Page 633 - PERSIAN 1 1873_1879 Admin Report1_Neat

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POLITICAL AGENCY FOR 1878 79.
IIE.SIHENCY AND MUSKAT
appendix a to part hi.

•Omdn by Likut.-Colonxl S. B.
Memorandum on Geography of
Miles,
The kingdom of ’Omk may, geographically speaking, be considered to
include that part of North-Eastern Arabia extending along the coast fro™
Itas-cl-Ahmor in Kuria Muria Bay to the Subkha in Longitude 52 ,
Latitude 21°, the boundary on the western side being a hue subtended
between tliose two points. .
'I he political limits, however, do not at the present day coincide with
the above description, the Sultan's authority towards the north ending at
K1 Bcreymi and Khasab on Cape Mussendon, with the exception of the
strip from Marrir to Dibba, which belongs to the Joasmees. Like the
rest of Arabia, this division of it has never been properly explored, and
our maps are consequently very deficient. A very large portion of the
kingdom is an almost waterless desert; but even of the habitable area
much remains a terra incognita, aud entire districts or provinces have
been as yet untrodden by an European. Of the coast line we possess
an acurate knowledge from the surveys made by the officers of the
Indian Navy by order of the East India Company, hut of the interior
our kuowledge is limited to the general features of the country and to
the ]>osilion of the principal towns that happened to fall in the route of
the few travellers who have passed through the country.
The list of Europeans to whom we are indebted for our slight ac­
quaintance with this country is not an imposing one. The first who
gave auy account of the interior of 'Oman, vague and inaccurate as it
is, was the geographer El Edrisi, a Spanish Moor, who in A.D. 1153
wrote a description of the world in Arabic for the King of Sicily. His
work was printed at Home in A.D. 159&, and continued the sole authority
on the subject down to the visit of Carstern Niebuhr, for the Portuguese,
who in the meantime had held possession of the coast during the sixteenth
and part of the seventeenth centuries, had unfortunately been able to
contribute no information regarding the interior. Niebuhr's work “ De­
scription del' Arabie," published in 1779, contained a map of 'Omftn, the
first ever constructed.
This, though very meritorious, was of no real value, as Niebuhr did
not visit any part of the interior, and his positions were consequently
only put down at haphazard from native information.
1 he next after Niebuhr to throw light was an Italian named Vincenzo,
J\°In the loginning of this century took service with the Sultan, the
late fceyyid Said-bin-Sultan, and during the fourteen years be remained
m the country visited Rostak and other parts of the interior. In 1819
Vincenzo published in London a history of Seyyid Said, in which he
gi>es a plan of Mnskat and treats us to an account of his own services,
* c mosfc valuable part of Vincenzo's manuscripts appears never to
u Iia *1^^ Sixteen years later a traveller landed at Muskat
this 1Ad °»l* 0tb£!8-' done 0,6 m06t extend our knowledge o£
whl1^ £ ^ F“ "^Lieutenant Wellsted of the Indian Navy,
the years 1835-36 spent several months journeying about in the