'History of the imâms and seyyids of 'Omân by Salîl-ibn-Razîk, from A.D. 661-1856; translated from the original Arabic, and edited with notes, appendices, and an introduction, continuing the history down to 1870, by George Percy Badger, F.R.G.S., late chaplain in the Presidency of Bombay.' [‎44] (77/612)

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introduction
or drowned, Ahmed crowned his treachery by putting to
death all the officers who had been his guests in the fort.
Relieved from the presence of a foreign enemy, the power
and prestige of the el-Yaarubah broken, and with many
strong claims upon the gratitude of the ^Omanis for his
bravery and patriotism, Ahmed^s succession to the supremo
power was almost a matter of course. After making a
triumphant tour through the principal towns, where he was
received with the greatest enthusiasm, he was eventually
elected Irmim by a council of the chiefs assembled at er-
Rastak. The transfer of the government from the el-
Yaarubah to Ahmed-bin-Said, the first of a new dynasty,
after the former had held it for one hundred and seventeen
years,—including the short reign of Muhammad-bin-Nasir,
el-Ghafiry,—took place a.d . 1 741.
After Ahmed's accession to the Imamate it was less diffi
cult than it might otherwise have been to discover that
several preternatural omens had foreshadowed his future
greatness. The record of these phenomena preserved by
our author may be regarded as illustrative of the supersti
tious temper of the ^Omanis, a temper by no means confined
to the followers of Islam, but more or less prevalent where-
ever religion is dissociated from science and reason. Be
sides, some extraordinary sanctions were probably looked for
to warrant the election of one who, as far as this history
discloses—and it was specially written to extol him and his
descendants—belonged to a class having no pretension to
such a distinction. His pedigree is as brief as it could well
be ; he is simply "es-Saidy, el-Azdy, el-'Omany," that is, of
the family of Said, of the stock of the el-Azd, 1 settled in
'Oman. If, as I conjecture, the Al-Bu-Said are identical
1 Mr, Palgrave erroneously describes Ahmed-bin-Sa'id as "of the
Ghafaree family," Cent, and East. Arabia, vol. ii. p. 256. The Benu-
Ghafir, as shown at pp. ix, x, were of Ma'addicnot of Kahtanic descent.
Moreover, they have always been at variance with the el-Azd in 'Oman.