'Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government' [‎174] (216/733)

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MUSKAT.
32. The immunities granted to the Imaum of Muskat by the
agreement of 1798 were suspended by the
Government until that prince offered satisfactory
explanations on several suspicious circumstances in his conduct which
were supposed to favour the intrigues of the French, These were
afforded to the satisfaction of General Malcolm, who had touched at
Muskat on his embassy to Persia, and concluded a further* agreement
with the [maum, in confirmation of that entered into in 1798.
33. The Wahabees threatening to invade Oman, Syud Sultan
proceeded towards Julfar, where he joined Shaikh Suggur, with the
view of opposing the threatened attack, which was, however, averted
by the peace concluded between the Wahabees and the Imaum.
34. In the following year Syud Sultan accomplished the favourite
object of reducing the island of Bahrein ; on the
conquest of which he demanded of the Shaikh
of Grane that he would personally pay him homage, which must have
been complied with, as the Imaum shortly after dismissed all his troops.
He retained possession of Bahrein for a few months only, the Uttoobees
having re-taken it in 1801.
35. The attention of the Imaum was next directed to the formation
of an alliance with the Joasmee Arabs, in which
he failed. The Wahabee troops were at this
time in the vicinity of Oman, and had compelled the wild Arabs to
join them. The Chiefs of Zaheera and Sohar, and Mahomed bin
Nassir, three Shaikhs of Oman, had been rendered independent of
Muskat. The Imaum received tenders of assistance from the Turkish and
Persian Governments if he would attack the Wahabees. This combi-
nalion became necessary, to check the Wahabees, who had reduced to
nominal submission the whole coast from Bussora river to Debaye,f and
who, if allowed to strengthen themselves in their acquisitions, would, it
was feared, commence and prosecute those depredations by sea which
they had carried on on shore. A conviction of this danger had united
the mercantile povers in the Gulf against the Wahabees.
36. Unable, however, to check their progress, the Imaum in 1803
acceded to a truce of three years with the
Wahabees, who had succeeded in converting
or rendering tributary to their power the Arabs who inhabited the
Arabian shore of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . This truce left the Wahabee Chief
at liberty to prosecute his ambitious designs on the western frontier of
Arabia.
* Dated the 18th January 1800.
t The boundary between the Muskat and Joasrnee territorie«.