'Memorandum on the Drafts of Despatches regarding the Affairs of Muscat and Zanzibar' [‎26r] (1/24)

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Memorandum on the Drafts of Despatches re
garding the Affairs of Muscat and Zanzibar.
I think that there is more to be said for Syud
Majid’s view of his obligations than the memorandum
of the Department seems to admit.
1 he two brothers, Majid and Thoweynee, were
at variance as to the division of their father’s king
dom. At the request of both parties, Lord Canning,
the then Governor General of India, became arbi
trator, and divided the inheritance; Zanzibar to
Majid, and Muscat and 40,000 dollars to be paid
yearly by Zanzibar to Thoweynee.
Thoweynee was murdered by his own son Salim.
1 here is not a shadow of doubt as to the fact, which
was not denied to me when in open Durbar A public or private audience held by a high-ranking British colonial representative (e.g. Viceroy, Governor-General, or member of the British royal family). 1 re
ceived Salim’s own envoys, three Sheikhs and men
of weight in Oman, and told them, in so many words,
what I had heard. It is to be regretted that the
Government of India should obscure the question
by suggesting doubts which are wholly untenable,
and w hich no living soul acquainted with the facts
really entertains.
Majid, Sultan of Zanzibar, and a younger brother,
Toorkee, who was in Oman, both became, by Arab
custom, bound to avenge Thoweynee’s death, by
killing Salim, and either could have done it,
for either would have had the support of the
whole of the Oman population, which was not
tainted with Wahabeeism. But we actively inter
fered to prevent either of them from ridding their
country and their family of the parricide. We took
Toorkee and carried him off as a prisoner, and only
released him on his,parole not to attack Muscat by
sea.
(A 7 .^.—The Arabs of Oman, a very different
race from either Bedowees or Nejdees, though
possibly, like many other polygamous races, less
scrupulous than monogamous races in shedding
the blood of more distant relatives, have quite as
great a horror as we have of parricide. Salim’s
crime is always spoken of in Oman, when men dare
speak at all of it, as an unheard of and unparalleled
atrocity, and we have greatly lost in character by
our apparent indifference to his crime.)
Majid now says, “ I am bound, by every conside-
“ ration binding on an Arab ruler, to go to war
“ with Salim, and avenge my brother’s blood. If
“ you prevent me by force, as you have already
“ prevented Toorkee, from ridding our family and
“ our country of this monster, I, like Toorkee, must
‘‘ bow to sueprior force, but I will not willingly go
“ on paying to my brother’s murderer what I agreed
'* to pay to my brother as the price of peace, and
“ of an equitable division of our inheritance.”
I think he has both natural and diplomatic right
on his side.
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