"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٥‎٨‎٩] (١٧٨٢/٧٣٢)

589
V
ANNEXURE NO. 1.—HISTORY OF DHUFAR*
Dhufar thouMi a dependency of 'Oman, is so remote and self-contained
a district that it's affairs can scarcely be said to form part of the general
history of the Sultanate. It will, therefore, be convenient to treat ot
them separately.
Early History.
0£ events in Dhufar before the beginning of the T9th century little
is known with certainty.t The ruins of Bilad and Rnbat attest the
existence in Dhufar, at some past epoch, of a community n w rc ls ^
than the present inhabitants; and the elaborately carved tombstone
of Malik Ibrahim-bin-Mudhaffar at Bubat bears the date
and is therefore more than 600 years old. It was ste .^V|" j, - t i
Saivid Turki Sultan of 'Oman, in a correspondence with the b bar it o
Makkah, that the district was once held by the Portuguese ami th , a '
their day it passed into the possession of the Ya arabi 'oa' 11 ® ^
but these statements rest, perhaps, on no better foundation than Arab
tradition
Reign of Muhammad-bin-' Aqil, about 1804 to 1829.
At the beginning of the 19th century Dhufar was ruled by Saiyid
ni rue oegi u ug buccaneer and slave trader, who at one
Muham mad-bin- A .pi, Ajaibij a ouccaueei ■■ ^hinninff
time owned three square-rigged vessels an( u (1 f lllmf-'u- and
in the Red Sea. In later life he possessed himself of Dtatai and
governed the district in an enlightened manner for ^"t f y'ars, mak
ing Salalah his capital. He was finally assassinated at Mmbat in
by Salim-bin-Thori, the chief of all the Qaras, whose family had a blood
feud against him. His tomb is shewn ntai UI a ——
< principal sources of information m e t JDyreel,
of Dhufar are Cruttenden s Journal 0 f , A ahia an( l Carter's Descriptive
Haines's Memoir of the South East Coast / montio ' n ed work contains also an
Account of the Rums of El Ba ^ d - I 1 '.® ' ^ B t . Southern Arabia deals
account of the chief antiquities of the dis^^ f to ancieilt history .
with ancient remains and contains some conject footnote on the historical
For events since 1875 the official papers the only authority,
bibliography of the 'Oman Sultanate are the P lin ^ Mi na uwi of their supersession,
t Traditions of an ancient local dynasty cal ^ Sketch.
and of the arrival of the M Kathirare piesei contains several passages
See also Mrs. Bent 's Southern 4ra6»a ,_pageB 227-^7b, wmci
referring to the early history of J'hufar. f otl nd in Haines 's Memoir.
X The fullest account of the 'Aqil family will be found