Page 152 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

142 Arabian Studies IV
looks as if it is decaying; perhaps there is some destructive
principle in the air. The wells arc 30-40 feel deep. Muscat
appears a miserable Indian town with a few date palms,
almonds, a few bushes of red pepper and two fields of
jasmine. There is cheap fire wood. Fish swarm around boats
as thick as gnats and there are excellent oysters. The suq is
strictly controlled: perishable goods arc sold by brokers in the
morning and anything that remains is sold by auction in the
evening. Everything is sold by the Mahomedee (20 equal $1)
and a small coin, goz, five of which make a pic. He quoted
these prices; a camel $30-300, a good milch cow $16-17, a
common cow $l$-6, a milch goat $4-6. A maun is over 91bs
and these are the prices for a maun: in mahomedees: bread
6J, butter 40, cheese 15, beef 10, grapes 3-12, figs 3], good
dates 4, mulberries 4. Fruit is also sold by the 100 in
mahomedees: mangoes 7, limes 2, peaches 4, plantains 7,
oranges 6, stoneless pomegranates 60. The Imam claimed that
he could raise 80-100,000 men but this figure is too high and
he never has more than 30,000. He collects \% on all
merchandize going up the Gulf in Arab ships, makes money
from salt and from renting out land and working sulphur
mines hired from Iran. He gets perhaps $90-120,000 from
customs and $40,000 more from Zanzibar. Muscat manufac­
tures turbans, girdles, abbas, cotton, canvas and gun-powder,
earthen jars called murtuban and hulwah. It also exports
sharks’ fins. Sayyid Said visited the ship informally and told
the officers that about 10,000 people had died of cholera
which started near Rooec. Fraser thought Muttrah had
contemptible buildings and a miserable and stinking suq.
1822 Asiatic Journal, London, July number. The cholera in Muscat
is so violent that people die in ten minutes. A Jewish
merchant, Conde de Rio Pardo, was negotiating for candy
when he vomited twice and expired. Corpses are sewn in mats
and towed out to sea with ropes round their necks.
1823 OWEN, Capt. W. F. W., Narrative of voyages to Explore the
shores of Africa, Arabia and Madagascar, London, 1833, i,
334-43. Visited in December. Sayyid Said was extremely
generous, giving the ship free wood and water and paying $50
each to a pilot and an interpreter. He politely received an
Arabic version of the Bible and gave Capt. Owen a superb
gold-hiltcd sword. He was very religious and on the
pilgrimage in 1824 gave the richest presents ever seen at
Mecca: in return for which he was given the title of Imam by
the Sharif of Mecca. He came on board H.M.S. Leven and it
was thought best to unload the pigs carried for meat. The
noise that they made echoed around the mountains and
amused everyone including Sayyid Said. But Muscat ‘must be
the filthiest town in the world’ with the suq knee-deep in mud