‘Report on the administration of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for 1884-85.’ [‎23r] (41/130)

RESIDENCY An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. AND MUSCAT POLITICAL AGENCY An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. FOE 1884-85.
39
The siege was prosecuted vigorously by him, and Hormuz would no doubt soon have fallen
again into the hands of the Portuguese had not a fleet of ten English and Dutch ships arrived to
relieve it. This changed the aspect of affairs, and Iluy Frere was a second time compelled to
withdraw his hand when the fruit was almost within bis grasp. He retired first to Larek,
and from thence to Khor El-Shem, intending to wait for the expected main body of the flee
from Goa. He was doomed to disappointment. The European enemies of the Portuguese were
now too powerful in the Gulf to permit them to regain their old supremacy, and all hopes of
the re -conquest of Hormuz had to be abandoned.
But although Hormuz was lost, Muscat still remained, and no efforts were spared by the
Portuguese to force the trade of the Gulf to this place and to raise it to the same commercial
grandeur as Hormuz. It was all in vain; for their reputation was against them, and while
the native merchants feared to trust them, the English, who were rapidly gaining the ascend
ancy in the Gulf, did their best to concentrate the trade at Basra and Gombroon. The popu
lation of the town, however, became at once largely augmented, and the Arab tribes m the
vicinity, who had always been kept on good terms by the payment of subsidies, were further
propitiated. By the fall of Hormuz the connection existing between that island and the
Oman coast which had existed for three and a half centuries came to an end, though it is related
that Muhammad Shah, the nephew of the old King of Hormuz, was brought to Muscat by the
Portuguese who endeavoured to compel the coast Arabs to recognise him as their king.
Among the improvements undertaken at this time in Muscat were the rebuilding of the town
wall extending from Booma Salih to Bab Methaib, and the excavation of the fosse beyond; a
new customs house and a landing-place and dock at the creek. Further protection also was
afforded to the town by the erection of the towers at the passes of Kalboos, lliam, and Sedab.
In 162-3,^6 Governor of Muscat was Martino Alfonso deMello; this officer resided for the
most part of the year in the factory An East India Company trading post. or " Gareyza," but during the hot weather he occupied
Fort Capitan, which was at this time deemed of more importance than Fort Sam Joao (Jelali),
the former citadel. There were two churches, one of which was the see of the Vicar,
generally an Augustinian friar and dedicated to the Virgem del Rozario; and the other, called
Delia Gratia, was the property of the Augustinians, four of whom resided in it.
As Hormuz had been lost to Portugal during the vigorous reign of a great king. Shah
Abbass, so Muscat and the Oman coast were wrested from her grasp by the force of a national
impulse, engendered by the rise of a new dynasty.
After ten years of anarchy, Nasir-bin-Murshid-el-Yaareby, one of the strongest rulers
Oman ever had, was elected Imam in 1624. He soon made himself master of, and tranquillised,
the interior, and then set to work to expel the Christians. He first sent his troops against
Muscat, but was defeated and obliged to retire. Shortly after, the Portuguese assisted the
Chief of Lawa, Saif-bin-Muhammad, with troops and stores against the Imams foices. In
this affair the allies of the Portuguese were worsted and the Imam captured the fort. The
Imam then collected another army, in command of which he placed Mesood-bin-Ramzan,
whom he ordered to march against Muscat. The author of the annals of Oman states that
the Arabs captured and demolished the high towers of Muscat, and that the Portuguese sued
for peace and agreed to the conditions imposed on them. But it is clear that the Arabs were
in fact repulsed.
After driving the Persians and the Portuguese from Ras -el-Khyma, the ImSm ordered
Hafiz -bin-Saif to erect a fort at Sohar against that held by the Portuguese, which he v.gor-
ouslv besieged for some time with a force composed of the Bem Khahd, Bern Lam, and El
Amoor tribes, hut apparently without success, for the Kdzi, Kham.s-b.n-Saeed, soon after pro-
eeeded to Muttrah to treat for peace with the Portuguese Governor, and agreed to abandon the
siege of Sohar. This was in July 1633.
° In the same or following year the ImiJm attacked Soor and Kooriyat, and recovered both
those places by which he made himself master of the whole of Oman, except Muscat and
Sohar. Even the latter town, however, fell ultimately to the arms of tins energetic prince, and
at his death, in April 1649, Muscat alone remained in the hands of the Portuguese.
The Imam Nasir was succeeded by the Irnim Sultan-bin-Saif. who is said to have waged
war on the Christians in Muscat, and to have personally conducted the operations against them
until God gave him the victory. It seems, indeed, that he undertook the campaign immediately
on his accession, and that he was engaged in it for about two years The circumstances and
date of the struggle, however, do not appear to have been recorded by the Arab chronicler;
and as the Portuguese historians are also silent on the subject, they remain matters of