Page 136 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 6 -10

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\V EIGHTS AND MEASURES 245

L Shibr = 1 palm or 4$ in.
l Thraah (Dhrd') = 1 ft. (5 in.
1 Baah (BeV) = 4 Thraahs or (i ft.

It should be noted that in all transactions the Dhra‘ is used ;
this is the cubit, i. c. the distance from a man’s elbow to the point
of his middle finger. Elsewhere the Shibr is a longer measure, the
span. Lorimer notes the use in Oman of the Fatr, or short span,
the space between the thumb and forefinger when extended.

Government

- The government is a Sultanate, or absolute monarchy, the present
hereditary Sultanate having arisen out of an ancient elective
Imamate. The reigning family of the A1 Bu Sa‘id owes its elevation
to Ahmed ibn Sa‘Td of the Azd tribe, formerly a trader and then
Governor of Sohar under Seif ibn Sultan, the former Ya'rabi
Imam of Muscat. He mustered the inland tribesmen in 1741 and
expelled the Persian allies of his predecessor from the country. The
present Sultan is his lineal descendant in the fifth generation.
The government is without system or efficiency, and outside the
districts of Muscat and Batinah the Sultan’s authority has always
been precarious or merely nominal. Inland chiefs, and in particular
the Sheikhs of Rostaq, have never acquiesced willingly in the claim
of the Sultan of Muscat to exercise lordship over them, and they
have more than once come near expelling him from his capital.
At the best the Sultan has been represented at a number of
points by executive officials styled Valis who have exercised
their powers according to the means at their disposal : and at
some less important places a few minor civil or military officials have
been stationed, under the orders of the Vali nearest them. But
their authority has never been adequately supported. The total
strength of the Sultan’s garrison being only 1.050 men, the detach­

ments have been so small and dispersed that they have always been
powerless against aggressive action. The method of subsidizing
tribal levies has been tried, but was found to be both expensive and
ineffectual.
At the present moment the Sultan’s authority is limited to his
capital and the coast-line ; the populations of both the interior and
the west and north of Oman, in other words the great proportion of
. 10 inhabitants, do not acknowledge his sway, and live in practical
independence of him under their own chiefs. They claim a religious
sanction for this attitude. For the title of the Sultan is nowadays