17-Nov-1931: Abdication of Sultan Taimur bin Faisal
In a brief letter to the British Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (based in Bushehr), Sultan Taimur bin Faisal formally declared his abdication. For a number of years prior he had already been domiciled in Dehradun, northern India, with little desire for life in Muscat, or anywhere else in Oman for that matter. He had officially reigned for eighteen years by the time he abdicated.
The entire abdication file is made accessible through the commendable efforts of the Qatar Digital Library team.
A few parts of that letter have been reproduced below.
The official abdication:
“وأننا منذ اليوم رفعنا يدنا من جميع حقوق السلطنة، وجعلنا خلفنا ولدنا السيد سعيد بن تيمورسلطاناً على حكومتنا، فلا لنا اعتراض عليه في أي سياسة في شئون حكومته وإدارتها، وأوصيناه بالاستشارة في المهمات من وكيل السياسي بمسقط.”
Translation, as it appears later in the same file:
“ .. we have from today taken off our hand from all ruling rights, and we have made our successor our son Saiyid Saeed bin Saiyid Taimur as Sultan of our Government. We leave it to him to direct the policy of the State and to administer the Government, and we have advised him to consult the Political Agent, Muscat, in important matters.”
Sayyid Taimur eventually vacated his house in Dehradun and travelled to Ceylon soon thereafter. The last information on file regarding his whereabouts was Burma, also under the British Raj at the time. In the years before the Second World War he would reach as far as Kobe, Japan, before eventually settling back in India.
His successor, Sayyid Said bin Taimur, assumed the throne at a rather youthful age of 22 years. In time he would become the most accomplished Sultan of Oman in a century, as this early impression seems to all but predict.
[Correction: The Political Resident was still based in Bushehr (Bushire) at the time.]
References:
- ‘Abdication of Sultan Taimur bin Faisal and accession of Sultan Saiyid Said ibn Taimur’, British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/R/15/1/446, in Qatar Digital Library <http://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100000000193.0x0001a3> [accessed 13 November 2014]
- ‘File 35/87 VI A. 38 Muscat reforms, customs, finances’ [4r] (11/440), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/R/15/1/419, in Qatar Digital Library <http://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100023468271.0x00000d> [accessed 13 November 2014]
