On July 27, a dear friend, Khamis al-Subhi, sent me a message with a sad voice. He said, “Good morning, Khaled. Sorry to disturb you early in the morning, but I wanted to tell you that our dear friend Musabbah passed away last night."
I used to consider Musabbah somehow my Omani “Waled” (father in Arabic). I met him around 15 years ago while we were exploring, along with my wife, my son, and Deborah, a friend of ours, the lower part of Wadi Al Hijri, one of the main branches of Wadi Tanuf in the Dakhiliyah governorate.
While I was taking pictures in the wadi, I heard “Assalamu aaleykoum”. It took me a few seconds to localize the person greeting me. I took my camera and zoomed in to see an old person looking in my direction with his binoculars.
He was crossing a traverse at around 40 m above the wadi bed. The old man told me to be careful and invited me to stop by his place for a coffee on my way back.
One hour later, when I joined Marta, Kevin, and Deborah, they told me that a lady came to ask them to come for coffee at her place.
After having a snack, we visited the couple in Dmeitha, their hamlet built in the caves on the right bank of the wadi.
Since that day, Musabbah and Nasra, his wife, have become very dear to my whole family, and we have visited them many times and had the chance to learn a lot from their unique experience.
They lived alone in Dmeitha; their hamlet was the last one in the canyon for around 30 years before they moved to Tanuf when “Al Waled” Musabbah had some medical issues.
A memorable trip that I did with my family, in the company of Musabbah, Nasra, Khamis, and his wife Moza, was when we followed “al waleed” in the wadi to check on his bees after he had moved to the city.
The temperature that day was close to 40 degrees, but it did not seem to disturb my nearly 90-year-old friend or his wife.
On their faces, I could read the happiness of being back in their natural environment. They were so proud to show us around and explain the use of several small shrubs, trees, and plants. Musabbah was practically running and jumping from stone to stone, and we could hardly follow him. He told me that he comes to the wadi for a walk at least 3 or 4 times a month. I am sure that this is what kept him healthy, physically and mentally.
Some 45 minutes after we started walking, Musabbah stopped and pointed at a tiny yellow dot on a boulder.
“This is qass,” he said, “it is a tiny droplet of wax that a bee dropped.”
He explained that it was an indicator of the presence of a beehive nearby. Only a few meters further, Musabbah went to the right bank of the wadi and started climbing towards a small cave in the cliff. He moved three flat rocks to show us the first beehive. With bare hands and nothing covering any other part of his body, Musabbah started gently moving the bees off the wax that was dangling from the ceiling of this cavity in the rock with his experienced hands.
We were all terrified because the bees started to fly towards us. "Don’t worry! Just be calm; they won’t sting you!" shouted the old man.
We followed his instructions, and the bees started landing on us, waiting for Musabbah to finish his inspection of their house! It was just unreal!
The hive was still empty without any honey. As soon as our friend stood back, the bees went back to their house in the cave, and Musabbah put back the three stones that he had moved earlier to protect the beehive from the burning sun.
Musabbah and Nasra are a unique couple whose attachment to the traditional Omani culture and ways of living, made them popular figures in their Dakhiliya region.
“Of course, I know Musabbah and Nasra. Who doesn’t?” exclaimed a shopkeeper in Nizwa, with a big smile on his face. “They are the most unusual couple on Earth!”
Rest in peace, “Al Waled Musabbah.” Oman will miss you dearly.
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