Said bin Ahmad (died 1803) was briefly the Imam of

Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...

, the second of the

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 (1744–1856), Muscat and Oman, Sultanate of Muscat and Oman (1856–1970) and the Sultanate of Zanzibar (1856–1964). It wa ...

, ruling the country between 1783 and 1786.

Rule

Said bin Ahmad was the son of the Imam and Sultan

Ahmad bin Said al-Busaidi Ahmad bin Said al-Busaidi (1694 – 15 December 1783) was the first ruler of Oman of the Al Bu Said dynasty. He came to power during a period when Oman was divided by civil war, and the Persians had occupied large parts of the country. During his ...

, and was elected Imam on his father's death in 1783. The succession was unchallenged, and Said took possession of the capital,

Rustaq Rustaq () is a town and Provinces of Oman, ''Wilayah'' (District) in Al Batinah Region of northern Oman. The wilayah is in the Western Hajar Mountains, in the Al Batinah South Governorate, south of the Batinah. Rustaq was once the capital of Om ...

. His brothers Saif and Sultan bin Ahmad called on Sheikh Sakar of the Shemal tribal group to help them gain the throne. Sheikh Sakar took the towns of Hamra, Shargah, Rams and Khor Fakan. Said fought back, but was unable to regain these towns. However, Saif and Sultan felt it was too dangerous for them to stay in Oman. Saif sailed for East Africa, intending to set himself up as a ruler there. He died there soon after. Sultan escaped to

Gwadar Gwadar (, ) is a Port, port city on the southwestern coast of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Balochistan, Pakistan, Balochistan. The city is located on the shores of the Arabian Sea, opposite Oman and has a populati ...

on the

Makran Makran (), also mentioned in some sources as ''Mecran'' and ''Mokrān'', is the southern coastal region of Balochistan. It is a semi-desert coastal strip in the Balochistan province in Pakistan and in Iran, along the coast of the Gulf of Oman. I ...

coast of

Balochistan Balochistan ( ; , ), also spelled as Baluchistan or Baluchestan, is a historical region in West and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. This arid region o ...

Deposition

The Imam was increasingly unpopular. Around the end of 1785 a group of notables elected his brother,

Qais bin Ahmad Al Busaidi Qais bin Ahmad (died May 1808) was the third son of Ahmad bin Sa'id Al-Busaidi, the first Sultan of Oman of the Al Said dynasty. After his father's death he made more than one attempt to gain the throne. Youth and first revolt Qais bin Ahmad bi ...

, Imam. This revolt soon collapsed. Later one of Said‘s sons was held prisoner in

Fort Al Jalali Al Jalali Fort, or Ash Sharqiya Fort, is a fort in the harbor of Old Muscat, Oman. The fort was built by the Portuguese Empire, Portuguese under Philip II of Spain, Philip I of Portugal in the 1580s on an earlier Omani fortress to protect the har ...

for a period by the governor of

Muscat Muscat (, ) is the capital and most populous city in Oman. It is the seat of the Governorate of Muscat. According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the population of the Muscat Governorate in 2022 was 1.72 million. ...

. Another son, Hamad bin Said, came to negotiate with the governor. Hamad and his followers managed to gain control of forts al-Jalali and al-Mirani, and thus of Muscat. This happened in 1786. One by one the other fortresses in Oman submitted to Hamad, until Said no longer had any temporal power. Hamad took the title of ''Sheikh'' and established his court in Muscat. Said bin Ahmad remained in Rustaq and retained the title of Imam, but this was purely a symbolic religious title that carried no power.

References

Citations Sources * * * {{authority control 1803 deaths 18th-century Arab people 18th-century Omani people 19th-century Omani people Al Said dynasty Omani imams Sons of Omani sultans Sultans of Oman Year of birth missing