Page 55 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

MUS3ELD0M—AMSANDAM. 13
from Ras-ool-Hud to Dabba ; and the last, under their Lords of
the branch Qawasim, possesses the remainder of the extent, from the
lastmentioned place as far as Ras-ool-Khyma.
Cape Musseldom, and Amsandam Island.

The cape or promontory above mentioned is called by the Natives
Musseldom, and is formed by a chain of rocky mountains, commencing
on its eastern side, in about lat. 25° 53' N., and terminating in the
sea at the headland of this name. The whole of this promontory is
deeply indented with wide fissures, and affords several secure anchor-
ages. A large island, admitting a creek named Amsandam, which is
situated in lat. 26° 22' 30" N., directly north-east of the promontory,
forms, with the main, a channel impassable to ships from its extreme
narrowness, whose depth, however, is never less than sixteen fathoms.
It has undoubtedly been riven asunder from the rocky main in some
convulsion of nature, to its extreme point. The Natives have given it the
name of Ras-ool-Jabal, and British navigators that of Cape Musseldom.
Amsandam is intersected by a creek running inwards for a day’s
journey, and its inhabitants are a part of the tribe Shihiyyin, consisting
of three thousand men, who profess Mahomedanism, but are un­
observant of its forms and ceremonies to the last degree, and, in fact,
will entertain no religious instructors. The Chief of the Wahabees
was long unable to convert them to their systems of either religion or
piracy, nor would they pay him tribute. Their language is different
from that of the other tribes, and as there are many individuals among
them remarkable for the redness of their hair, it may fairly be
concluded, as the Arabs declare, that their language is formed from
corruptions of the dialects of their Portuguese and Danish ancestors,
engrafted on an impure stock of the Arabic. Both these nations have
settlements on Amsandam, and also at Khasab, a bay to the westward
of the promontory, on the main, where there was, and exists also at
present, a flourishing manufactory of cloth, of a peculiar sort, which has
long been used as wrappers for head and loins throughout the two
shores of the Gulf. Khasab, too, is said to contain descendants of the
Portuguese, in the humble capacily of fishermen.
Three small islands, or rather large rocks, dry and barren, lie to the
northward of Cape Musseldom, and are by the Arabs named Salamah.
The northernmost, in lat. 26° 29' 30" N., is ten miles distant from the
cape, and lies due north from the east end of Amsandam, which lies
in lat. 26° 22' 30" N. The water near the rocks is deep, and the chan­
nel between them and the main wide, and free from danger. The
tides, however, run here with considerable, and even dangerous
rapidity. The Ghanam Islands lie off Khasab.