SAYYID SAID. 



291 



tector whilst descending the stairs, was struck 

 in the back by his nephew's dagger. Sayyid 

 Bedr sprang from the window, and mounted a 

 stirrupless horse which stood below, when he 

 was wounded with a spear ; the c Imam's daugh- 

 ter,' with a blood-thirstiness truly feminine, 

 cheering on the assassins, till after riding half a 

 mile on the highway from Birkat to Sohar, he 

 fell from his animal and was speedily despatched. 

 The young prince was, they say, so strongly 

 affected by the scene, that through life he could 

 hardly be persuaded to order a death. 1 



Thus Said became, with the consent of his 

 elder brother, Sayyid Salim, an independent 

 ruler, and the fourth of his dynasty, the Bvi 

 Sai'df. His proper title was ' Sayyid,' which in 

 Oman and amongst the Eastern Arabs means a 

 chief or temporal ruler, whereas 6 Sherif ' is a 

 descendant of the Prophet. Many Anglo-In- 

 dian writers ignore this distinction. c Imam ' is 

 an ecclesiastical title, signifying properly the man 

 who takes the lead in public prayer, and it de- 

 mands both study and confirmation : in sect- 

 arian theology it is the hereditary head of El 



1 I give this account as it was told to me by Lieut. -Col. 

 Hamerton. M. Guillain (part II. chap, iii.) may be consulted 

 for another and a more diplomatic version. 



