Page 219 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

suddenly swung into the maelstrom of modernisation so his •V
determination to move slowly is viewed with disapproval.
Today, the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, the largest, and for
many years the most important state in the Gulf, no longer retains
the position which it held in the 19th century, when its ruler was
the central figure in Gulf affairs. It has an area of over 82,000
square miles, and a population of more than half a million Arabs
but it now has little commerce and lower revenues than some of
the smaller Gulf States. But in spite of its comparative poverty,
Muscat retains much of the dignity which it enjoyed in the past.
It has none of the brash ‘nouveau riche’ atmosphere of Kuwait, it
is not full of Europeans and crowded with American cars like
Bahrain - it would be difficult to use cars in Muscat - and there
are no ostentatious palaces like those in Qatar.
Arabs in the rich oil states arc critical of the lack of progress in
Muscat, but it is difficult for a ruler to develop and modernise a
large country without adequate funds. Forty years ago, Muscat
had a larger budget than Bahrain, today it has less than one-fifth
of Bahrain’s income.
The Sultan, who is the thirteenth of his dynasty to reign, is a
man of learning, having been educated at a college in India.
Having seen the difficulties, caused in some of the other states by
an influx of foreigners from the Middle East, he is reluctant to
encourage them to come to Oman, which is still a territory little
known to Europeans. It has such a variety of climate and terrain
that it offers great possibilities for agricultural and mineral devel­
opment. A search for oil is being carried out and the prospects
of finding oil appear to be encouraging. Muscat has scarcely
changed since Loch first saw it on New Year’s Eve, 1818. It is
not a place which could change. It owes its almost dramatic
appearance to natural surroundings, to the towering black moun-
tains, which hem in the little white town, and the still, deep water
in the bay which reflects the steep craggy cliffs surmounted by
fortifications.
The change in the mentality of the Gulf Arabs has accelerated
since the coming of the oil era. Forty years ago, they hardly
concerned themselves with the affairs of the outside world. Not
more than a dozen men from the Gulf had ever been in Europe.
The Gulf Arabs had closer connections with India than with the
countries of the Middle East, for most of the Gulf trade was with
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