Express News Service
“The horrors of Macbeth pale beside this tragedy of Sayyid Salim.” This was a murder most foul, where Sayyid Thuwayni, the Sultan of Muscat, was allegedly killed by his son Salim, who then installed himself as the successor of the empire while imprisoning his uncle Sayyid Turki.
A reign that was non-impressive and little to write home about. But, the opening paragraph
of Seema Alavi’s Sovereigns of The Sea: Omani Ambition in the Age of Empire sets the tone of what’s in store in this deeply riveting book.
While it starts with the newly instated Sultan, Alavi quickly takes us to Salim’s grandfather— the Omani patriarch, Sultan Sayyid Said, who helped shape the narrative of the Indian Ocean’s political culture under his rule from 1804 to 1856. The subsequent four chapters are devoted to his four sons, who paved the way for the Omani elite to become integral to the functioning of a huge maritime space.
It attempts to shed light on a micro-history that is shaped by Sultan Said and his successful progeny—Sayyid Majid, Sayyid Thuwayni, Sayyid Turki and Sultan Barghash.
Sovereigns of the Sea is a comprehensive and well-researched book that captures Oman’s rise to power in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1851, Britain and Oman signed a convention for the detention of Persian slaves by British cruisers. According to its terms, the Persian government agreed that the warships of the British Government and the East India Company be permitted for a period of 11 years to search Persian merchant vessels.
But this treaty notwithstanding, Sultan Said had his networks spread out in Persia, Africa and India to continue with the slave trade, despite being under pressure from the British to end it. He simply turned a blind eye to the order and gained much from it.
Even though Said is largely seen as a mere British ally in the historical almanacs, he and his sons collectively made grand alliances with not just the Western imperial world but also the tribal sects and a vast diaspora of merchants, bankers, sailors, etc. across the ocean. For instance, Sayyid Majid consolidated his social base in the Bania community by asserting his jurisdiction over all the Indians registered with him.
At the same time, he promised the British that he would not allow any of them to hold slaves more than what was written against their names. Or for when his father, Said, showed the kind of astute diplomat he was by signing treaties with imperial powers, even as he straddled between Muscat and his new maritime port of Zanzibar. He was keen not to be overlooked on global platforms and wanted to be in the European public gaze as an energetic leader. For that, Said ensured that in the ‘age of revolution’, he contributed in equal measure.
Alavi, a professor of history, draws on a wide range of sources, including Arabic, Persian and European archival materials, to paint a vivid picture of Oman’s maritime empire. It captures evocatively how the action-oriented reigns of the five Sultans that altered the Western Indian Ocean’s politics, often found little value in its more famous European historical narratives that dominate mainstream discourse.
The book begins with a brief overview of Oman’s history before the 18th century. It then goes on to discuss the factors that contributed to Oman’s rise to power, including the decline of the Portuguese clout in the Indian Ocean, the growth of the slave trade, and the development of Oman’s maritime infrastructure.
It’s no surprise that Alavi, who specialises in early and modern South Asia, has a keen eye for detail when she sets out to talk about the transformation of the region’s legacy from Indo-Persian to one influenced by British Colonial rule. She navigates through the age of the Empire to bring forward a piece of history that puts together Oman, East Africa, and British India at a critical point in history.
Name: Sovereigns of the Sea: Omani Ambition in the Age of Empire
Author: Seema Alavi
Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 393
Price: Rs 999
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