Page 145 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

European Accounts of Muscat 135
showed him the key of the jail and said that those responsible
would be kept there until the French wanted them released.
The Governor, his son and two sons of the Imam came
aboard and all were given silver-hilted swords.
1786 GRIFFITHS, Dr. John, Travels in Europe, Asia Minor and
Arabia, London, 1805, 394-6. Most of the merchants were
nearly naked and each was cooled by an ingenious fan for
Muscat is the hottest place on earth. The stalls had an infinite
variety of gums, grains and medicines and a very peculiar
smell. The country was little known, for Europeans had no
inducement to go far inland. The French came from
Mauritius for wheat and asses. In the evening dancing girls,
like the Indian Nautch, were provided but ‘I was by no means
delighted with this specimen of Indian grace and or agility,
and I very gladly retired after the first hour with a portion
even of disgust’.
1787 FRANCKLIN, William, Observations made on a tour from
Bengal to Persia, 1786-7, London, 1790, 34-8. Francklin
visited in January, finding the town ‘as is usual in most
Eastern countries’, badly built although there were well-
furnished, roofed bazaar streets at right angles to one
another; each having its own particular merchandise. The
police were excellent. The Imaum lived in splendour two days
journey inland but his Vakeel, Shaykh Khulfaun, was very
polite. Most of the people go inland when summer starts
because heat and small-pox damage their eyes: indeed only a
third of the population was healthy.
1788 HOWEL, Dr. Thomas, Journal of a Passage from India,
London, 71789, 15-16. Visited in January. Muscat is meanly
built as neither earth nor wood are found there. It is defended
by three ill-constructed castles, one of which was nearly
demolished some years ago by a French frigate. It is very
unhealthy in summer as the rocks do not cool at night, but it
is the only port that we know before the mouth of the
Euphrates. It is not Arabia Felix: ‘Instead of scenes of
pleasantness and fertility . . . [the visitor] discovers nothing
but inhospitable and ragged rocks*.
1790 De MAC-NAMARA, Comte, in Auzouz, op.cit., 538. The
Imam sent him presents on arrival but he had not been
provided with any to give in return so he had to commandeer
jewels from his officers. When he landed, guns were fired in
salute and he was received by an Admiral at the head of 500
men. Two richly-equipped horses were provided but he
preferred to walk so he and the Admiral marched at the head
of a double file, to the great square where there were more
troops. On one side of the square was the audience hall, a
very fine building. There was only one house suitable for the