File 705/1916 Pt 2 'Arab revolt: Arab reports; Sir M Sykes' reports' [‎132r] (261/450)

required if the former hope to induce the latter to emerge from the obscurity into which
prudence, and the knowledge that they are all well-known to the authorities has
at present driven them.] ’
APPENDIX (E).
The Rebellion against the Sultan of Maskat, May 1913-July 1916.
[Written by Miss Geetruue Bell.]
The rebellion against the Sultan of Maskat is due partly to old and deep-seated
matters of disagreement and partly to the reflex action of modern European politics in
the Uruh on the internal affairs of Oman. Chief among the former causes of unrest
is the curious and interesting survival in Oman of the very ancient rivalry between the
Ahl Qibli and the Ahl al Shimal, the southern tribes of Yaman origin and the northern
tribes descended from Nizar ibn Ma'add, represented respectively in Oman by the
Hmawi and Ghafiri groups. Though these two factions, which are almost identical with
the older divisions, did not spring into existence as actively hostile elements until the
civil wars which rent Oman in the 18th century, they revived an enmity which goes
back to the days before the Prophet. Roughly speaking the Ghafiri or Nizarites are at
present with the Sultan, while the Hinawi,or Yarnanites, are with the Imam. A second
and' very fertile source of division between the Sultan and his subjects in the interior
was the transference of the capital in 1784 from Rustaq, in the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Para, to Maskat.
This was done by Hamad, son of the Imam Said ibn Ahmad. Said, son of the founder
of the Al Bu Saidi dynasty, was the last elected Imam of Oman to hold sovereign power,
and when he was forced to abdicate in favour of his more capable son, he was left to
vegetate at Rustaq while the seat of Government was moved to the coast. Thereby
the rulers of Oman were assured of an easily collected customs revenue enabling them
to preserve a semblance of authority by bribery alone, they were absolved from the
necessity of maintaining themselves by military and political efficiency, and exposed to
foreign influences which alienated from them the sympathies of the tribes in the
interior.
To these foreign influences, to the reliance of the Sultans of Maskat on foreign naval
and military power, and their enforced submission to foreign requirements in the matter
ol the traffic in slaves and in arms, the modern causes of unrest belong. The late Sultan,
Saiyid Faisal ibn Turki, saw in the suppression of the arms trade by the British
Government a distinct advantage to himself, since his rebellious subjects were unable to
furnish themselves with weapons to use against him, but before his death the discontent
which it had caused among the tribes had come to a head. The chief Shaykh of
the Ibadhi, to which sect most of the Hinawi tribes belong, roused the country by his
preaching, in which he represented the Arms Warehouse as a device of the English to
deprive the tribes of Oman of modern weapons, and in May 1913 the Imam of Tanuf,
Salim ibn Rashid al Kharusi, rose in revolt. Nizwa, one of the chief towns of Oman
proper, fell in June; Izki, immediately to the east of Nizwa, in the following month.
After the fall of Izki the rebels, who already had among them as temporal leaders
Shaykh Hamyar ibn Nasir and Nabhan, the Tamimah of the Bani Riyarn, were joined
by Shaykh Isa ibn Salih, son of the famous Shaykh Salih ibn Ali Al Harithi, who led
the great revolt against Saiyid Faisal in 1895. Shaykh Isa, an austere man of strong
character, though far from unamenable to bribes, is the leading figure in the confederation.
In July L913 the situation became so threatening that the British Government sent a
small garrison to Matrah on the coast north of Maskat, but the rebels continued to gain
ground, and in August Samail fell into their hands. In September we doubled the
garrison at Bait al Falaj, near Maskat. Saiyid Faisal died in October and was succeeded
by his son Sayid Taimur who, relying on An old personal friendship with Shaykh Isa,
opened negotiations with him, as a result of which Shaykh Isa visited Maskat in
December. No permanent result was, however, attained. In April 1914 the rebels
were intimidated by the bombardment of Barkah and Qaryat by H.M.S. “ Fox” and
H.M.S. “Dartmouth,” but in August fresh hostile movements were set on foot which
made it necessary to send reinfjrcements to the garrison at Maskat. In January 1915
the Imam’s followers attacked the British outposts and met with a crushing defeat