188 
APPENDIX TO REPORT FROM SELECT COMMITTEE 
Appendix, No. 8. force of arms, when, at the request of the Government of Bombay, he abandoned this 
intention, and agreed to submit his claim to the arbitration of the Governer General oí 
India. 
2. Syud Thoweynee, it would appear from Brigadier Coghlan’s first report, rests his 
claim upon the fact that he is sovereign of Muscat, and that in that character he is de jare 
sovereign of Zanzibar also, as a dependency of Muscat. He does not base his title as 
ruler of Muscat on any right or custom of primogeniture, but on the fact of his recog 
nition by the tribes of Oman. He denies that his father left any will, or made any clear 
indication of his wishes in connection with the succession to his dominions. The only will 
which the late Imam left related to his private personal property ; but it contained one 
provision which Syud Thoweynee contends is opposed to the assumption that lie intended to 
erect Zanzibar into a separate sovereignty. That provision was, that the Imam’s two 
ships, the “ Caroline” and the Feidh Alim,” were to be given after his death to the 
treasury of the Mussulmans as a legacy from him. It is contended by Syud Thoweynee 
that the treasury of the Mussulmans meant the treasury of Muscat, and that therefore the 
late Imam virtually recognised only one public exchequer. 
3. It will be useful to consider and dispose at once of the argument involved in this 
assertion. The Honourable the Governor in Council has no doubt that, by the treasury 
of the Mussulmans, the treasury of Muscat was intended ; but the deduction drawn from 
these premises he considers to be too large. He regards the facts in this light ; the 
sovereignty of Muscat is in some degree a hierarchy ; a sacred character attaches to the 
Imam ; a bequest to the treasury of Muscat is therefore a pious offering. The late Syud 
Saeed had long been a resident at Zanzibar ; it seems therefore to the Honourable the 
Governor in Council a natural act, and, for one in the Imam’s position, a natural mode 
of expressing his wishes for him to bequeath a portion of his private property to the land 
of his birth and the local centre of his religion. He had chosen Zanzibar as his residence, 
but in the last act of his life he makes a bequest to Muscat, with mingled solemnity and 
affection, as the treasury of the Mussulmans. The Honourable the Governor in Council 
does not consider that the fact advanced by Syud Thoweynee, if strained to the utmost, 
could be regarded as affording a clear indication of the late Imam’s wishes, or as out 
weighing the inferences to be drawn from Syud Saeed’s letter to Lord Aberdeen. But 
as the general tenor of Syud Thoweynee’s argument is, that the late Imam possessed no 
right of regulating the succession, the provision regarding the bequest to the treasury of 
the Mussulmans is not of material importance in connectioon with his claim, although it 
demanded notice from the Honourable the Governor in Council in the present place. 
4. But the main argument of Syud Thoweynee, that he was recognised by the tribes of 
Oman as sovereign of Muscat, and that in that character he is de jure sovereign of Zanzibar 
also, must, in the opinion of the Honourable the Governor in Council, suffice to place the 
defacto ruler of Zanzibar in the position of one who must prove his title. Syud Majeed 
does not dispute his brother’s right to the sovereignty of Muscat ; the great question, then, 
to be decided is, as under the late rulers the sovereignty of their conquests, Zanzibar, 
&c., was united to that of Muscat, can Syud Majeed establish a valid title to the possession 
of Zanzibar as a distinct sovereignty ? This question leads the Hononrable the Governor 
in Council to the consideration of Brigadier Coghlan’s report of the 4th December. 
5. Brigadier Coghlan in this elaborate report, after stating the precautionary measure 
which he had adopted of obtaining from Syud Majeed a formal agreement to abide by the 
arbitration of the Right Honourable the Governor General of India, proceeds to discuss the 
grounds on which th^e present ruler of Zanzibar rests his claims to the sovereignty of that 
portion of his late father’s dominions. 
6. The grounds are thus stated :— 
I. The will or wishes of his late Highness Syud Saeed. 
II. The recognition of Syud Majeed by foreign Powers. 
III. His virtual recognition by his rival brother Syud Thoweynee of Muscat. 
IV. His election as their sovereign by the chiefs of Zanzibar and its African 
Dependencies. 
7. Of the grounds thus stated, the 2nd and 3rd may be at once disposed of. With 
* respect to the recognition by foreign powers, it will be observed that Her Majesty and 
the British Government did not allude to Syud Majeed’s sovereignty in the replies 
returned to the letters announcing his father’s death, and that there is no reason for 
supposing that the French and American Governments were ever aware that a claimant to 
the throne of Zanzibar existed in the person of the elder brother of Syud Majeed- They 
replied to the defacto sovereign; but no argument can be raised upon this circumstance 
in favour of the assertion that Syud Majeed was the de jure sovereign. 
8. So with respect to the virtual recognition by Syud Thoweynee. It is clear that an 
agreement was negotiated, in virtue of which Syud Majeed was to be left in possession of 
his father’s African dominions on payment to his brother, the ruler of Muscat, of an 
annual sum of 40,000 crowns ; but this payment is contended by the one party to have 
been a tribute, and by the other party to have been a subsidy or gift, implying no 
inferiority on the part of the donor towards the recipient. There appears great resson 
to believe that the agent of Syud Thoweynee deceived both parties ; and there certainly was 
no