Salim bin Thuwaini

'Sultan Salim bin Thuwaini Al Said' (Arabic: سالم بن ثويني آل سعيد) was the Sultan of Muscat and Oman from February 11, 1866 - October 1868. He was the eldest son of Sultan Thuwaini bin Said and acceded to the throne in succession to his father. Lewis Pelly and Henry Bartle Frere were deeply disappointed by the death of Sultan Thuwaini bin Said in their hopes for a military action against the Wahhabis and were well aware of his sons opposing views and refusal to join the insuing war. Hence the British Political Resident General in the Gulf at Bushehr, Colonel Lewis Pelly, fiercely opposed the recognition of Salim whom he feared was to stop foreign interference and forge a peace deal with the Wahhabis and accused him of patricide through innuendo.

Salim sent two further envoys to Bombay, then under British Raj rule, with a letter soliciting the renewal of relations between the British and Muscat Governments and reiterating his assertions regarding his fathers death, namely, that he had died as a result of illness after three days of suffering, to which the Government of India acknowledged the reigning prince as sultan on May 1866. Pelly tried to intervene but had been forestalled by the British Viceroy John Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence who presented Salim with his governments official recognition of him as the new Sultan of Oman.

On September 1868, Azzan bin Qais, Salim's brother-in-law and distant relative was elected imam by disgrunted tribesmen seeking to lead the country back to the principles of classical Ibadhi state, Azzan led his followers in a rapid series of raids on the Barkah, Mutrah and Muscat forts. With no support Salim could not hold center and was forced to flee to one of the harbour fortresses. In his precipitate flight he left his valuables behind together with many heirlooms of the dynasty, all of which were either plundered or destroyed by the invaders. On the 11th of October 1868, Salim embarked on his ship The Prince of Wales and sailed for Bandar-Abbas, from there he made several failed attempts to recover his lost dominions between October 1868 and March 1869; He made a final bid for the throne in 1875, however by that point, the British had formally recognized his uncle Turki bin Said as the new Sultan. Salim was captured and expelled aboard H.M.S.Daphne and was confined to a fortress in Hyderabad, Sindh until he died of smallpox on 7 December 1876.

References

• Salil Ibn Raziq, George P. Badger (Translator), London (1871): History of the Imams and Sayyids of Oman .
• Emily Ruete, Ulrich Haarmann (Editor), E. Van Donzel (Editor), Leiden, Netherlands, (1992): An Arabian Princess Between Two Worlds: Memoirs, Letters Home, Sequels to the Memoirs, Syrian Customs and Usages. ISBN 90-04-09615-9
• British Archives.
• Archives of the British India company.