Working against time to decode ancient Omani script

The man who has given prime time of his life to a language is worried over not much progress in decoding the scripts. He is worried because the elders who have some clue about the extinct ‘Shahri’ language are passing away, and feels like time is running out of his hands. Ali bin Ahmed bin Ali bin Mahash al Shahri, 73, took up the task of decoding the scripts of a language, the link of which has been found in Oman’s southern province Dhofar and Colorado, a western US state. He has recently been conferred the Order of Merit, First Class, from His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik, for his contributions in the fields of Oman’s heritage and culture. The ‘language man’ of Oman is currently working on nine books, which are almost in the final stages of publishing. how to learn “The books are on dictionaries of Shahri spoken words into Arabic; Shahri-Arabic folklores, a compilation of proverbs in Shahri and explanation in English; about local handicrafts; and how to learn Shahri for Arabic and English speakers’’, he said. Ali al Shahri has travelled to several countries in search of an answer, but nothing substantial has come to his hands except for some more shreds of evidence that make him believe more strongly that one day he would be able to find proper scripts for ‘Shahri’ language, which is available only in spoken form. “This language is quite popular in Dhofar and a section of people practice it in their day-to-day communication. I interact with youngsters and tell them to practice the language so that the evidence of the language remains even after the passing away of the elders,” he says with a sense of brimming hope. He travelled to the UK and USA to give lectures and present papers in support of the Sahri language. Asked about the progress, the man who is doing research for the last 36 years and himself approaching 74, says, “Lots of evidence have been found, collected and documented but still not fully established.” He drops a hint that the language’s script found in Dhofar and Colorado, might be present-day ‘Sahri’ which is known also as ‘Jabbali’ to the people who live in mountain areas.