"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٥‎١‎٧] (١٧٨٢/٦٦٠)

(3tC
Offerer
fihatetlite
517
the Sultan's sons, marched inland from Quryat, routed the Bani Battash
at Misfah, which they destroyed, and razed the fort of Mazara', the
tribal capital, to the ground. The Baui Battash then submitted and
eventually paid a fine of 14,000.
The second conspicuous example of defiance of the Sultan's authority was
the unexpected seizure of Suwaiq, in July 1887, by Ibrahim•hin-Qais,
whose allowance had been stopped by Turki and who was encouraged to
activity by the prevalence of disorder in 'Oman Proper. Colonel Ross,
however, with Colonel Mockler, went immediately to Suwaiq in the
R.I.M.S. " Lawrence " and induced Ibrahim to evacuate the place quietly,
on condition of his pension being restored; and a Hinawi combination
which Salih-bin-'Ali was forming in the Sharqiyah District then imme
diately dissolved.
The affairs of Gwadar and Dhufar at this time are fully related
in the Annexures to the present chapter ; in the former the principal
event was a settlement, in 1886, with the Rind tribe ; in the latter a
rebellion occurred in 1887, and there were suspicions of Turkish
intrigue.
Saiyid Turki, whose health had long been feeble, died on the 3rd of
June 1888, a few days after receiving a visit at Masqat from his friend
Colonel Ross, the British Political Resident. The Sultan, though feeble
in character and sometimes treacherous in conduct, was of a mild and
liberal disposition, and his death was felt to be a misfortune for Oman.
Suwaiq taken
by Ibrahim-
bin'Qais and
recovered by
British inter*
vention,
1887.
The Gwidar
nnd Dhufar
dependencies.
Death of
Turki, June
1888.
t I
ainst ^ '
.llD#
Administration of Turki, 1883-88.
The Sultan's authority at a distance from his capital was everywhere,
even at the close of his reign, either nominal or piecaiious. In 1884
Turki was obliged to remove his son Muhammad from the government
of Sohar, where his rule was extremely unpopular; and in the same year the
fort of Izki was lost to the Bani Ruwahah and again recovered— though not
without expense—by the Sultan, while Nizwa also passed out of his co
into that of the Bani Riyam and was not so quickly retaken. From the
port of Sur, notwithstanding its large trade, the Sultan derived only
12,000 a year as customs; and a scheme devised in 1884, to improve
matters in this respect by enclosing the town with a wall, ended m nothing.
In May 1885 an attempt by Sulaiman-bin-Suwailim, Wah ot Izki,
to seize Farq for the Sultan ended in a fiasco. In June ^
Sultan was deprived of Birkat-al-Moz by a Shaikh of the Bam Riyam
Administra
tive matters
at Sohar,
Iz-ki. Nizwa,
Sur, Parq
and Birkat-
al-Moz.