"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٤‎٠‎٦] (١٧٨٢/٥٤٩)

406
Persian invasion and occupation of 'Oman, 1737 -1744,
bifficnltiea
of the Imam
Saif-bin-
Sultan II.
Persian in
vasion and
occupation,
1737-38.
Expulsion of
the Persians,
1741.
The line of the Ya'anbah had now become degenerate, and its ruin
was shortly brought about by a combination of causes. The Imam
Saif-bm-Sultan II, finding himself hard pressed by a competitor for
e Imamate, took a body of Baluch mercenaries* into his service •
but they were soon destroyed. He then sought the assistance of the
ersian sovereign, Nadir Shah, and at the same time admitted one of his
own subjects, a merchant named Ahmad-bin-Sa'id, A1 Bu Sa^idi to
be eoufidonce, thereby placing himself iu the power of two persons whose
rests, as the event showed, were inimical to his own.
Nadir Shah did not neglect the request for aid made to him
by the Imam of 'Oman , bnt from the first it was clearly perceived, at
cast by the bnghsh m Persia, that the ebject of the Shah was not, as
e pie ej e , to assist the Imam to suppress rebellioiiB among his
subjects, but to annex 'Oman to Persia. The Persian expedition
sailed from Bandar'Abbas on the 1st of April 1737; it was under the
omnia,,< o Latifeh Khan and consisted of about 5,1)00 men with
, oises, le Dutch, under pressure from the Persians, contributed
a sh.p to the armament; but the English were careful not to involve
„ ir. , aSrair " ^'embarkation on the Arabian coast
1' , . ! " 0 ? e at ' v '" jr takkan, where a small fort was built
rf which the remains were stil'visible in 1779 ; and the chiefs of the
adjacent Ras-al-Khaimah district seem before long to have tendered
'r su mission to the Persian general. In the course of 1737-38 the
Persians overran the whole of 'Oman; captured Masqat, a place of
g Si g ml P ortan <*' bu ' not as yet the capital of the country; and besieo-ed
Wm 1 ^ A1 ; mad - bin - Sa ' id ' recently promoted favourite of the
Imam, held out against them with great determination. The Imam.
whmTh n| WaB n0t aIt0gethcr ""eapaoitated for action; for in 17«'
Mm andt TI / VeS6elS ' 8 ^ ^e'-''
Snd near 1 P ^-^Laimah with the object of seeing an
.Jandnear the Persian coast and thence plundering Bandar 'Abbas
^e nmenT ^ ^ ^ ear, the pit
a nlv LZ T r rtUrbed beCaU6e 311 E ^isb ship had taken
BriHsff ,T, the ImSffi ' and because the commander of a
But sh vessel had proposed to sell it to that potentate
suclr atZ't f 416 ^ -n killed in a partially
! ^ 'aise the siege of So hiir, and the Imam himself
# tv: i ,
"Omac, of reljing e^foteigrmercenariesl^specia^Iy WMd.," 0 " We " e " ab ' i, ' 1Cd