"تاريخ أئمة وأسياد عُمان بقلم سليل ابن رزيق، من ٦٦١-١٨٥٦ م، مترجم من الأصل العربي، ومُحرّر بملاحظات وملاحق ومقدمة تواصل التاريخ حتى سنة ١٨٧٠، بقلم جورج بيرسي بادجر، عضو في الجمعية الجغرافية الملكية والقس الراحل في رئاسة بومباي." [‎٢‎٦] (٦١٢/٥٩)

xxvi
introduction
dated tlie power of the Im&raate and exercised a greater in
fluence over the country than any of his predecessors. He
was frugal even to parsimony in his mode of life, and bis
reputation for piety was, there can be no doubt, the main
source of his popularity with the superstitious tribes who
still regard him as having been endowed with preternatural
virtues.
Nasir was succeeded by his cousin. Sultan-bin-Seif, who
immediately after his election set out from er-Rastak with
a large army, determined to drive the Portuguese out of
Maskat. He encamped near the neighbouring town of el-
Matrah, from whence he made frequent sallies on the enemy's
outposts; but the Christians were everywhere on the alert
and repulsed the assailants at all points. This desultory
warfare might have been prolonged indefinitely had it not
been for the treachery of a Banian, named Narutem, who
appears to have held the post of general agent to the Por
tuguese, and whose daughter the Commandant, Pareira, in
sisted on making his wife. Narutem, having succeeded in
postponing the proposed marriage for a year, hit upon a
plan for frustrating it altogether. He first induced the
Commandant to empty the water-tanks in the two forts,
clear out the provision-stores and remove the gunpowder,
under the plea that the siege might be protracted, and that,
therefore, timely precautions should be taken to obtain fresh
supplies in lieu of the old, and then wrote confidentially to
the Imam apprising him of what he had done, urging him
to attack the place on a Sunday, when the garrison would
be off duty and engaged in merry-making. Taking advan
tage of this information, the Imam led his army over the
intervening heights on the day named, and first assaulted
the town walls, " none of the Portuguese opposing them
but such as were reeling drunk, incapable of firing or using
their muskets, beyond striking with them at random."
From the town they proceeded to the two forts, the guns of