154
APPENDIX TO EEPORT FROM SELECT COMMITTEE
Appendix, No. 8.
(No. 17 of 1860.— Secret Department.)
Muscat-Zanzibar Commission.
From Brigadier Tf. M. Coghlan, in charge Muscat-Zanzibar Commission, to H. L.
Anderson, Esq., Chief Secretary to Government, Bombay ; dated Bombay, 4th
December 1860.
Sir,
Brigadier Having already in my letter (No. 16) of the 19th ultimo, forwarded to Government a
Coghlan’s general summary of the proceedings of this Commission during the recent voyage to
REPORT. Zanzibar, I proceed in the present report to submit, for the information of the Honourable
the Governor in Council, a detailed account of my inquiries there regarding the dispute
pending between their Highnesses Syud Thoweynee of Muscat, and Syiul Maieed of
Zanzibar.
2. Deeming it a necessary precaution, before entering on the investigation entrusted
to me, to secure Syud Majeed’s formal consent to abide by the final arbitration of the Right
Honourable the Governor General of India, I requested Lieutenant Colonel Rigby to
obtain a written paper from his Highness to that effect, similar in substance to the bond
which had been required of Syud Thoweynee. I submitted to Colonel Rigby at the same
time a series of questions touching the rival claims of the two brothers, and other matters
connected with the pending dispute, requesting that he would, in reply, furnish me with
all the information in his power. The correspondence, together with the bond executed
by Syud Majeed, is attached in the accompanying Appendices, from A. to K., and in the
two letters which precede them. An original statement of his claims and grievances by
his Highness Syud Majeed, with an English translation, is also attached in Appendix L.
As these documents throw considerable light on several important points in this inquiry,
they will frequently be quoted in the succeeding remarks. To avoid contusion in the text,
the references are noted in the margin.
3. I now proceed in the first place to state, as succinctly as possible, the various arguments
adduced in support of the claims of his Highness Syud Majeed to the sovereignty
of Zanzibar and its African dependencies.
4. In the year 1807, his late Highness Syud Saeed, second son of Syud Sultan, was
elected by the principal tribes of Oman to succeed his father as Sultan, his elder brother
Salim acquiescing in his promotion to the supreme power.* During his lifetime, Syud
Sultan had taken from the Portuguese the islands of Zanzibar, Mombasa, and Pemba, as
also Kilwa and other places on the east coast of Africa.f These remote possessions fell
to Syud Saeed, as forming part of the kingdom of Oman ; and although the authority of
^ his predecessor over several of them had been but nominal, or at least precarious,^ and
to (iaerv*22 ’ Syud Saeed may fairly be entitled to the merit of having extended and consolidated the
" ^ ' empire in those parts, nevertheless it was undoubtedly in virtue of his election in succession
to Syud Sultan that he acquired the right of sovereignty over the African dependencies
of Oman.
* Muscat Report,
No. 10 of 1860,
Appendix B.
j- Muscat Report,
Appendix B.,
paragraph 20.
5. Syud Saeed during his lifetime ruled over the conjoined dominions of Oman and
Zanzibar. The seat of his government for many years was Muscat : but about the year
1840 his Highness selected Zanzibar as his permanent residence, committing the subordinate
rule of Muscat and other provinces to his sons or relatives.
6. On the 24th of July, 1844, Syud Saeed addressed a letter to the Right Honourable
the Earl of Aberdeen, then Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs, wherein his Highness thus expresses his wishes regarding his two cider sons
Khaled and Thoweynee (Hiial, the eldest, being entirely overlooked in the projected
arrangement):—“ And after us (on our death), we constitute and appoint our son Khaled
to be Ruler of all our African possessions; that is to say, all places on the continent of
Africa between Magadosha, situated in about 2° 10' north latitude, and Cape Delgado,
situated in about 10° 42 south latitude, with the adjacent islands now subject to our rule
and under our duminion. And, in like manner, our son Svud Thoweynee to be Ruler over
§ Muscat Report, all our possessions in Oman, in Arabia, in the Persian Gulf, and on the coast of Persia.” §
Appenuix A. gyud Saeed’s object in writing this letter, as stated by Colonel Hamerton, was “ to ascertain
whether he might look to Her Majesty’s Government to guarantee the succession to
11 Idem. his sons Khaled and Thoweynee.” || According to Colonel Rigby, no reply exists in the
records of the Zanzibar Consulate either to Syud Saced’s letter above quoted, or to that
^ Appendix B,reply from Colonel Hamerton, which appears to have accompanied it.^
to Quei'y 4.
7. Syud Khaled died in 1854, and in a letter announcing the death of the late Syud
Saeed to Lord Aberdeen, dated Zanzibar, November 10th, 1856, Colonel Hamerton
writes :—All things here at present are quiet, and the government in the African possessions
administered by his son Prince Majeed, who has administered the government by
order of his Highness since the death of Prince Khaled on the 7th November, 1854. ï
have been given to understand that his Highness left a will, and a written statement of
his wishes regarding the succession. I am perfectly well aware what his Highness’ intentions
regarding the succession were ; that Syud Thoweynee, at Muscat, should succeed to
the
