History of the Imâms and Seyyids of ‘Omân

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Salil Ibn Ruzayq was the author of a manuscript given to George Percy Badger (1815–88), a member of the Bombay Commission reporting on the secession of Zanzibar, by the ruler of Oman, Seyyid Thuwayni. The manuscript chronicles the history of Oman from the adoption of Islam c. 661 CE until 1856. This volume, first published in 1871, contains the English translation of the manuscript together with an analysis by Badger. The book provided the first indigenous account of the history of Oman in English.