Page 149 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

European Accounts of Muscat 139
hardest work that slaves do is paddling canoes; they arc well
treated and resold only in extreme emergency and, when
possible, to a friend. He was very courteously received by
Sayyid Said. He hired three horses for three days for 20
piastres.
BUCKINGHAM, James Silk, Travels in Assyria, Media and
Persia, London, 1830, ii, 392-430, with picture. Visited in
December. The town is irregularly built with no fine buildings
except the palace of the Imam. He saw no minarets so
assumed that there were no mosques. The town is about a
mile round with the sea side protected by three forts and the
landward side by a wall with some towers and originally by a
dry ditch. The population of the town is about 10,000, 90%
Arabs with a few Jews. Outside the wall is a suburb of reed
huts containing perhaps 3,000 people, many of them Persian.
The Customs House is merely an open square with benches
around, one side open to the sea and a covered roof. The
main merchants meet there daily. There are no public baths
or coffee houses. There arc no taxes on cattle and exports are
duty free. Strangers pay 5% on imports and Arabs 2J%,
bringing in 20 lakhs of rupees. There is a tithe on com and
dates which brings in another lakh. The German crown (riyal)
is more popular than the Spanish dollar (Abu Tope). Gold
Venetian sequins are used. A riyal equals 21 local Moham-
medies and in Bombay 100 riyals are worth 212 rupees. About
20 Arab ships, from 300 to 600 tons, trade to India for muslin,
spices, ship’s timber, rice, pepper and Chinese goods, to
Mauritius for coffee and cotton and to Zanzibar for gold,
ostrich feathers, ivory, tamarind and slaves. In return they
take dates, pearls from Bahrain and copper from Basra. There
is no army but half a dozen Captains commanding the forts
and 100 gunners. At the moment there are 20,000 men in
arms: the Imam provides the ammunition and the booty is
divided. The pure Arabs are very fair but many are dark
because all who can afford it have Abyssinian slave girls.
They have an air of good nature and cheerfulness. They do
not henna their beards but use kohl for their eyes. They dress
very simply with turbans of blue cotton from Sahar and even
the Imam’s clothes were not worth a guinea. Many have rings
with a turquoise. The Imam, like everyone else, walks while in
the town. The people are so honest that goods are left
unattended. Muttrah has more well built houses because it is
cooler.
1817 JOHNSON, Col. John, A Journey from India to England,
London, 1818, 7-15. Visited in March. He went past two
ranges of mountains and fortifications to get to Muttrah
which is bad for the eyes as the houses are glaring yellow.
There are lepers living in huts. The people are cleaner and less