Page 190 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 6 -10

272 THE SULTANATE OF OMA^

about 3,000. The town is composed of a number of distinct, villages
or walled quarters, and its site, which with the surrounding date-
groves and cultivation forms an irregular parallelogram about
two square miles in extent, is also enclosed by a wall. In the centre
rises a huge white fort with two towers, one of which is very lofty
and commands a view of the whole valley ; around, on various
sides, the plain is broken by low hills less than 2 miles distant. The
inhabitants belong to several tribes, of which the most numerous are
the ‘Abriyln and Bayasirah.
Under the Nahhani dynasty, who ruled at the beginning of the
• -
seventeenth century, Bahlah was for a time the capital of all Oman.
• -•
Some 4 miles to the SW. is Jabrin (elevation l,S00ft.), now a ruinous
fort, beside which are the dwellings of a few cultivators. Under the
Ya'aribah, once an important tribe which between a. d. 1625 and
1744 supplied the rulers of Oman, Jabrin was for a short time
the capital.
3. Hamra, a small town on the left bank of Wadi Ghol, with
date-groves, a few miles NE. of Bahlah. It consists of about 300
houses, built of stone and gypsum, and is occupied by the ‘Abriyln
tribe.
4. Tanuf, a walled village to the NW. of Nizwa, at the point where
Wadi Tanuf leaves Jebel Akhdhar ; elevation 1,950 ft. There are
two gates in the wall, on the E. and W. sides, and within are about
40 houses of the Beni Riyam tribe. The Sheikh’s house is behind
the town, on the edge of the Wadi Tanuf, up which a track (the
Tarlq e,sh-Shass) leads over Jebel Akhdhar to ‘Awabi. The site of
the village underneath the cliffs is cramped, and, shut in as it is by
the mountains, the heat during the summer months is intolerable.
There are date plantations and considerable cultivation. ✓
5. Nizwa, a large unwalled town, the most central of the district,
some 20 miles W. of Izki and about the same distance from Bahlah ;
elevation 1,900 ft. ; population about 6,000. It occupies a gentle
slope, intersected by converging streams and wadis, at the base of
.
Jebel Akhdhar. Towards the S. it is screened by broken ground
and low hills, the summits of which are in many cases crowned with
towers. Both strategically and commercially its site is important.
It is well adapted for defence, and commands the mouths of the two
chief passes leading from Jebel Akhdhar by Wadi Tanuf and Wadi
Mi'aidin ; and from its proximity to Izki it draws to itself the traffic
that is carried up the Wadi Sema’il from the coast. For long it was
the capital of Oman.
It lies at the junction of four streams, and surpasses most of the
towns of Oman in its abundant water-supply, its natural wealth, and