A Journey in Oman Author(S): S

On the Border of the Great Desert: A Journey in Oman Author(s): S. B. Miles Source: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Aug., 1910), pp. 159-178 Published by: geographicalj Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1777694 Accessed: 20-06-2016 21:22 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), Wiley are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Geographical Journal This content downloaded from 104.239.165.217 on Mon, 20 Jun 2016 21:22:06 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ON THE BORDER OF THE GREAT DESERT: A JOURNEY IN OMAN. 159 Altogether he was one of the most intelligent men I have met on this journey across Africa. When he left the Shari he had with him some 500 head of cattle, 50 donkeys, 15 horses, and 150 people; and when I saw him again at Keffi Genji (he had taken the northern route through the mountains) he was in a starving condition. He had lost two-thirds of his people on the road, all his cattle, all his donkeys, and, I think, had one horse left, and found himself in a pitiable plight. As all my oxen and horses had gone too, I could do little for him. I wished him to come with me to Wau, the capital of the Bahr-el-Ghazal province, but he wanted to press on towards Omdurman, following the old road. One met these caravans with their women and children trekking towards their promised land in large numbers, but I have only seen them come back in ones and twos; wiry, lean, shy-eyed men of thirty-five. The others remained on the road or have disappeared in Mekka. The religious enthusiasm--and fanaticism-with which many of the pilgrims are imbued, demand and secure the respect and the admiration of the pagans, who are thus attracted to the Crescent Faith. The PRESIDENT (before the paper): Dr. Kumm, our lecturer to-night, is a Doctor of Philosophy at Freiburg University. He has made a speciality in his studies of geography, including surveying; of Oriental languages and of astro- nomy, and he has also worked for some time at both the Heidelberg and the Zeiss observatories. During the last few years he has been occupied in the Sudan, mostly in missionary work. It is therefore obvious that he is well qualified for the work of a traveller. The expedition which he is going to describe to us to-night is one in which he traversed Africa from one coast to the other. His main object, from the geographical point of view-not from all points of view- was to determine the line of demarcation between the lands occupied by Moham- medanism and the lands occupied by pagans. No doubt the country traversed by Dr. Kumm is almest entirely under European dominion, but about a great deal .of it we know very little, and we may expect to hear a good deal of new and interesting information. The PRESIDENT (after the paper): I am quite sure that I may, in the name of everybody here present, express our keen appreciation and our thanks for the admirable lecture we have listened to to-night. ON THE BORDER OF THE GREAT DESERT: A JOURNEY IN OMAN,* By Lieut.-Colonel S. B. MILES. TOWARDS the close; of the year 1885 the tranquillity prevailing throughout the dominions of the Sultan of Maskat, who had wisely taken advantage of the prestige that had accrued to him after the discomfiture * Map, p. 248. Although the journey described here was made a quarter of a century ago, it is fifty years later than that of Wellsted, and is really an important addition to our knowledge of a little-known part of Arabia, including the mysterious Great Desert.-ED. G.J. This content downloaded from 104.239.165.217 on Mon, 20 Jun 2016 21:22:06 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 160 ON THE BORDER OF THE GREAT DESERT: A JOURNEY IN OMAN. of his enemies in 1883, to consolidate his power in all quarters, gave me the opportunity I had long wished for to make a somewhat extended tour through the provinces of Oman and Al Dhahireh in order to visit certain localities and districts which circumstances had not previously allowed me the gratification of exploring, and with a view to extend my personal intercourse with shaikhs and other personages in those regions with whom I had not hitherto been able to become acquainted. On my signifying the Sultan with my wishes, His Highness was good enough to assist me in sketching out the tour and in promotling my views in every way. He was kind enough to appoint Seyyid HIamood bin Nasir, son of the Wall of Muttrah, as my companion and introducer. He also directed the shaikh of the Beni Kelban tribe, Nasir bin Mohammed, to accompany me throughout as guide and as kefeer on behalf of the Ghafiris. On December 11 I proceeded by boat to Muttrah, where my followers and the camels were assembled, and there distributed the baggage for the escort into six light loads for as many camels, in order that we might travel expeditiously whenever convenient and desirable to do so. The riding-camels for the party were selected with regard to their fitness to perform the whole journey, as it was not intended to change them en route, while for my own riding the Sultan kindly chose from his own stud a valuable female dromedary called Samha, which proved one of the swiftest, most easy-paced, and docile animals I ever bestrode. It was late in the afternoon before we moved out of Muttrah, and as my party was not quite complete I spent the night at Wataia, intend- ing to make a real start the following morning. On December 12, accordingly, we marched from Wataia, and, skirting the hill range over a bare and uninteresting country, halted at Fanjeh, where we camped for the night, and, starting early the next day, arrived at Semail in the forenoon. Here we stayed for a couple of hours to feed the camels during the heat of the day, and then trotted on to Saija, a village belonging to the Bent Jabir tribe, at which place we intended to pass the night. In the month of March of this year, 1885, a cyclonic storm or hurricane of unprecedented violence had burst over central Oman, causing widespread destruction and misery. It had been followed by a deluge of rain, which had swept down the valleys and poured a devastating flood of water through the villages and settlements, and had done incalculable~ damage to houses and cultivation, while hundreds of thousands of date trees had perished. Dashed by the cyclone against the precipitous walls of Jebel Akhdar, the clouds had broken and fallen in torrents of rain down the steep gorges and ravines, and had concentrated a mighty wave down the Semail valley, which had carried everything before it. The river is usually but a shallow, babbling stream, rolling down its sandy bed, from which it is drawn This content downloaded from 104.239.165.217 on Mon, 20 Jun 2016 21:22:06 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ON THE BORDER OF THE. GREAT DESERT: A JOURNEY IN OMAN. 161 to fertilize and irrigate the productions of nature on the banks, and though the Arabs are accustomed to see occasional floods after heavy rain, there was no record among them of a similar visitation, and I wvas assured that the oldest inhabitant could remember nothing so calamitous. The tumultuous rush of water had come upon the people so suddenly as to take them completely by surprise, and give them little time for precaution or for removal of portable property. In the narrows the river had swollen to an extraordinary height, subsiding again as rapidly as it had risen, the marks of its highest point being still visible on the banks. The destructive effects of the terrible tornado that had visited the land nine months before were manifest everywhere, and as we rode up the valley from Fanja we witnessed the wrecked houses, the headless palms, many of which were broken or bent to the ground, the tempest-stripped trunks of trees and ruined gardens; while the poorer natives, whose rude matting and palm- leaf huts had in many cases been swept bodily down the vale with all their belongings, were still bemoaning the calamities and losses. Saija is picturesquely situated on the left bank of a ravine or gorge, and has about eight hundred inhabitants and some nice houses and gardens. Dwelling in seclusion, in poverty, and in dread of the ruling family, though secure enough, I believe, under the friendly protection of the Beni Jabir, I found here the remnant of a once domineering and masterful race, namely, the Yaareba, whose princes held royal sway, not only in Oman, but also over the entire Indian ocean, which the pirate craft of the Yaareba rulers darkened with their sails, holding it ill terrorism against Europeans arnd natives alike for a century and a half.

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