"سجلات تاريخ عُمان" [‎٧‎٤] (١١٢/٩١)

74
Annals of'Oman.
One niglit, a field of millet by the wells of the town was destroyed.
The owner complained to Mohammed-bin Nasir, who inquired who had de
stroyed his field. He replied, " the Benu-Yas and the el-Na'im, and the Be
douins, and others with you." He said, " How much compensation do you
require for your field ? take two hundred Mohammedis." 18 On his refusal he
said, " Take four hundred." He still refused, and Mohammed-bin Nasir
offered five hundred. But the man said, " I will not be content unless
you exact justice of them ?" So he summoned the Sheykhs, and on their
presenting themselves, ordered them to be bound to stakes. The man
would only accept their being whipped as reparation, so he had them all
scourged, and would not heed their appeals to him for mercy until justice
had been exacted, when he released them from the cords.
Now this was a stratagem of the Benu-Hinah to estrange from him
the Bedouins, who then left Mohammed-bin Nasir, and returned to their
own lands. As soon as he heard of their departure, Khalf-bin Mubarik
attacked Mohammed-bin Nasir with his adherents. The attack was made
soon after sunrise, and Mohammed-bin Nasir's followers were taken by sur
prise. When the latter was informed of the arrival of Khalf-bin Mubarik,
he is said to have remarked, " This hour is not to us, and not to them, but
as God wills." Thereupon he mounted his mare, and his followers mounted
with him, and they encountered Khalf at the gate of the Fort of Sohar.
In the engagement Khalf-bin Mubarik was killed, and the Benu-Hinah
were defeated and pursued by Mohammed-bin Nasir to the fort wall.
There a bullet fired from the Fort above struck him, and his followers car
ried him off and he died. 19 Fifteen of his followers also were killed whose
names we do not mention. The people of Maskat and el-llostak retired to
the latter place.
For three days after the burial of Mohammed-bin-Nasir, none but the
leaders knew of his death, and the garrison of the Fort of Sohar had well
nigh surrendered it.
They then returned with the Seyyid Seyf-bin Sultan to Nezwa, and he
was appointed Imam of the Musalmans by the Kadhi, on Friday after sunset
in the early part of Sha'ban, in the year 1140 of the Hijreh [A. D. 1728.}.