GOVERNMENT OV ARABIA. 143 



churches, one of which was afterward converted 

 into a magazine, and the other into the residence 

 of the wah, or governor. From this possession they 

 were driven by the Arabs about the middle of the 

 seventeenth century, through the treacherous aid 

 of a Banian, who had been robbed of his daughter 

 by the Portuguese commander. In 1746, Oman was 

 invaded by Nadir Shah, who subdued all the coun-' 

 try as far as Muscat, which he also tookj with the 

 exception of two forts. On the death of that war- 

 like prince the Persians abandoned their conquests. 

 The ancient reigning families, the Gaffri, the Ha- 

 mani, and the Arrabi (the latter pretended to be the 

 descendants of the Koreish), again resumed the su^ 

 preme power. It was at this period that Ahmed 

 ibn Said, ancestor to the present imam, succeeded 

 in establishing his independence, after a feeble re- 

 sistance from the Gaffri. Several years ago, when 

 the government of India was engaged in suppress" 

 ing Arab pirates (the Joassamees) who infested the 

 Persian Gulf, this prince acted in alliance with the 

 British ; and it is to this circumstance that we owe 

 much of our recent information as to the state of his 

 capital, and the resources of his government.* 



The town of Muscat is romantically situated, 

 being built on a small sandy beach, and lying in 

 a sort of glen or recess behind the bay. On either 

 hand it is surrounded v/ith bleak and rugged cliffs ; 

 without a tree, a flower, or a blade of grass to break 

 their uniformity of nakedness. Occasionally their 

 tops are shrouded in mist^ with here and there a 

 hoary waterfall, dashing from rock to rock until it 

 reaches the ocean below. The harbour, the best and 

 almost the only one oil that part of the Arabian 



* Buckingham's Travels in Assyria. Fraser's Journey. Sir 

 J. Malcolm's Sketches of Persia. An interesting account of 

 Seid-Said. who mounted the throne in 1807, is given by his phy- 

 eicisin, Tmcenzo, a native of Italy, under the name of Sheik 

 Mansfcur. 



