Page 4 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

The significance of Wellsted’s “Travels in Arabia” for
the geographical investigation of Southeast,
South and West Arabia and for the present day

by

Fred Scholz
with two illustrations

Introduction

In the first half of the 19th century the Sultanate of Muscat
and Oman was at the height of its political and economic
power. Under Saiyid Said bin Sultan (1807—1856), prob­
ably one of the most important members of the still-reigning
Al Bu Said Dynasty, which came to power in 1744 when
Ahmed bin Said took over the Imamate , Oman expanded
its trade relations beyond the Indian Ocean, entered into
trade and shipping contracts with European states and
maintained diplomatic relations with, for example, the
U.S.A. So it is not surprising that the country itself, whose
shores had already been described by Ibn Battuta and Nie­
buhr, attracted travellers during this period; and reports
about the south and the west of the Arabian peninsula also
continually challenged the imagination and stimulated cu­
riosity, giving rise to adventurous expeditions.
Wellsted was one of those travellers. He set out as a
British lieutenant and not as an explorer scholar. Despite
this, he has left us in his two volume work “Travels in
Arabia” a scientific heritage which, now that his observa­
tions can be verified, deserves respect and recognition, even
after one and a half centuries. The question of what justi­
fies the reprinting of these travel memoirs still remains, how­
ever.