MASKAT, the capital of Oman, in fat. 23° 38' N., and long. 58° 35' , 50" E. including the adjacent villages, it has about G0,000 inhabitants. Until the demise of Syud Said, the Oman territories and African districts of Zanzibar were .under one dominion. On that event one son took the Oman principality, the other son took Zanzibar. Maskat is built on a slope, rising with a gradual ascent from the sea, where the water nearly washes the bases of the houses. The inhabitants are descendants of Arabs, Persians, Indians, Syrians, by the way of Baghdad and 13asarrili, Kurds, Afghans, Baluchis, etc. The Persians at Muskat are mostly merchants, who deal in Indian piece-goods, coffee, hookahs or kaleans, and rose-water. Others, from 'Bandar Abbas, Lar, and Menon, manufacture swords and matchlocks, for which there is a great demand in the interior. Banyas constitute a body of the principal merchants. There are a few Jews, who mostly arrived there in 1828, being driven from Baghdad by the cruelties and extortions of Daoud Pasha, when nearly the whole of this race were compelled to fly. Some took refuge in Persia, while others, in their passage towards India, remained here. The same toleration exercised towards all other persuasions is extended to the Beni Israel, no badge or mark, as in Egypt or Syria, being insisted on. When Wellsted wrote,
early in the 19th century, about 4000 slaves, of both sexes and all ages, were disposed of annually. The Towayli, from the Zanzibar coast, formed one class. They were known by having their teeth filed, sometimes to a point, and some times in notches like those of a saw, also with some perpendicular incisions on either cheek, made with a penknife when the children are five or six years of age, and the scars which. remain denote the tribe to which they belong. The price of a Towayli was from 40 to 60 dollars. The Nabi, another race from the interior of Africa, were said to be vindictive and treacherous. The Bedowi here, as in the Hejaz, were the only purchasers. The Galla brought from Abyssinia were highly valued. They fetched from 100 to 150 dollars, the price of the women being about the same as that of the males ; and strength,. health, and good temper in the latter were con sidered as a set-off against the comeliness of the former. They brought eunuchs occasionally from Darfur, who fetched from 200 to 300 dollars, and were mostly purchased by the Persians.— Findlay ; TVellsted, i. pp. 13-388.