Gone with the winds- in Muscat

Another hot summer morning in Muscat today. Hard to believe there was a thundering storm and lashing rains 2 days earlier. I went out for a drive at 730 am, enjoyed the empty roads and the fresh dry climate. A big tree had fallen near the Muscat port on the Corniche road. I wanted to photograph it before the cleaning crew cut it away. I reached just in time as the green crew started using the machine. Behind the tree you can see the old port town of Muscat where the sailors from all over the world used to embark from their wooden Dhows in the olden days.

Winds were the blessings that helped marine trade in the past. Ocean trade depended on the monsoon winds and the cyclones of the type that just passed by. So let us not curse the storm that hit us hard now.

The Dhow on the right rests in the lagoon along with modern ships. From ancient times ships crossed the Indian Ocean from Arabia to return laden with exotic goods that would be sold in the bazaars of the Middle East.

The ancient secret of the monsoon winds:

The Arab sailors in the past (1000 BC) knew the fact that they could rely on prevailing winds to carry them eastward in winter and westward in summer across the Indian Ocean. They could not explain these "monsoons," but this is not surprising since even today there are mysteries about them. One theory is that when the summer heat of India causes the air to rise over the subcontinent, winds from the Indian Ocean rush into the vacuum left by the rising air; by the same token, the comparative coolness of Indian winters causes a reverse movement of winds from India to Africa

From an Arab perspective there are three basic monsoon winds. First of all, from April to June, the Kaws wind blows southwest. Later the Dammani SW monsoon blows from August to the middle of October. At this time, the monsoon changes direction, and the Azyab monsoon blows in a NE direction. Most ships crossing the Indian Ocean planned to leave the east coast of Arabia during the second half of November and the first half of December. Ships leaving the Red Sea would start out the middle of October, so that they could catch the Ayab monsoon across the Indian Ocean, directly to the Malabar cost, reaching Kulam Mali during December. If they were moving on to China they would have to wait for the cyclones of the Azyab to die down in the Bay of Bengal before journeying on in January, crossing from Mulam Mali round the south of India to Kalah Bar in the Malay Peninsula. Arab ships usually did not venture farther than this, as Chinese brought their trade goods to the Malay Peninsula and to the island of Ceylon. (Sri Lanka) Once the Kaws winds started to blow, the Arab sailors would start for home, laden with their goods. It was the winds in June which brought the Arab sailors back home! And it also brought the expatriates with it to Muscat.

In 1000 BC the people living on the shores of the Arabian Peninsula also learned to sail and in time discovered that they could earn a profit by risking their lives on the sea. Among them were the boat builders and sailors of Makkan (or Magan) - today's Oman - who traded copper and ivory with Mesopotamia. Copper was mined in Makkan itself, but the ivory could only have come from India - or Africa and the implication seems clear: Omani traders, even in 1000 B.C., probably ventured beyond the Arabian Gulf and sailed the open waters of the ocean.

In that era, the 6,000-mile voyage from the Arabian Gulf to China took at least 120 days and was then the longest sea trading route in the world

Sindbad the adventurous sailor in the Arabian fables came from Sohar in Oman but operated out of Basra in Iraq.

DHOW the hand woven boats:

Despite their historical attachment to Arab traders, dhows are essentially an Indian boat, with much of the wood for their construction coming from the forests of Kerala. Unlike Europen ships, the wooden planks are woven together with Coir. Dhows were built without the use of a single nail. The craft was sewn together with coconut ropes and wooden pins. It seems that dhow making is considered an art, and this art has been passed down from one generation to another, preserving, at least in part, the dhow's basic design and use. The word daw is a Swahili name.

Muscat became the capital of independent Muscat and Oman in 1741 upon Ahmed ibn Said's ( of the present ruling family ) conquest and the departure of the Persians. During the 19th Century Muscat was the most powerful nation in the region, but was subsequently weakened by raids of the interior nomadic tribes.On July 23, 1970 Qabus bin Said became Sultan and changed the country's name to the Sultanate of Oman. Modern buildings and highways were built in the 1970s.

HISTORY:

Sumerian tablets refer to a country named "Magan" as a source of copper. It seems certain that they referred to Oman.Evidence from excavations near Sohar shows that the copper mining and smelting industry was well developed by the year 2000BC.

Sultan Said bin Sultan ruled from 1804-1856. When he died, the empire split in two: one son became the Sultan of Zanzibar and the other the Sultan of Muscat and Oman.

FRANKINCENSE:

Frankincense from Dhofar, which was so important in the social religious life of ancient peoples also provides evidence of the existence of an early trading community. Frankincense is an aromatic gum from certain species of trees which grow only in southern Oman, the Wadi Hadhramaut in Yemen, and Somalia. The gifts of the Magi to the Christ Child were gold, frankincense and myrrh. At the time, the gold was far less valuable than the other two. The centre of the trade was in a place now called Khor Rouri which the Greeks called Muscat.

It is also clear that there were farming and fishing settlements from the earliest times. The earliest settlements in Oman date from some time in the 3rd millennium BC.

Back to the cyclonic storm on wednesday. This picture is a garden with innumerable trees , all uprooted.