File 2698/1913 'Muscat: rebellion against the Sultan' [‎59v] (127/434)

2
shot if he did not accept the post. This* Imam malgre lui had commenced
sending letters, full of pious quotations from the Koran, to the principal
Shaikhs, of the country side. In these letters he called upon them to rise in
defence of the Truth and to enjoin on all Muslimin the sacred duty of assist
ing the cause even though it were only by their prayers.
Nizwah and Rustaq were reported threatened.^ His Highness endeavoured
too late to send reinforcements of arms and provisions to Nizwah and Izki,
but the communications were in the hands of the rebels and the reinforcements
never reached their destinations. T’or instance, on the 3rd of June, news
reached Maskat that His Highness* slave, Am bar, who was proceeding to
Nizwah with 21 bags rice, 3,000 rounds ammunition and 100 dollars in cash
was looted and murdered by the rebels and two more of his party were wounded.
5. But, before the news of this outrage reached us, Maskat was aware,
on the 29th of May, that the Imam’s forces were attacking Nizwah and]
owing to the treachery of the inhabitants of the quarter called al Muddab, had*
established themselves in the town and were pressing hard the two forts and
the mosque and the Beyt Salit. On the oth of June, the new r s of the fall of
Nizwah reached Maskat. The Wali of Nizvvah, Saiyid Saif bin Hamad, a
member of the family of the Al bu Sa’id, committed suicide, fearing to fall
into the hands of the rebels. It is stated that the Wali, some months a^o,
represented to His Highness the precarious nature of his position, but that the
“Khatibs ”, or secretaries, who surround the Sultan insinuated that the Wali
was striving to establish his own independence and His Highness took no
notice of the appeal for assistance, made to him by his servant and relative.
The Wali of Nizw^ah had held his post for about sixteen years. He came into
his position by treacherously assassmating, somewhere about the year 1899, one
Hillal bin Zahir, a local Shaikh of the Bani Hina, who then held Nizwah fort
on his own account, setting at naught the authority of the Sultan. This
Hillal had originally been established there by Saiyid Turki, father of the
present Sultan; and he held the fort for some 1*2 to 14 years. Saif bin
Hamad bin Saif bin Amir, the Wali who committed suicide, \vas a member
of the ruling family, Al Bu Sa’id, and his father before him had held Nizwah
fort, until he was turned out by the local Shaikh, Hillal bin Hamad of the
Bani Hina, already alluded to. Harid bin Hammad, the brother of the Wali,
has been imprisoned by the Imam at Nizwah.
Pall of Izki and Awaibi.
6. On the night of the 4th June His Highness, now thoroughly awake
to the dangers that threatened him, took active steps to reassert his authority
and seized some sympathisers of the Imam, who had come from Zanzibar, had
bought arms from the Irench merchants at Maskat and were escaping to the
Batin eh coast. . His Highness confiscated both their money and their arms to
the value, it is said, of one lakh One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees of dollars. Saiyids Nadir and Hamad,
second and fourth sons of His Highness, were despatched, respectively, to
oamail and Nakhal, the one to assist Izki, twenty miles from Nizvvah, and the
other Awaibi, an outpost of Kustaq. Both were seriously handicapped by the
reachery and supineness of the Ghafiri tribes, supposed to be loyal to His
Highness the Sultan. Not the least serious effort w'as made to relieve Awaibi,
which was, after a short resistance, surrendered by His Highness’s Hadhrami
akid : the news of its surrender reached Maskat 24th of June.
f fi W !j th !' e l ? atd f 0 lz H’ , th n P osit . ioD was little better; the family of al Khalili,
o >e am Wullah bin Sa’id al Khalili and his son All, endeavour
ed to persuade Saiyid iNadir to proceed to Izki and to take with him from
Fort Samail the gun presented by the French Government to the Sultan of
Maskat Saiyid Nadir was ordered by his father to do nothing of the kind, and
the_\V ah of Sur, Saiyid Hamud bin Hamad, was sent up with Ali bin abdullah
1 T f l “ ahl ‘ t0 . , a f r lst h , ls hunger brother, Saiyid Sa’ud bin Hamad, Wali
Kh li-lf 3 :^ ir iTf. rea< : hcd . J l z1 ; 1 with °ut opposition, but Ali bin Abdullah
fit ^ hlm i 0 Q Uhd ? w a S a ’ n t0 Samail and, in the meantime,
let in the Imam s forces, when Saiyid Hamnd could no longer return to the
s istance of Saiyid Sa ud who, finding himself outnumbered and deserted by
lus troops, surrendered the tort. Saiyid Sa’ud bin Hamad is now a prisoner
the 20th rf June 6 Imam ' 6 neWS ° f the fal1 of lzki reached Mafkat on
A