MUSCAT, a town on the south-east coast of Arabia, capital of the independent State of Oman. It commands the entrance to the Persian gulf. In geographical position it is isolated from the interior of the peninsula as the mountains rise behind it in a rugged wall. It is only from Matrah, a northern suburb shut off by an intervening spur which reaches to the sea, that land com munication with the rest of Arabia can be maintained. Both Muscat and Matrah are defended on the landward side by a wall with towers at intervals.
The early history of Muscat is the history of Portuguese as cendancy in the Persian gulf. When Albuquerque burnt the place after destroying Karyat in 1508, Kalhat was the chief port of the coast and Muscat was comparatively unimportant. Kalhat was subsequently sacked and burnt. For 114 years Muscat was held as a naval station and factory during a period of local revolts, Arab incursions, and Turkish invasion by sea; but it was not till 1622, when the Portuguese lost Hormuz, that Muscat became the head quarters of their fleet and the most important place held by them on the Arabian coast. In 1650 the Portuguese were finally ex pelled from Oman. Muscat had been reduced after a siege in 1648. The Persians next occupied Oman, but left it in 1741.
Under the great ruler of Oman, Said ibn Sultan (1804-1856), the fortunes of Muscat attained their zenith ; but on his death, when his kingdom was divided and the African possessions were parted from western Arabia, Muscat declined. In 1883-84, when Turki was sultan, the town was unsuccessfully besieged by. the Indabayin and Rehbayin tribes, led by Abdul Aziz, the brother of Turki. The sultan's palace is near the centre of the town, a relic of Portuguese occupation, called by the Arabs El Jereza, a corrup tion of Igrezia (church). This term is probably derived from the chapel once attached to the buildings which formed the Portuguese governor's residence and factory.
The towns of Muscat and Matrah have a very small Arab popu lation, Baluchis and negroes being by far the most numerous. Muscat and Matrah have together about 20,000 inhabitants. Muscat imports rice, coffee and cotton goods and exports dates, pomegranates and dried fish. The British residency stands on a low sandy isthmus which connects the fortress of Jalali with the mainland.