Page 159 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

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BRYMEE. 117

and the whole built of sun-dried bricks. The length of the fort, inside,
Captain Hamerton found to be sixty-one paces, and the breadth sixty.
On the north side, about three hundred paces distant, is another and
smaller fort, about thirty-five paces in length, and fifty in breadth, the
wall about fifteen feet high, and loopholed. In time of emergency
Brymce could muster about 800 men for its defence, but under two
chiefs, not always on the best terms with each other. The fort might i
offer an effectual resistance to undisciplined Arabs, with their match­
locks, but Captain Hamerton is of opinion that it could not for an hour
withstand the attack of disciplined troops, with artillery.
The Arabs who hold the forts of Brymee, however, are only a branch
of a tribe which occupies the adjacent district, and goes under the
general appellation of the Naeem of Brymee ; but the person who is
:
considered the principal chief resides at a place called Zuneh, about
eighteen miles distant from Brymee, and, if all united under him,
might number 2,600 fighting men ;but there are at least four chiefs, who
I
pretend more or less to independent authority, whose submission to
.
the Chief of Zuneh must be viewed as in some measure voluntary, and
whose united power is subject to be greatly weakened by the jealousies i
and misunderstandings apt to spring up among them.
The principal value of Brymee would appear to be derived from its
groves of date trees, easily reared, and brought to great perfection by
the plentiful supply the plain on which it stands receives of water
drawn by aqueducts from the adjacent hills. It is not known by
:
whom these valuable conduits were constructed, but the Natives assign
the merit to Solomon the son of David, possibly Suleiman the Magnifi­
cent ; but more probably they are the work of the Persians, who
conquered and held Bahrein and the Arabian Coast in the time of Nadir
Shah. This latter supposition receives support from the circumstance
of similar aqueducts being of common occurrence almost everywhere
in Persia.
The Brymee dates are considered superior to any produced in the
province of Oman. Wheat grown in the valley is of a fine description,
but does not appear to be much cultivated. Fruit, such as oranges and
lemons, grapes, figs, mangoes, olives, and pomegranates, grow in great
:
perfection. Coffee, too, was formerly cultivated on the hill Hafeel, but
from the indolence of the inhabitants, or other causes, its growth has
been abandoned.
The fort of Brymee, as far as has been ascertained, was built by the
Wahabees, who, shortly after they had established their authority on the
Arabian Coast, compelled the adoption of the tenets of their creed,
and the payment of the Zukat or the fifth of all property. They are