"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." [‎٤‎٦] (٦١٢/٧٩)

xlvi
introduction
against the people of es-Sir, at el-Bithnah, who had threat
ened to invade Sohar. Many were killed on both sides
without any decisive result. On the way back the Imam
left his army by stealth and took up his abode in the hut of
an old woman at Yankal,—a place apparently not far from
Sohar,—allowing his camel with its trappings to go loose.
(His object was to ascertain what would be the effect of his
disappearance upon the malcontent chiefs.) The stratagem
was perfectly successful, for a rumour of his death having
got abroad, Belarab-bin-Himyar took the field with 20,000
men and invested Nezwa. Apprised of these proceedings
by the reports brought to him by the old woman, Ahmed
set out by night for Sohar, and having levied all the loyal
tribes attacked the insurgents and utterly routed them.
Among the slain was Belarab-bin-Himyar. It was probably
not long after this engagement that, according to the late
Captain (afterwards Colonel) Taylor, Ahmed married a
daughter of one of the ex-princes of the el-Yaarubah,
thereby " connecting his own family with the most illus
trious persons in his dominions." 1
Ahmed's next expedition was undertaken at the earnest
solicitation of the people of el-Basrah, which place had
been captured by the Persians. Taking with him a fleet of
ten men-of-war and a force of 10,000 men in smaller vessels,
he first broke the iron chain which the Persians had stretched
across the Shatt-el-'Arab by driving his ship the er-Rah-
mdny against it, and then after a hand-to-hand fight with
the invaders utterly routed them. In recognition of his
services on that occasion the Ottoman Sultan awarded the
ruler of 'Oman a yearly gratuity, or pension, which the
author states was paid regularly by the governor of el-Bas
rah up to the time of the Imam's grandson, the late Seyyid
Said.
Not long after, Ahmed dispatched an envoy in his ship
1 Bombay Government Selections, No. xxiv. p. 7.