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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>