Chapter 48: 1630-1633
In 1630 the sultan recieved a map he demanded 4 years ago from omani adventurers about Russia, they also gave him basic information about religion, culture, military, trade and clothings in those areas, as well as their kings and nobles; The most prominent of those countries was the powerful catholic Kingdom of Ryazan
The sultan wanted to get a firmer hold over Arabia by expanding his influence, he asked Al Hasa's sultan to come over to his lavish palace in Muscat to discuss important things about Hasa's future, as expected, he was stunned by the beautiful palace of Muscat since he never saw anything like it in his small underpopulated capital, this didnt affect him enough to submit to omani rule, however
Sultan Abu al Hasan decided to visit Bahrain to see what the Vijayanagari rule changed there, he was surprised to see that Vijayanagara has spent so much effort on assimilating the Bahraini society, he encountered some villages on his way that spoke some indan language he couldnt understand, and in Manama the muslim population was small and an unknown language was commonly heard in the streets, the sultan was unimpressed by this and asked a rich merchant to take him back to Muscat on his biggest ship, there he went to the largest mosque in Muscat and asked the imam to send a number of arab missionaries to Bahrain
In 1633 France nominated a new viceroy to its south africa, his name was Sebastian and he was a pious catholic man who served as a priest in Nouvelle Paris in the french cape, he has always dreamt of stopping the muslim expansion into East Africa and wanted to expand his rule over the rich omani colonies, after a couple of weeks of organizing his colonial war he sent an official letter to the sultan asking him to cede all his lands south of Sofala to New France, the sultan ordered his viceroy in New Oman to react immediately to this threat by getting a military access from Portugal and joining his forces together, Portugal was unimpressed by France's colonial expansion and therefore accepted Oman's demand of military access happily, Sebastian ordered his 15,000 men-strong army to move towards New Dhofar and fight the enemies of France and christianity there
The unprepared fortress of New Dhofar didnt stand long against the large french colonial army and was quickly occupied, the french quickly left the main city and marched north towards New Bahrain
By the time french forces reached the fortress of New Manama, omani colonial forces were finally merged in New Doha, from there they began marching south under the leadership of Jomaa, New Oman's famous general
Jomaa ordered his infantrymen to stand in 5 deep lines and march sowly towards the french army, the cavalry was ordered to flank the enemies, however, the french forces quickly made a half-cricle formation that allowed them to hit the cavalry, seeing that his plan failed, Jomaa ordered his cavalry to charge the french infantry and his infantry too which would make the french surrounded because of their circle formation, the french general, Francis, ordered his men to charge the omanis immediately after they shot their first volley, the battle then descended into a large, disorganized infantry duel the omanis were clearly losing, luckily for Jomaa a thunderstorm hit the area in the middle of the battle, allowing him and his men to retreat to a nearby town the french havent got on their map, stopping there before going north back to New Doha