THE YZTRABI ARABS. 



287 



phet's tribe, might rise to the rank of Pontiff. 

 In a.d. 751 they were powerful enough to elect 

 Julandah ben Mas'ud, but the succeeding dynasty 

 rejected the term. The usurped rule was reco- 

 vered after his decease (a.d. 1728) by Sayf el 

 Asdi, a younger son of Sultan bin Sayf: this in- 

 dolent debauchee being shut up in Maskat by a 

 cousin, Sultan bin Murshid — some corrupt his 

 father's name to Khurshid — applied for assistance 

 to that Nadir Shah, whom his more patriotic 

 father had successfully resisted. In 1746 the 

 Persians, aided by intestine Arab divisions, soon 

 conquered Oman : Sultan bin Murshid slew him- 

 self in despair, and Sayf el Asdi, duped by his 

 allies, died of grief in his dungeon at Rustak. 

 The latter city was in those days the ordinary 

 residence of the Imams ; in fact, a kind of 

 cathedral town as well as capital. 



The power now fell from the hands of the 

 Yu'rabis (Ghafiris) into the grasp of their rivals, 

 the Bu Saidi (Hinawis). These sfncient lords of 

 Oman claim direct descent from Kahtan (Joc- 

 tan), great-grandfather of Himyar, founder of 

 the Southern Arabs, and brother to Saba, who 

 built in Yemen the city that bore his name : the 

 stock is held to be noble as any in the Peninsula. 

 Oman remained under foreign dominion, paying 



