Page 14 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

XV*

conditions of a time when Oman, at the height of its politi­
cal and economic power, was undergoing a process of inner
consolidation and increasing prosperity. This prosperity was
due to the expansion of trade based in the coastal towns of
Sohar, Matrah, Sur and above all Muscat, in which the po­
pulation of the hinterland was also able to participate. Pos­
sibilities for such participation were offered by the market
for agricultural products (e. g. dates, lemons, vegetables and
meat), direct participation in transport by caravan or ship
and the production of canvas, rope and ironware for ship­
building, among other things. In another sense, emigration
to East Africa and Zanzibar opened up new income possibi­
lities, and also the return of many, usually wealthy, Omanis
raised the standard of living and introduced innovations.
Some tribes in particular profited from this development
and laid the basis for the important social and political
positions they hold today.
However, with the death of Sayid Said bin Sultan
(1856) and the division of the kingdom of Oman into the
Sultanate of Muscat/Oman and Zanzibar, the country was
drawn into the vortex of international dependence and ex­
ternal pressures, lost its economic position and indepen­
dence and lapsed into isolation and poverty.
Thus, Wellsted’s book gives insight into a phase of
Oman’s history which preceded this decline, a period which
today’s generation should look back on with curiosity. Geo­
graphical research, too, should be interested in just this
phase of Oman’s past.
It is beyond the scope of this introduction to discuss
all of Wellsted’s relevant and noteworthy observations in
detail, putting them in their social and historical context
and indicating their relationship to the present. Neverthe­
less, several observations, which should be borne in mind
while reading the book, ought to be dealt with.
While Niebuhr had already given a detailed introduc­