"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٤‎٦‎٣] (١٧٨٢/٦٠٦)

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India; and we have already seen how in 1809 the Indian Government
associated the Saiyid with themselves in their first decided effort to
extirpate the buccaneers of the Persian Gulf and, indirectly, to intimidate
the Wahhabis. From the time of the first Ras-al-Khaimah expedition
onwards, Britain was the only European Power interested in the Saiyid^s
Arabian and Persian affairs ; the transactions of the ruler of ^Oman
with other great nations related almost exclusively to his African
possessions. The policy of the British Indian Government towards
^Oman from 1810 to 1818 was, as our relation of events has shown,
friendly yet, in what concerned the Wahhabi power, reserved; and in
,1826, a discussion of the point having been raised by Saiyid Sa'id, it
was expressly held by the Government of India that the treaties of 1798
and IBOi', while they implied strict friendship, did not constitute an
offensive and defensive alliance against all enemies between the states of
Great Britain and "Oman. The Saiyid was not assisted by Britain to
repel the frightful incursions which the Wahhabis made on his territories
between 1810 and 1813 in retaliation for the part he had taken in the
expedition against Ras-al-Khaimah; nor was he encouraged in his
attempts, from 1814 to 181(), to restore an anti-Wahhabi chief to
authority over the Qawasim. In 1819, however, during a temporary
eclipse of the Wahhabi power, the Government of India launched their
second and very successful expedition against the piratical Qawasim j
and no one reaped greater or most lasting benefit from the operations
than the Saiyid, who was thus compensated for much of what he had
previously suffered by reason of his connection with the British.
Here we may notice a curious isolated episode in the history of J Oman, First Bani
in which the British and Saiyid Sa'id were jointly concerned. In 1820, jjtioa, 1820.
the Bam Bu "Ali tribe of the Ja'alan district having been charged with
complicity in certain piratical proceedings. Captain Thompson,t the
British Political Officer at Qtishm, was authorised by Government to take
suitable action against them, after satisfying himself of their guilt. After
this a messenger —apparently the Shaikh of Ras-al-Hadd, who had been
sent with a letter to the chiefs of the tribe—was murdered on the beach at
Lashkharah; and Captain Thompson, on his own responsibility, decided
# For fuller accounts of the two Bani Bu 'Ali expeditions see Bombay Selections,
XXIV, pages 189—191 ; Saldanha's (1801 -53), pages 12/ 128; Mignan s
Winter Journey, II, pages 248 —271 ; Low's Indian Navy, 1, pages 270—274 and
?80—385 ; and Badger's Imams and Seyyids, pages 338 — 345. Mignan s .ccount, as
that of an eye-witness of the second operations, is the most interesting.
tAn account of the very remarkable career of Captain (afterwards General)
Perronet Thompson will be found in Low's Indian Navy, I» P a o e 381 (footnote). Jn
1820 he was an officer in His Majesty's 17th Light Dragoons