Page 240 - The Tigris Expedition

We Search for a Pyramid and Find Mahan
English girl was now sent into the guarded W ma e
interview for the Oman Times, and soon afterwards the age
and reported that Sultan Qaboos had signed, wc ,
observation’, but could visit Muscat and film and photograpn
anything except the Sultan’s new palace.
The Sultan had built his modern Port Qaboos in the bay ot tne
old town A1 Matrah, severed from his own main residence and t e
capital, Muscat, only by a loop the road made around some narrow
mountain draperies. The fish-market on the beach and the fruit-
market among the old buildings of A1 Matrah were neither more
nor less colourful than other Arab souks in towns not yet opened to
tourism, but the human types were outstanding. If Hollywood had
assembled men with such long beards and such remarkable profiles
for a Biblical film, I would have criticised the producer for exagger­
ation. But the Sultan had certainly not staged these characters for
our benefit. The crowd seemed dominated by hook-nosed old men
in turbans and long gowns, proudly displaying curved silver dag­
gers in their belts, each a master-piece of craft-work. In their
foot-length raiment, with turban and full beard, they probably
seemed older than they were, though the beards were more often
white than black, sometimes split, and often reaching the waist in
competition with Santa Claus and Methuselah. Carlo was desper­
ately operating his cameras, for every single face seemed worthy of
a picture.
The crowd in the souk, in the narrow streets, and everywhere
in this land, reflected that Oman was an old melting-pot of
Semitic, Persian, Pakistani, Indian and African types. To me the
faces testified to what we knew of Oman history. Oman had been
a maritime centre and port of call for sailing vessels from both
Asia and Africa since long before the days of the Prophet. The
steady monsoon would bring African traders northwards to
Oman, and even to Pakistan and India, in the summer; and back to
Africa, in company with merchant sailors from Arabia and main­
land Asia, in the winter months. The strategic importance of
Oman, with its central position in the Near East sailing routes,
was quickly exploited by the conquering Portuguese as soon as
Vasco da Gama learnt from the Arabs their age-old knowledge of
the monsoons.
Today Muscat is the capital of Oman mainly because of its
modern harbour facilities, but the former capital is Sohar, on the
open shore further up the coast, which we had passed. At Sohar
early sailing ships could anchor in shallow water off the shore, and
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