Page 116 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 6 -10

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CHAPTER VIII
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OMAN
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The term Oman is employed in a geographical sense for the
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projecting butt of the Arabian continent which is enclosed between
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the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean, and the Ruba‘ el-Khali, or
Great Desert of Southern Arabia. In this, its broadest application,
it would include the Trucial or Pirate Coast on the NW., which is
treated in the following chapter under the Principalities of the Gulf
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Coast. The present chapter is concerned mainly with the Oman
Sultanate, which claims suzerainty over nearly the whole of the
remainder, including in the S. the entire maritime district of
Dhofar. But there is also a small tract between the Sultanate and
Trucial Oman, consisting of the districts of Jau and Mahadhah,
which is not subject to any recognized ruler. These are here
described under the heading ‘ Independent Oman ’, and are followed
by a short section on the Kuria Muria Islands, off the SE. coast,
which now form a British possession.

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A. THE SULTANATE OF OMAN
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Area

If we include not only those regions under the Sultan’s direct
government, but also independent or semi-independent localities
where his influence is normally stronger than that of any other
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recognized authority, his dominions may be regarded as extending
along the Arabian coast from the entrance of the Persian Gulf to
the village of Kharlfot in the W. extremity of Dhofar, and inland
as far as the Great Desert. Northwards of the desert the land
: 1 frontier on the side towards Bireimi, in the district of Jau, may be
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•« placed at the watershed between that place and the coast of the
Gulf of Oman. A strip of coast-line, from Dibah to Khor Kalba
°,n J^e P- s*^e °f Oman promontory, belongs to the Sheikh of
Sharjah and consequently forms part of Trucial Oman (see p. 333).

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