"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٤‎١‎١] (١٧٨٢/٥٥٤)

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411
military reputation and resources of the new Imam than to the death of
Nadir Shah in 1747, and to the difficulties with which Nadir's successor,
the Vakil Karim Khan, had to contend. _
Hostilities continued, however, between eome of the local authorities
in Persia and the Imam ; the former watched the proceedings of the latter
w ith much jealousy and lost no opportunity of annoying him and oppos-
j n o. Us policy. Thus in 1753, as related in the chapter on the General
History of the Gulf, the Khan of Lar took possession, with the assistance
of the East India Company's Agent at Bandar 'Abhas on whom e
did not scruple to put pressure, of a ship that had been bought by the
Imam of 'Oman from 'Abdul Shaikh, the ruler of Qishm, as an addition
to his navy. In 1758, as already mentioned above the Imam was
threatened by a combination between Mulla'All Shah of Hormuz and
the Arab Shaikh of Ras -al-Khaimah ; and in 1780 ^ be ~
an alliance, of which the Persian Khan of Lar and the B a ni Ma in Aiab
tribe of the Persian coast were also members, against e
Has-al-Khaimah ; but on neither occasion, it would seem, did any actual
hostilities occur. In 1765 the coffee annually exported from Masqat to
Basrah was loaded, for the sake of security against the Ka ab, w 10 v
then marauding in the Shatt-al-'Arab, on one of the Imam s ^n-o -war
but this ship, not venturing to proceed beyond Kharag, ba ^ d
towards the end of the year to warehouse her cargo in the Dutch
settlement, and was taken along with ^ 0 % th !
January 1766, by Mir Mahanna, the piratical chieftain of K g.
1767 Mir Mahanna held up a fleet of Sur vessels carrying coffee to
Basrah and, "under the pretext of Customs ^ ^
commerce, squeezed from them 380 and m autumn of that year over
1,000 bales of coffee had collected at Masqat which, from dread
M \ C m9 n i b vIilK«toKhl, whose position at Shiraz had for
some vears been well established, demanded the restitution 0 ^ ^
ship that had come into the possession of the Imam, also payment by
. , o f>iP tribute at one time rendered to Nadir ohal.
Sh :l~ by the 'Oman Governing ^o r^Ued ^t
the ship had been lawfully purchased £r ^ argued »that,"
and would not be given up; an ^ i or too powerful"
ff with respect to the annual tribute paid Nadir a , e w ^ ^ ^
" a tyrant to contend with, and it wa8 politic to refuse "
" tribute of right, but as a tribute i won u ere powers"
'• him ; Nadir Shah however and Carem Caun < ey sa^ ^ ^
" widely different j the one they dreaded, the othe
1753-67.
a
1769-79.