195 BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS LXXV N° 1-2, Januari-April 2018 196
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195 BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS LXXV N° 1-2, januari-april 2018 196 MIDDEN-OOSTEN AL SALIMI, A. and E. STAPLES (eds.) — Oman. A Mari- time History. (Studies on Ibadism and Oman, 9). Georg Olms Verlag AG, Hildesheim, 2017. (31 cm, 254). ISBN 978-3-487-15390-2. € 68,-. ‟The book follows a chronological narrative that empha- sizes Oman’s relationship with the sea, combined with a the- matic look at the discipline of maritime history, the develop- ment of boatbuilding, and the practices of navigationˮ (from the excellent Introduction). It is divided into five parts, in which the papers, apart from the thematic first and two last chapters, follow in chronological order Oman’s relationship with the sea. 197 BOEKBESPREKINGEN — MIDDEN-OOSTEN 198 Part 1: The Larger Concepts of Maritime History (pp. 17-28). that came with them, integrating Arab, Persian, East African, Edward A. Alpers, in the first chapter, ‟Maritime History, Turkish, and Indian populations within the shores of Omanˮ. World History, Global History: Some Thoughts on Past, Pre- Perhaps Oman itself runs the risk here to be drowned in this sent and Futureˮ (pp. 17-28), treats ‟understanding the field ocean of historical events in the regions surrounding the Ara- of maritime history, the issues it involves, the tensions that bian/Persian Gulf. are within the field, as it struggles to integrate itself with Willem Floor’s ‟Omani-Portuguese Maritime Activities world and global historyˮ (Introduction). For the reader who (1500-1650 CE)ˮ (pp. 117-137) provides a narrative of the is not familiar with philosophy of history, the paper provides trade emporium of Hormuz, the Omani-Persian kingdom of a forest of names of historians and opinions on what mari- Hormuz, which comprised the Batinah coast, the islands in time history is or should be and how it fits into ‟world the Gulf, including Bahrain, part of the littoral of Fars, historyˮ and ‟global historyˮ. Moghestan, and the Birunat. Then follows the arrival of the Part 2: Background: The Maritime Realm in Pre-Islamic Portuguese in the Gulf: Albuquerque took Hormuz on Octo- Oman (pp. 31-78). ber 10th, 1507 (p. 119), or 1515 (p. 121)? He gives a very Tom Vosmer, in ‟Maritime Trade in the Bronze Ageˮ detailed account of Portuguese-Ottoman rivalry in the Gulf. (pp. 31-48), discusses the development of maritime activity The influence of piracy and smugglers is discussed, how Iran from the late Paleolithic to the end of the Bronze Age (about challenged the Portuguese position, and how the Portuguese 1000 BCE). Subjects such as copper from the Oman moun- had to face the Dutch and the English. Finally, in 1649-1650 tains, the ships, navigation, ports, trade routes in the Arabian Muscat fell to the Ya῾rubids. Unfortunately, the many names Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of Oman, Indian Ocean of boat types are not explained. routes, and pack animals: how the domestication of the Part 4: The Modern Islamic Period 1650 CE-Present camel might have influenced the building of larger ships, (pp. 141-181). currents and monsoon winds are being reviewed. The author Beatrice Nicolini, in her paper ‟Oman’s Maritime Activi- discusses the considerations of archeologists and the evi- ties throughout the Indian Ocean: 1650-1856 CEˮ (pp. 141- dence. As early as in the Bronze Age seafarers from Magan 159), outlines the rise of the Omani maritime dynasties, the (Oman) sailed between Mesopotamia and the Indus valley. Ya῾rubids and the Āl Bū Sa῾īd, and their expanding maritime Anjana Reddy’s paper is titled ‟Hinterland Trade and trade into the western Indian Ocean and East Africa. She Maritime Networks in Oman from Iron Age to Late Antiq- addresses the importance of the trade in cloves, ivory, dates uity (1000 BCE-630 CE)ˮ (pp. 49-78). In a sea of details, and firearms, as well as Anglo-French rivalry in the region. using archaeological and epigraphic material, and referring Calvin H. Allen, Jr., in his ‟Oman’s Maritime History to textual evidence, Reddy discusses subjects such as Greco- since 1856 CEˮ (pp. 161-181), treats fisheries, maritime Arabian trade in ancient Southern Arabia (Yemen) in the first trade, naval affairs, and maritime heritage. The death of millennium BCE; Achaemenid, Hellenistic, and Parthian Sayyid Sa῾īd b. Sulṭān in 1856 marked the beginning of a interests in the Arabian Gulf; sea and overland trade in long decline of Oman’s maritime history that had brought Oman (the region that includes present-day UAE, al-Bāṭina prosperity, particularly to its coastal towns and regions. and al-Dākhiliyya of Oman); the aromatics trade of Southern Before the advent of oil, artisanal fishing, which lasted until Arabia; Sasanian influence in Oman; Omani seafaring in the 1970, in the rich sea waters of Oman provided the second Indian Ocean in Late Antiquity; ship building, etc. She largest livelihood in Oman after agriculture. A description of points to connections between the development of domesti- the types of the traditional fishing boats used, is given, and cated camel trade, the establishment of the aflāj irrigation of the processing of the caught fish and the export of fishing system, and the flourishing maritime trade. Archaeological products. Government interest in fishery only began after evidence and various scholastic views indicate that overland Sultan Qaboos assumed the throne in 1970. Then the devel- trade and maritime networks developed in Oman for centu- opment and modernization of the commercial fisheries sector ries during and after the collapse of the Roman Empire, prior is described, as well as its ups and downs. The course of to Roman involvement in the trade to the Red Sea giving the maritime trade from the second half of the 19th century is first impetus to trade and commerce in the Indian Ocean. sketched, the impact of the shift from sail to steam in Oman, Part 3: Oman and Maritime Networks: 632-1650 CE of the two World Wars, the improvement of ports, while at (pp. 81-137). the same time the dhow trade remained a viable commercial Eric Staples, in his paper ‟Oman and Islamic Maritime venture for several reasons. The discovery of oil in 1964 Networks (632-1507 CE)ˮ (pp. 81-115), sketches the com- accelerated the development of modern ports and shipping. plex and extremely varied history of the regions surrounding Then follows a description of the development of Omani the Arabian Gulf during almost a millennium: involvement naval affairs. The chapter concludes with a few maritime of ῾Abbasids, Qarmatians, Wajihads (sic: Wajīhids), Buyids heritage projects. and Makramids in Oman, the Second Imamate (rising in Part 5: The Maritime Sciences: Naval Construction and the mid-eleventh century), the Saljucs, the Nabhanids, the Navigation (pp. 185-252). emerging maritime states Qays (Kīsh), and Hormuz, and Tom Vosmer provides in his ‟The Development of Boat- the influence of these events on Oman’s maritime trade that building Technologies and Typologiesˮ (pp. 185-222) a expanded from Iraq to the Indo-West Pacific and China, and comprehensive discussion of the development of boatbuild- to the Indian Ocean and East Africa, to end with: ‟Oman, ing technologies from the Bronze Age to the present. He during the centuries between 630 and 1507, experienced discusses the multiple influences on boat design, the materi- major changes as it first became part of the Islamic world als -hull and sail materials- and the tools used to construct and then became increasingly connected to the wider hori- them, and he describes the various types of vessels, tradi- zons of the Indo-West Pacific. More importantly, these ships tional and current ones, with illustrations, as well as the vari- carried people and all the cultural richness and complexity ous steering devices. ‟The Indian Ocean trade networks, 199 BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS LXXV N° 1-2, januari-april 2018 200 which comprised by the seventh century CE the longest sea of Dhofar, nowadays locked from the Indian Ocean by a sand trading route in the world, and centuries later accepted the barrier. The region is now called Khor Rori. Reports on the intrusions of Chinese, Southeast Asian and European influ- archaeological excavations can be accessed and downloaded ences, contributed to the exchange of ideas, but also were from http://arabiantica.humnet.unipi.it. Information from the responsible for the unity of design and construction that excavations can be consulted from http://imtodb.humnet. yielded what we think of today as the dhow.ˮ unipi.it. In the last centuries BCE the port of Sumhuran, In the last chapter of the book, Eric Staples, in his ‟Navi- founded towards the end of the third century BCE, was a gation in Islamic Sourcesˮ (pp. 223-252), first gives us a junction in long-distance trade between Egypt, the Arabian short discussion of navigation in the Ancient World and in coast and India, not only by sea but also overland. It reached the Early to Middle Islamic Period (632-1462). Then he its most flourishing period between the first and third centu- focuses in particular on the navigational practices found in ries CE. Frankincense was most probably the most important the works of Aḥmad b. Mājid and Sulaymān al-Mahrī (writ- product. A factual description of the excavated town is given, ten in the period 1462-1553), such as natural navigation of the objects found in chronologically different layers, with markers (ishārāt), knowledge of the sailing seasons photographs, and how life in the city possibly was is dis- (al-mawāsim), star attitude measurements (qiyās), the stellar cussed. India seems to have been one of the main trading bearings (al-akhnān), measuring distance (zām and masāfāt), partners, but there have been also frequent relations with the diagonal sailing estimates (tirfa), knowledge of routes area of the Gulf.