Julfar and the Ports of Northern Oman
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THE PORTS OF OMAN EDITED BY ABDULRAHMAN AL SALIMI AND ERIC STAPLES Julfar and the Ports of Northern Oman Timothy Power Introduction the Iranian foreland and Omani hinterland, and moreover possessed the greatest share of natural resources, includ- Historic Oman corresponds to the Hajar Mountains and ing cultiable land, fshing waters, pearl beds, stone quar- opposing outwash plains looking out onto the Indian ries, and copper mines. However, the precise confgura- Ocean and Arabian Gulf. The Hajars curve west and then tion and relatie importance of these factors changed over north from Ras al-Hadd to Musandam, the coastal plains time. There is no evdence, for instance, that the pearl- all the while retreating to the mountains, so as to project ing industry of Julfar was important prior to the twelfth “like a spur into the vtals of Persia.” 1 The plains meet the century CE.2 (Unless otherwise indicated, all dates in mountains at Fujairah on the shores of the Indian Ocean this chapter are Common Era [CE].) To understand the and Ras al-Khaimah on the coast of the Arabian Gulf; development of Julfar, one must adopt a diachronic in- at the tip of the peninsula lies Khasab, watered by the terpretatie model, for natural resources only become strategic Strait of Hormuz. The precipitous terrain and economically, and thus politically, signifcant through tribal history have gien rise to a tortured cartography of human agency, which responds to shifting market forces myriad enclaves, owned by the Emirates of Ajman, Umm and the broader geopolitical situation. For example, the al-Qaiwain, Sharjah, Ras al-Khaimah, and Fujairah, to- full agricultural potential of the hinterland of Julfar was gether with the Sultanate of Oman. The historic port of only realized after the fourteenth century, in response Dibba, for example, is presently split between Sharjah, to rising demand for foodstufs on the Iranian foreland. Fujairah, and Oman. A number of major wadis linked One should be wary of reductie or essentialist statements the two coasts and gave access to the interior. Dibba is about some seventeen centuries of human occupation. linked to the interior by a wadi which emerges at Khatt Nor should it be assumed that the primary role of Ju- and another which runs through Masaf, from where it lfar was at all times as a port of commerce. The pecu- is possible to reach Mleiha. Ras al-Khaimah is fortui- liar position of Julfar at the head of a plain between the tously situated between the mountains and the sea, at mountains and the sea meant that, unlike most other the head of a well-watered route south along the out- ports of northern Oman, it was relatiely well endowed wash plains leading to Khatt and Mleiha and so on to with groundwater and cultiable land. Christian Velde, Buraimi, which gave access to both the Zahira and Bati- the resident archaeologist at the Department of Archae- nah. Coastal communications were usually easier in the ology and Museums in Ras al-Khaimah, conceptualizes premodern period. The fastest means of transport from Julfar as pre-eminently an “oasis settlement,” a dispersed Ras al-Khaimah to Dubai or Abu Dhabi was by ship, settlement of mud-brick and palm-frond houses scattered and in the case of Khasab, isolated in a rocky cove, mari- among an extensie spread of palm groves.3 This is to say time communications were fundamental to its exstence. that Julfar had an internal terrestrial dynamic independ- The northern tip of Oman, the Musandam Peninsula, ent of the external maritime dynamics more usually as- was therefore difcult to access and consequently remote sociated with ports of commerce. However, the internal from the main political centers of the great Omani dy- dynamics of Julfar are difcult to assess: there are no nastic states, while its proxmity to Iran and the relatie local historical sources by which we might gain insights ease of maritime transport meant that it was more often into the agency of the inhabitants. Yet, gien the fact that than not drawn into the orbit of Iranian polities. Julfar was for the majority of its history incorporated into Undoubtedly, the most consistently signifcant port of a succession of Iranian polities, and was only briefy and northern Oman was Julfar, just north of modern Ras al- less assuredly absorbed into Omani states under the Nab- Khaimah town. Yet the reasons for its importance are not hanids and Yaʿrubids, the external maritime aspect seems necessarily consistent. Julfar was ideally situated between to have been overwhelmingly more signifcant. 219 TIMOTHY POWER JULFAR AND THE PORTS OF NORTHERN OMAN Indeed, Julfar appears at times to have been almost as it did along the contested frontier of Iran and Oman. better organize the fow of natural resources. Yet trade At the Frontiers of Iran, c. 300–700 cut of from the terrestrial hinterland. Duarte Barbosa The strategic importance of Julfar comes very sharply was not the only means of obtaining commodities from (f. 1500–17), for example, describes a series of coastal for- into focus in certain centuries. the sea. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Following the demise of Iron Age ciilization in the Om- tresses, “which the King of Ormus maintains there for At no time does Julfar appear to have been a center of Julfar—or, more properly by this time, Ras al-Khaim- ani peninsula, new settlements were established at Mlei- the defence of his lands, inasmuch as behind all these the Gulf pearl trade or an emporium of the Indian Ocean ah—became a center of piracy in the Gulf. The causes of ha, Ed-Dur, Dibba, and Sohar, which peaked in the frst Moors [of the coast] dwell many Moors of the nature of trade. For much of its history, it was not even a signif- attacks at sea perpetrated by mariners under Qasimi au- two centuries CE. It is striking that most of these sites wild Arabs who … from time to time come down upon cant emporium of the Lower Gulf. The major popula- thority has been the subject of much debate, but Frauke were situated on the coast and all were well-integrated these vllages and make war on them.” 4 The Arabian tion centers of interior Oman were better served by the Heard-Bey, a leading expert on the history of the United into Indian Ocean trade networks.11 Moreover, all of coastline constituted a natural boundary, which might ports of the Batinah, while the population of northern Arab Emirates, understands piracy to be essentially a these sites were abandoned at broadly the same time, be- inform a political border between two or more polities, Oman was never sufciently large to constitute an im- resource procurement strategy.5 Undoubtedly, maritime tween the mid-third to early fourth centuries, which has and could assume the character of a military frontier. portant market, so that the economic hinterland of Julfar trade was important to Julfar, in some periods more than variously been linked to the collapse of the Roman “India Coastal settlement at Julfar was on more than one oc- did not recommend its long-term commercial vability. others, but it seems to have been limited to local net- trade,” a southern shift in the Intertropical Convergence casion predicated on political and military factors rather When there is greater evdence for maritime trade—in works dominated by Iran. Zone, or volent destruction attributed to Sasanian inva- than maritime trade. In fact, settlement seems to have the fourteenth and ffteenth centuries, for example—Ju- The historic pre-eminence of Julfar among the ports sions or Arab migrations.12 Historical sources state that been begun around the fourth century when the Sasan- lfar appears as a contingent entity economically orientat- of northern Oman has resulted in it being the subject the Sasanian emperor Ardashir (r. 226–42) campaigned ians established a forward base on the Arabian frontier. ed towards Iran. For the most part, Julfar exported raw of archaeological investigation. Indeed, the political dif- in Oman, and an inscription of Shapur I (r. 309–79) lists The Nabhanids may have built a defensie fortress at Ju- materials (pearls, horses) and bulk goods (dates, cereals) fculties presented by digging in Iran and the funding Oman as a provnce of the empire.13 A new phase of re- lfar in the twelfth to thirteenth centuries, during which in return for manufactured commodities (guns, textiles, challenges faced by excavators in Oman have naturally gional settlement begins sometime in the fourth to ffth time settlement was at an all-time low, implying that the metalwork, pottery) and prestige goods (silk, porcelain) focused attention on the politically open and oil-rich century, with the establishment of isolated settlements at area had become a depopulated military frontier. Such obtained va the great emporium of Hormuz. This trade UAE. The net result is that the archaeology of historic Kush, Khatt, and Jazirat al-Ghanam in the very northern regional geopolitical confgurations as created frontiers is characteristic of asymmetrical economic relations be- Julfar has not only become the best-documented of the Oman.14 These sites have therefore been interpreted as could further gie rise to marcher states or bufer states, tween the developed and developing world. Indeed, the ports of northern Oman, but—together with Siraf—the evdence for a Sasanian colonial presence in Oman. of which that of the Qawasim in the eighteenth and relationship seems likely to have been colonial, with set- most excavated Islamic-period site in the Gulf region. The site of Kush constitutes an anthropogenic mound nineteenth centuries is the best-documented, emerging tlers from Hormuz establishing themselves in Julfar to A number of archaeological sites may be associated with rising around 6.5 m above the surrounding plain, into historic Julfar.