MUSCAT, miis-kat', MUSKAT, or MAS KAT, Arabia, the capital of Oman, on the Gulf of Oman, commanding the entrance to the Persian Gulf. It is a fortified seaport of con siderable commercial and strategical import ance; the seat of the Imam or Sultan of Mus cat; by arrangement it has a British political resident and since 1898 is used as a coaling station by France. Its appearance by no means corresponds with its wealth and importance. Large buildings are few, and the sultan's pal ace (a plain edifice), the governor's house, and a few minarets, alone rise above the mass of flat-roofed huts or houses. The streets are ex tremely narrow and its situation at the foot of high cliffs, and nearly surrounded by bare rocks, renders it one of the hottest places in the world. A sufficient supply of water is ob tained from wells about 40 feet deep. About three miles distant is the town of Matrah with docks for building and repairing shipping. As it stands in an open plain, exposed to the sea breeze, it is cooler than Muscat, so that many of the wealthier merchants of the latter place have their dwellings at Matrah, and spend only the hours of business in the neighboring city. The combined population of Muscat, Matrah and intervening villages has been variously estimated at 25,000 and at 60,000.
Muscat was occupied by the Portuguese un der Albuquerque in 1507. In 1651 it fell again under a Mohammedan ruler. In the latter half of the 18th century it attained, under a ruler who bore the religious title of Imam, consider able importance as a seaport. In 1808 Seid Said succeeded to the sovereignty, having as sassinated his cousin, Bedr. His sovereignty embraced also a stretch on the east coast of Africa, extending from the neighborhood of Cape Delgado northward as far as the equator. In like manner a large portion of the coast of the Persian Gulf acknowledged his sway, so that, including Oman and the African islands Zanzibar, Monfia or Mafia, and Peml•a, the coasts ruled by him, for the most part only com mercially, could not have had an extent of less than 3,000 miles. In 1840 Seid Said removed the court and seat of government from Muscat to Zanzibar, and in 1856 died on the return voyage from the former place. His son Meied succeeded him as Sultan of Zanzibar and ruler of the African territory, and another son ac quired Muscat. Sevvid Turki became ruler of Muscat in 1871, and on his death in 1888 a son succeeded him.