Oman

Abstract

An independent State, in South-eastern Arabia, whose integrity has been guaranteed by Great Britain and France. Oman extends along the southern shore of the gulf of that name from the entrance into the Persian Gulf to the extreme eastern point of Arabia, and thence S.W. as far as Ras Sajir, lat. 16° 8″ N. The coast line is nearly 1,000 miles long. Inland Oman is bounded on the S.W. by the great desert. Area, 82,000 square miles; population, estimated at 500,000, chiefly Arabs, but there is a strong infusion of negro blood The capital, Maskat, and the adjacent town of Matrah have together about 24,000 inhabitants. Maskat was occupied by the Portuguese from 1508 to the middle of the seventeenth century. After various vicissitudes it was recovered in the eighteenth century by Ahmed bin Sa’eed, of Yemenite origin, who was elected Imam in 1741, and whose family have since ruled.