ABSTRACT
None of the four principal sons of Said b Sultan-Thuwaynî and Turkî in Oman, Majid and Barghash in East Africa-were uterine brothers. The jealousy, treachery and hatred, the seeds of which had been sown by the machinations and intrigues conducted in the corridors of power of the harim (wives and concubines) by their respective mothers on their behalf for Said b Sultan’s favours, added a further dimension to the tradition of internecine feuding so engrained in the psyche of the Omani tribal people. When Hilal, the eldest son [born c.1817], fell into disfavour in 1844,1 his aunt Khurshîd, the Malabari woman, succeeded in her designs to have her son Khalid [born c.1819]2 appointed ‘to be ruler over all our possessions on the continent of Africa’.3
