Trade links span centuries

The book Oman-India ties takes its readers on a visual journey outlining the rich historical relationship between the two great civilizations of Oman and Indian which goes back more than 5000 years. Published by Oman Observer in association Indian Embassy Muscat and written by Samuel Kutty (Senior Editor of the Observer) and Sandhya Rao Mehta (Associate Professor of SQU), the book is an attempt to document, archive and disseminate this relationship from its historical past to the present time where these relations have taken new wings. Extracts from the book will continue to appear on this space every Saturday.

The ancient links between Oman and India are not restricted to the Harappan civilization of western India. Archeological evidence also points to the ancient city of Pattanam (500 BCE) in Kerala, trading with ancient Rome, Yemen, the Middle East and even the Nabatian civilization of the Arabian Peninsula.

According to K Rajan of Pondicherry University, the Tamil-Brahmi script on a pottery shard near the Khor Rori, the ancient port of Sumhuram in Dhofar near Salalah “confirms Sumhuram’s link with the ancient frankincense route and its cultural links with the frankincense-based kingdoms in southern Arabia.”

While the mercantile presence of Indians in Oman is often seen as a recent phenomenon dating back to the early 1970s, this presence only reinforces the continuity of ancient links between these two regions across the Arabian Sea.

Historical studies of trade trace the early spice route through India to Egypt and conclude that “it clearly reveals extensive trade ties between India and Egypt as Roman and Indian ships sailed to coasts all along Oman, Yemen and to the Red Sea – and the Horn of Africa.”

There is also evidence of markets being regularly held in places like Daba, Sohar and Dama as they were considered to be important commercial centres.

Ibn Habyaib in Al Muhbar considered Dama port as one of the two “Arab ports to which merchants from Sindh, India, China and people from East and West used to come for trading".

Similarly, Sohar was described by Al Himyari in Al Raoud Al Mi'taar (1948) as a commercial centre. As he said: "There was a commercial centre in Sohar from which every town got its needs and its goods reached India and China." Historically, the Indian Ocean fed a number of overland routes and hosted a network of maritime routes which encompassed areas as distant as South and South-East Asia, through the Strait of Malacca, Sri Lanka, the southern and northern shores of India, the Arabian Gulf, going as far as Zanzibar, on to the Mediterranean. In this network, the ports of Oman have always been historically at the centre of trade, facilitating movement of regular and luxury goods including rice and cotton, gold, silk, porcelain and horses. The port of Muscat served as an entrepôrt to large swathes of inland trade, moving goods from around the world to inland communities with less access to imported goods. While the Muscat port can be dated back to the third millennium BCE, there are travel accounts in the 9th and 10th centuries which locate Muscat as the last fresh water source for ships going from the Gulf to India, East Africa and further to East Asia.

Muscat finds mention in the works of Ibn Battuta who visited Muscat in 1330. Ahmad Bin Majid, the famous explorer and navigator who is said to have guided Vasco Da Gama across the Cape of Good Hope refers to Muscat as the “port unequalled in all the world” and that it was used to transport dates and horses, while selling cloth, oil and cereal15.

Simultaneously, the ports of Sohar, Sur, Qalhat and Salalah also find historical mention as they have all developed at different points of history. Backer also says that “valuable merchandise such as gold, silks, precious stones, fine porcelain, and thoroughbred Arabian horses as well as commodities such as rice and cotton was transported along these routes.”

Eventually, the western Indian-Oman-Zanzibar circuit became vital for trade in every conceivable article of use and luxury, including coffee, silks, vermillion, horses, ivory, porcelain and many other products. The rise of Islam and the continuing trade between the Ottoman and Indian coasts are traced to cultural

developments as depicted in Arab and Sanskrit texts as Indian scholars visited Baghdad, bringing Sanskrit works on science and astronomy to be translated. Eventually, Islam began to affect Indians, particularly on the western coast of Malabar, Konkan and Gujarat, from where many Indians are said to have settled in Oman. The complex trade links are surmised by Risso’s account of the Indian and Omani merchants (commonly called ‘northern traders’):

“The Masqati vessels sailed south with products of the Gulf area and Uman dates, sulphur, incense, dye roots, shark fins, almonds, rose water, pearls and medicines”18. With the coming of Islam, not only was the mercantile relationship enhanced, but a deeper relationship, encompassing religious and cultural affiliation was initiated and, in time, consolidated.

While Muslims came to north India as warriors by the 10th century CE, in southern India they came as merchants and travellers, following centuries-old tradition, and were cordially welcomed by local rulers. Indian ships moved out of the port of Broach, Cambay and Mandvi in Gujarat for Arab and African coastal towns carrying wood, rice, edible oil, cotton and honey, and brought back pearls, dates and wine.

The teak wood used by Omani and Yemeni sailors to make their boats came from Malabar, on the western coast of Kerala. In the absence of iron nails, the boats were constructed in the “stitch and sew” tradition, being bound together with coir ropes from coconut plantations along the Indian Ocean littoral.