'History of the imâms and seyyids of 'Omân by Salîl-ibn-Razîk, from A.D. 661-1856; translated from the original Arabic, and edited with notes, appendices, and an introduction, continuing the history down to 1870, by George Percy Badger, F.R.G.S., late chaplain in the Presidency of Bombay.' [‎140] (301/612)

140
THE IMAMS OF ^OMAN.
(I abjure, in God's name, every tyrannical and proud devil,
not to be believed in the day of account) ; and if their num
bers increase they will inflict the sorest punishments upon
you, they will slaughter your children and ravish your women.
The proverb says : ' Do not confide in the hypocrisy, or de
ceit, or artifices of the man whose heart you have inflamed
with envy.' In God's name, are you asleep or awake ? Or,
has the devil got the ascendancy over you ? Or, have you
any just cause of complaint against the Muslims, or do you
possess absolute authority over them ? Was it your anxiety
to set over them a people who are under the wrath of God 1 that
induced you to write letters soliciting them to come to your
aid ? A most flagrant example this to the observant. God
is the most great! Are you ignorant, or did you know but
have forgotten, what you permitted in the island of el-Bah
rein 2 "—the slaughter of its inhabitants and the forcible seizure
of its ships, and what the Sultan Mihrab and his Persians,
together with the motley auxiliaries and the Hadhr and
Arabs who acted with him, did to its chief men and Amirs: as,
for example, to their sire, Muhammad-bin-'Abdallah, el-Bah-
rany, who was their excellency and pride, and to many others
besides him, whose death did not satiate them ; and how will
you hold your own ? The idea which you have conceived,
and the thing which you contemplate, and on which you rely,
are bad; and if breasts had doors, and the doors opened,
they would disclose hearts full of the fires of enmity, with
flames issuing out of their nostrils. Place your reliance
rather on uprightness and piety : that is the advice which
we are led to urge upon you out of pure affection and earnest
counsel. God knows His worshippers : he who violates a
1 The Ibadhiyah of 'Oman regard the Persians, who are mostly
Shia'ahs, as heretics and reprobates, and therefore beyond the pale of
salvation.
2 It appears from these remarks that the island of el-Bahrein had been
recovered by the Persians during this reign. It was captured from the
latter by the 'Omanis under Sultan-bin-Seif, 11.; see note, p. 04.