[Oman-L] Ahmed Bin NA'amaman's Mission to the USA in 1840

[Ralph]

FOR KIND ATTENTION Mr ABDUL AZIZ AL KAABI.Dear Abdulaziz, further to my initial response to your questions about Ahmed : he continued in Sayyid Saids' service after the Al Sultanah voyage to America.For him, his visit to the USA marked the apogee of his career.In Muscat and Zanzibar, he was but a scribe of Sayyid Said; in the USA he had been a dignitary in his own right. He savoured the experience, and stories of his American adventure lost nothing in the telling. As British influence in Zanzibar waxed, Ahmed came to be regarded as the leader of what British Consul Hamerton called "the American Party". Writing in February, 1842, Hamerton charged, "......the mode of communication between the Imaum and the American Consul Waters is through the interpretation of a Writer of the Imaum's, called Ahmed bin Noman, a fellow who went to America in the Imaum's ship Sultanah and who leads all hands to believe we ( the British)  are a very inferior people to the Americans."The American Party, Hamerton believed, deliberately sought to persuade Sayyid Said to take a strong anti-British stand by apprising him of every British reverse, such as Afghanistan, etc. On Sayyid Said's death, the new ruler, Sayyid Majid, retained Ahmed as private secretary. In 1858 he retired from official service. He died in 1869. A simple headstone, inscribed with his name and dates, marks his final resting place in Zanzibar cemetery.The original portrait of Ahmed, a three-quarter length painting, 42 by 36 inches hangs in the offices of the Art Commission in New York City Hall. He seems to me to have been a wonderful and dignified gentleman.         Warmest Regards     Ralph
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