Al Bu Said dynasty
The House of Al Bu Said, is the current ruling royal family of Oman, and former ruling house of the Omani Empire, Sultanate of Muscat and Oman and the Sultanate of Zanzibar. It was founded by Ahmad bin Said Al Busaidi on 20 November 1744 and is currently headed by Haitham bin Tariq Al Said.
History
The Busaid dynasty traces its roots to the tribes of Azd through a patrilineal ancestor, al-'Atik al-Asad b. Imran, who settled in Dibba, hence the band was also known as the "Azd of Daba".Like other Qahtani, the Azd originally hailed from Yemen and migrated north after the destruction of the Marib Dam.
With the rise of Islam, the Azd established themselves into a leading force in the ensuing Muslim conquests and later in the realms of the Umayyad Caliphate through the celebrated general Al Muhallab ibn Abi Suffrah, the progenitor of the Busaid tribe. Most early sections of pre-Islamic universal chronicles of Arabs begin with the Azd.
Rise to power
, a shrewd military tactician, was the governor of Sohar when a Persian fleet attacked the town. He held out for nine months, finally forcing the Persian commander of Nader Shah's army to come to terms and leave the country altogether within a few years. He was elected imam on 20 November 1744, marking the last time Oman was occupied by foreign parties and the beginning of a new unified state. It was also the start of a dynasty that has lasted to the present day, making it one of the oldest surviving royal dynasties in Arabia and the first to gain independence.His descendants did not take the religious title of Imam, but Sayyid, an honorific title held by members of the royal family to this day, thus relinquishing all pretense of spiritual authority while fostering Muslim scholars and promoting Islamic scholarship.
Trade flourished during Ahmed's thirty-nine-year reign and the Omani navy developed into a formidable force in the Indian Ocean second only to Great Britain and capable of purging Persians forces from the entire region and protecting Ottoman vessels in the Gulf of Oman, Indian Ocean and the Pirate Coast of Trucial Oman.
When he died in 1778, the ulema replaced Ahmed with his son, Said bin Ahmed, who was very religious but shrank from administrative duties. Since the tenets of Ibadhism allowed for the division of duties between leaders along religious, administrative and military lines, he removed himself to Rustaq until his death in 1811.
His son Hamad bin Said moved the capital from the interior city of Rustaq to the coastal Muscat in 1783 and took the title of sultan, implying purely coercive power. He was a capable leader for eight years and facilitated reform policy in the initial stages of the transition but died suddenly in 1792 of smallpox.
Alliance with the British Empire
assumed control of the government after the death of his nephew and strengthened the already powerful fleet by adding numerous gunships and sleek cargo vessels. He also needed a strong ally to help him regain control of Mombasa from the Mazrui clan, fight off the movement spreading from what is now Saudi Arabia and to keep the Qasimi tribes from the Persian city of Lingeh out of Oman. He found this able ally in Great Britain, who by this time was a powerful maritime nation with an empire expanding all over the world. In the late 18th century, the second British Empire was at war with France and knew that the French emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, was planning to march through Persia and capture Muscat on his way to invade India. In 1798 Britain and Oman agreed a Treaty of Commerce and Navigation.Sultan bin Ahmed pledged himself to British interests in India, and his territories became out of bounds to the French. He allowed the British East India Company to establish the first trading station in the Persian Gulf, and a British consul was posted to Muscat. As well as defeating Bonaparte, the British had another motive for the treaty with Oman: they wanted to put pressure on the sultan to end slavery, which had been declared illegal in England in 1772. At this time, the trade from Africa to Oman was still buoyant, and Zanzibar's position as an important trade centre was bolstered further when the supply of ivory from Mozambique to India collapsed because of excessive Portuguese export duties. The traders simply shipped their ivory through Zanzibar instead. Omani warships were in constant skirmishes up and down the gulf, which kept the sultan preoccupied. It was in the course of one of his sorties during an incursion abroad a ship in the Persian Gulf in 1804 that Sultan Sayyid was shot in the head by a stray bullet, he was buried in Lingeh.
Said bin Sultan (Said the Great)
The death of Sultan bin Ahmed sent the country into a state of shock and inter-family rivalries. Dissident tribes and outside agitators who all conspired to make the role of supreme commander a speculative proposition at best. Sultan's eldest son Said was merely thirteen, too young to take the reins of his country, "so the elders called upon another nephew Badr bin Saif to act as regent in the boy's behalf until he came of age."The decision to enlist Badr was unfortunately a bad one, as he had political aspirations of his own. The royal house turned against him but he refused to relinquish his hold of power without a struggle. Said, now sixteen, conspired to have him assassinated. On a pretext to inspect the munitions at Nakhal Fort, Badr went to Barka and met Said at Bait al Nu'man castle. There he was killed in a dramatic duel to the death with daggers. A wounded Badr escaped but was finished off by Said's horsemen. Said immediately assumed the government and held it until his death fifty-two years later. He announced to the British that he had assumed power, but they were slow to respond. They acknowledged the young monarch a year later when they realized that their fortunes were best served by courting him.
During the reign of the renowned Sultan Said bin Sultan, the progenitor of the Busaidi dynasty, he took Oman to its zenith as a commercial and political maritime power: extending its borders to include Mombasa and parts of the Southeast African coast, Zanzibar, Pemba Island, Mafia Island, Lamu Archipelago, Cape Delgado, Bandar-Abbas and the southern Iranian coast, Gwadar province of Balochistan and, for a short time Bahrain. He was counted among the best leaders as his reputation spread to the crown heads of Europe and became known as Said the Great. Few Arab leaders of any time were as well known and respected as Sheikh Said. Trade flourished and Muscat became a key market for the Persian Gulf. The celebrated explorer Richard Francis Burton called him "as shrewd, liberal and enlightened a prince as Arabia has ever produced," and an Italian physician who served him for a time said: "His constant love of justice, and distinguished clemency, the effects of which are felt, not only by his own subjects, but even by his domestic slaves."
In 1832, he made the island of Zanzibar his second capital and set about establishing what is present-day Stone Town. A merchant prince and capable warrior, he spent much of his time at sea depending on mercantile and maritime resources for his power in both Oman and Zanzibar. Recognizing the suitability of Zanzibar climate and soil, he initiated large scale cultivation of cloves and soon after sought slaves as cheap labor to plant and harvest the biennial crop. He is also noted for revitalizing the production of rice and sugar cane as well as the export of ivory and gum copal. Such was his enterprise and commercial skill that it could probably be said that he established the first international market on the island of Zanzibar; subsequently many countries signed commercial treaties and opened consulates. He even introduced a copper coinage to amplify the existing silver coinage of Maria Theresa thalers and Spanish dollars.
Treaty with the United States
On 21 September 1833 a historical treaty of friendship and trade was signed with the United States of America. It was the second trade treaty formulated by the U.S. and an Arab state. The United States and Oman both stood to benefit, as the U.S. – unlike Britain and France – had no territorial ambitions in the Middle East and was solely interested in commerce. On 13 April 1840, the ship Al-Sultanah docked at New York, making it the first Arab envoy to ever visit the New World. Her crew of fifty-six Arab sailors caused a flurry of excitement among the three hundred thousand residents of that thriving metropolis. Al-Sultanah carried ivory, Persian rugs, spices, coffee and dates, as well as lavish gifts for President Martin Van Buren. The visit of Al-Sultanah lasted nearly four months, in which time the emissary, Ahmed Bin Na'aman Al-Kaabi and his officers were entertained by state and city dignitaries. They received resolutions passed by official bodies, were given tours of New York City and saw sections which would, a few decades later, become colonies of Arabic-speaking immigrants. Among Bin Na'aman's hosts was Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, in whose home he met Governor William H. Seward and Vice President Richard Mentor Johnson. The visit of Ahmed Bin Na'aman to America was a happy one, and when he prepared to leave, the United States completely repaired Al-Sultanah and presented him with gifts for his Sultan.End of Said's Reign
Said made periodic visits to Muscat, leaving his eldest son Khalid as Governor of Zanzibar in his absence. Khalid had a predilection for French goods and named his principal country estate Marseilles, after the Mediterranean port. When Khalid died of tuberculosis in November 1854, an order came from Said in Muscat appointing another son, the 20-year-old Majid, as governor.In September 1856, Said sailed for Zanzibar on his ship Kitorie in the company of his nineteen-year-old son, Barghash bin Said. He began to suffer severe pains from an old battle wound in his thigh followed by an attack of dysentery. He died on board the ship on 19 October 1856 at the age of sixty-five.