195 
1874.] E. Ck Ross— Annals of 1 Oman .— Notes to Boole VII. 
“ They kill none in cold blood, hut use their captives courteously. In anno 1695, they 
“ quarrelled with the Carnatick Rajah, a potent Princely lord. Yet they came with their 
a fleet and plundered and burned the towns of Barsalore and Mangalore, two of the best 
“ and richest towns on that Coast.” 
[The above is from Captain Alexander Hamilton’s ‘New Account of the East Indies.* 
He travelled from 1688 to 1723, and is therefore a valuable authority for this period.}. 
2 1 (p. 165.) Jezfret el-Khadhra, or Pemba. 
Notes to Book VII. 
1 (p. 168.) Body of horsemen. The term used is ‘ sarfyeh,’ which means a party of 
from five to three hundred or four hundred. 
2 (p. 168.) Sahib el-‘Anbur. A title or a nick-name. * Anbur in ‘Oman sometimes 
means a purse. 
3 (p. 169.) Koran XXIX, 1, Sale’s translation, 
4 (p. 169.) Benu-Ghafir. The origin of the appellation of this tribe seems unknown, 
but they are undoubtedly Ishmaelite or ‘Adnanite, and were therefore naturally opposed to 
the Yemenites or Kahtanites. As will be seen further on, under their able and brave 
chief, Mohammed-bin Nasir, this clan became renowned and powerful in ‘Oman. This 
chief headed the faction against their rivals the Yemenites, who also found a skilful and 
courageous leader in Khalf-bin Mubarik, the Dwarf, chief of the Benu-Hinah. This civil 
war was one of the fiercest recorded in the annals of ‘Oman, a great number of the clans 
ranging themselves under their respective leaders, declaring either for the ‘‘ Hinaf” or 
“ Ghafiri.” Those faction terms have survived to the present day, and almost entirely 
supersede the older classifications, the rival factions being now termed el-Hinawfyeli 
and el-Gliafiriyeh. This is the explanation of the undue pre-eminence assigned by 
European writers on ‘Oman to these two tribes, whose importance was accidental 
and temporary. For a time the Ghafirfs gained the day, and their chief became 
Imam, but the Hinawfs soon regained the ascendancy. At present, the power of the two 
sections is tolerably evenly balanced, the Ghafirfs preponderating in the West and their 
rivals in the East. It is to be noticed that at the present day the fact of a clan styling 
itself of the Hinawf or the Ghafiri faction does not necessarily prove its origin to be 
Kahtanite, or Ishmaelite ; for several Yemen tribes have ranged themselves with the Nejd- 
ites and vice versa. This fact occasions additional difficulty in tracing tribal genealogies. 
5 (p. 169.) See Note 1. 
6 (p. 170.) The names Yemen and Nizar here apply to rival families so called, not 
to factions. 
7 (p. 172.) Koran, Xlll, 12. . 
8 (p. 172.) Birkeh. This name is sometimes written so and sometimes Barka. In 
the Kamus it appears as “ Birket el-Rameys/* 
9 (p. 172.) “ Did not understand Arabic I Probably these were some of the people 
inhabiting the Ruus el-Jebel from Cape Mussendom. Southward the inhabitants of that loca¬ 
lity differ in appearance from the other Arabs and speak a different dialect. Some, from their 
reddish skins and light eyes, have conceived them to have an admixture of European 
blood. On examination their language will probably be found to be a Himyarite dialect. 
They may be descendants of a Himyarite people who inhabited ‘Oman before the inflow of 
Yemenites and others. They are named el-Shehuh or el-Shihiyfn. 
Cape Mussendom has been identified with “ the promontory of the Asabi” of 
Ptolemy (by Forster), and the Asabi or Sabi with the Seba or Sebaim of Scripture. In 
accordance with this theory, this part of ‘Oman was originally the seat of Cushite colonies. 
