142
APPENDIX TO EEPOET EKOM SELECT COMMITTEE
Appendix, No. 8.
Teanslation of a Communication from his Highness the Imam of Muscat, to the RHht
Honourable the Earl of Aberdeen ; dated Zanzibar, ‘23rd July 1844, eth'Rujeeb 1260?
A.C.,
Be it known to your Lordship that we are always grateful for, and sensible of, the kind
ness of the British Government. We are, as it were, overwhelmed with a sense of received
favours.
2. In the treaty between us and Her Majesty Queen Victoria of England, concluded and
signed at Muscat, on the 22nd July 1840, it is mentioned that the obligations are bindino-
on us, and our posterity, and for which we all feel happy ; please God, during our lifetime“
all will be duly fulfilled on our parts, we will abide by it. ’
3. And after us (on our death), we constitute and appoint our son Syud Khaled to be the
ruler of all our African possessions ; that is to say, all places on the continent of Africa,
between Magadosha, situated in about 2« lO' north latitude, and Cape Delgado, situated in
in about 10=> 42' south latitude, together with the adjacent islands, now subject to our rule,
and under our dominion. And in like manner our son, Syud Thoweynee, to be ruler over all
our possessions in Oman, in Arabia, in the Persian Gulf, and on the coast of Persia. And
please God the two before mentioned, our sons, Syud Khaled and Syud Thoweynee, will
strictly conform to the stipulations of the treaty, and, furthermore, do all things in'con-
formity with the wishes of the British Government; and our hope and desire is, that the
British Government may be favourably disposed towards these our sons, Syud Khaled and
Syud Thoweynee. And we feel certain that the Government will not withhold its friendship
from them. ‘
Whatever you require of us, it is for you to signify.
From the expectant of God’s mercy.
(signed) Saeed bin Hultan.
(True Translation.)
British Consulate, Zanzibar, (signed) Atkins Hamerton,
14 April 18Õ9.
Appendix (B.)
The quotations in the following paper are taken from a recent Arabic work on the Kings
and Imams of Oman, written by Sheikh Hameed bin Mohammed bin Razeek about two
years a^o. It is extremely valuable in this inquiry on account of the information which it
affords on the question of the succession. Therefrom it will be perceived that primoo-eniture
has hardly ever been regarded by the Arabs of Oman as conferring a claim to the°succes-
sion ; and, further, that election or recognition by the tribes has heretofore been deemed
essential to confirai a successor in the Sovereignty. Moreover, among all the Sovereio-ns
given in the following list not one occurs who is recorded to have assumed or exercised the
right of nominating a successor, or of disposing of his territories by will or otherwise. On
the death of a ruler, the member of his family who happened to exercise the greatest influ
ence at the time, either put himself forward, or was put forward by the people, to succeed
to the sovereignty. The claim was frequently disputed by other of the relatives of the
deceased, and intestine family wars followed, the strongest ultimately gaining the ascen
dancy ; but even in such cases the right to the sovereignty does not appear to have been
regarded as valid without the concurrence of the principal tribes.
I have deemed it unnecessary to retrace the succession further back than the begiiinincr
of the seventeenth century. “At that period,” writes the historian under notice, “ there
“ had been great dissensions among the people of Rastak [then the capital of the kino-domj
“on divers matters, their king at the time being Mâlik bin Ali el Arab. So the learned
1 together, men upright in their religion, and consulted about appointing an
lma,m, who, in ruling, should order what ivas lawfid and forbid what was unlawful. Their
choice fell on Masir bin JMoorshid, and they proposed the thing to him. There were seventy
“ present, he being one of the members, and after considerable hesitation he finally agreed to
“ accept the office, and they appointed him Imâm.”* ^
Nasir bin Moorshid ruled for 26 years, and on his death “ the learned Mussulmans met
together, and deemed it fit to confer the. Imamship on his cousin Sultan bin Seif, with the
“ concurrence of the people of Oman.’' ^
Belarab
wonsiaeraDie misappreiiension lias arisen about tne meaning ot tins title. As applied to the rulers of
Omán, the word must not be understood to imply any special authority in religious matters but merely a
moral or religions fm* f.hp wliîpb wac ■i'PO*Ai*apíl as bpiîio* nnilo no _ —-It -
u j ‘ o oujjiciiic oumuiiLj uvei me miuui oiiciKus, occ. in tne History oi oneikh
Hameed, it is applied to all the predecessors of the late Syud Saeed except to that ruler, and at the present
day no one of his sons is generally styled “ Imam ” by the Arabs. They are usually addressed and desig
nated as byuds i.e., lords or chiefs, according to the literal signification of the word, and not in the
sense m which the same terra is more commonly used to designate one descended from the family of
Mohammed,
