The Būsa‘īd dynasty based at Muscat expanded over the Western Indian Ocean and maintained amicable terms with the British home and Indian governments during the early 19th century. This paper reconsiders the relationships between Būsa‘īdī and British polities by investigating not only their diplomatic contacts but also the Būsa‘īdī sovereign's commercial-cum-naval fleet, the essential but unexamined source of his maritime power.
At the end of the 18th century, the British government recognised the Būsa‘īd dynasty as an equal polity. In 1806, the sovereign Sayyid Sa‘īd succeeded to his father's relationships with Britain, yet he had not the power and influence of his father. Therefore, he actively cooperated with Britain against Qawāsim, Būsa‘īd's nearest rival polity, thereby increasing his influence in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Although Qawāsim's power diminished in 1820, Sayyid Sa‘īd continued acting in concert with Britain's policy, from which he occasionally suffered. Consequently, British officials came to believe that he had always been their 'faithful and cordial ally'. The classical works affected by such naïve views have considered Būsa‘īd and Britain as firm allies at all times. In spite of such views, their interests actually avoided serious conflicts through Sayyid Sa‘īd's concessions.
In contrast, the Omani scholar M. R. Bhacker, criticising the classical views, emphasised the discordances between British and Būsa‘īdī interests and even British oppression of Būsa‘īdī interests. In fact, many of the vessels that belonged to the Būsa‘īdī sovereign were built in Bombay or Cochin with the British authorities' approval and support, and as a result, his fleet rapidly expanded in the early 19th century. In other words, friendly terms with Britain laid the foundation for Būsa‘īd's growth as a maritime power in the Gulfs and the Western Indian Ocean−the very reason for Sayyid Sa‘īd's appeasement.
