account
of their own religious particularism. Moreover, Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab’s
uncompromising stand towards the Muslim sects, the Ibadlyah included,
caused some of the Ibadls to unjustly equate his ideas with those of Nafi‘ b.
al-Azraq, the Kharijite.404 Thus, they accused the followers of Ibn ‘Abd
al-Wahhab of legalizing the war against all Muslims who dissented from them
as well as condoning the appropriation of their property, and the enslavement
of their children.405
The Su‘udls carried out their first major attacks against the ruler of Masqat
in the hope that they could reduce his power and make it easier for their
religious ideas and practices to prevail in ‘Uman, thus leading to the
entrenchment of their political influence.406 A strong Su‘udl detachment
mounted on horses and camels penetrated al-Zahirah under the command of
Salim b. Bilal al-Harq, and, with the cooperation of loyal tribes who had earlier
associated themselves with the Su‘udl cause, subdued other neighbouring
tribes, wresting the district from Masqat and made the al-Burayml oasis into a
strong Su‘udi centre from which they could intensify their operations and

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