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would be very pleased to hear, and both went on naively to inform him by
clear insinuation, if not in so many words, that Said had been chosen
" Imam,” or as they put it, “ invested with the a (Taira of Al uslimccn. *
583. It is easy to imagine that tho ambition of Aysa and S lid must have
clashed somewhat at this juncture, but Aysa must soon havo realized that ho
himself, whatever his roligious qua 1 ill cations might he, was not. of sufficiently
oristocintio dosccnt to gain tho approval of the majority, and, that next to his
own candidature the selection of a weak candidate like Said-bin-lbrahim, who
would be a puppet in his hands, would be tho best .alternative. Nevertheless,
had Aysa himself been put forward, there can bo no doubt that he would havo
received a good deal of active support from his own part of the country, and it
was well known, moreover, that, had any general call to arms resulted, Aysa’a
reputation for devotion to the faith was such that several influential Sheikhs
had openly givon out about this lime that though they would not support him
against tho Sultan, they would refuse to take up arms against him. From the
moment however that it became apparent that Said-bin-Ibrahim was the
best candidate that could he got to come forward, it was a foregone conclusion
that the movement would he abortive for the latter has neither the moral nor
religious reputation to win general support from tho people of Oman, whose
formally expressed approval is a nine qua non of tho confirmation of any candi­
date as “ Imam.”
584. While the above negotiations were in progress at Rostak, Aysa’s two
brothers busied themselves elsewhere, and with a small following of black legs
made raid iu several directions including the outskirts of liarka, whore they
attacked the summer quarters of the Sultan’s stable manager, killed his son,
wounded two of his women kind, and carried off two servants and some
horses. Finding that the latter were the Sultan’s property, Aysa had them
sent back with a condescending letter from him to His Highness.
685. The forts of Hazm and Rostak beiug now in the bands of bis ally Said
and the suggestion of the latter as Imam having met with little or no response,
it was expected that Aysa and his attendant tribesmen would now return to
their country, but this they showed no signs of doing probably owing to tho
fact that prolonged drought had made tho conditions of life difficult in their
own villages, and that in their present quarters they were living free, either at
the expense of Seyyid-biu-lbraliim or the people of ltostak.
586. Nevertheless, by the first week in October the Sultan, who had for
nearly two months been incurring very heavy expenses for the maintenance
of a large force of friendlies on the Batinoh coast and its outposts, now fi*lt able
to draw in his horns, and to limit his precautions to the retention of streng­
thened garrisons at the post most liable to attack. His Highness himself now
returned to Ma9kat leaving his two elder sons, Tairnur and Nadir, to represent
him on the coast.
587. From this time, although as long as Aysa and Sevyid remained
together there could not be an entire absence of anxiety or sense of security,
matters generally quietod down and trading operations which had for long time
past been paralysed were once more resumed. It was not till the month of
February that Aysa-bin-Sclch returned to his couutry, but for the last four or
five months previous he had ceased to be a sourso of anxiety.
688. In October 1904, a party of Al-Wahibeh, a tribe of Hinawi Bedouins,
while on a plundering expedition, attacked
SecTOt E , March 1005. Noi. Gl-07.
Gliar, a town on the borders of Jaalan and
Shark, some 80 miles from the coast and defeated a numbor of the Boni-bu-Ali
(a tribe of the Gaffiri section) who came out to oppose them. The former lost
10 killed and wounded, and the latter 16. Among the killed was a son of the
Beni-bu-Ali Chief Abdullah bin Salim. Tho Sultan was afraid that Abdullah
bin Salim might wage war on a somewhat larger scale than usual in revenge for
his son’s death.

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