Arabia Felix

Francois Le Gouz de Boullaye noted in his log "... on the 29th March [1648] we arrived within sight of Muscat, a city of Arabia Felix"; so named by the Romans who called it "Happy" because they believed it was a "blessed land shrouded in mystery & legend, whose peoples had amassed great fortunes by trading spices and aromatics."
Frenchy Frank must have been virtually on the beach for as early as the 2nd-century Ptolemy had mentioned a ‘concealed harbour’ on the coast here but the settlement’s location, surrounded on three sides by mountains, made it all but inaccessible from the land. Indeed, the supposed original settlers, Arab tribes from Yemen, almost certainly approached from the sea.
In the 13th C the ever helpful Iraqi geographer, Ibn Al Mujawir, disclosed that "the origin of the name is 'maskat. It is the port for trading with Sohar. The vessels coming from India, Zanziba and the North used to anchor in Maskat." Muscat -Maskat I never would have guessed.
Muscat became the capital of Oman in 1793. All that is known about its early history is that it grew into a small port by the 14th and 15th C. From then it starting trading, especially with British Indiamen. The Portuguese took over in 1507 but lost it back to the Omanis by 1650 when they ceased to be a power in the area. The French had a go afterwards, but the Omani Sultan played thm off against the British, with whom Oman since then has had a partnership.
By the 1970's , when an RMS Sandhurst cadet called Kaboosh bin Said bin Taimur graduated and took over the position of Sultan of Oman, Muscat was still a tiny and isolated town stretched along 800m of beach between Al Jalali and Al Mirani forts. There were 2 primary schools and a hospital linked to the 7 km asphat road. A landing strip for light aircraft and a port for small boats complete the infrastructure.
The revered Sultan died on Jan 9th. I cannot say whether knowledge of my impending arrival was a factor; but he had just returned from a medical visit to Europe. In his time he managed to build the country into a significant player in the Gulf. The country has 200km of coast from UA Emirates to Yemen and covers 3900 sq km. He achieved this by skillfully playing off the major powers against each other and using his national income, primarily gas, to leverage some debt which allowed him to invest in modernisation and install English squre pin plugs everywhere. They are still a poor, indebted country though.Read more