ARAB GENEALOGY. 



371 



name to the whole country; the Arab geogra- 

 phers make it the ancient term for Sohar, and the 

 classical geographer holds that the Ommanum 

 Emporium of Ptolemy was applied to Maskat. 



When Malik bin Fakhra had been slain by 

 his son Selima, and another son, Zayd, ruled 

 Oman in his stead, a thousand of the Benu Xezar 

 came to him from the town of Ubar, and were 

 settled upon a tract of low open ground ^-ii), 

 whence they took the name of Ghafiri. These 

 immigrants were Arab el Musta'arabah, which, in 

 Omanic usage, denotes the insititious or Ismailitic 

 clans derived from Adnan, son of Ishmael ; and 

 the gift of land had made them clients of Zayd and 

 of his tribe, the Hinawi. Intermarriage, however, 

 soon amalgamated the races. When El Islam 

 brought the sword to mankind, and when the 

 rival prophet Musaylimah, generally known as 

 the Liar, paved the way for the Karmati (Carma- 

 thians) and for a copious crop of heresies, the 

 Ghafiri, cleaving to the faith of Meccah, were pre- 

 ferred by the Caliph Abubekr to their former 

 patrons, for the chieftainship of Oman. In his 

 turn, the Caliph Ali restored precedence to the 

 Hinawi who had espoused his cause. Hence an 

 inveterate feud, a flame of wrath, which rivers 

 of blood have not quenched. Throughout Oman 



