Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

Ibrahiim al Balooshi · 11th March 2012, 08:53 AM

Salaams all ~ I have an interesting anecdote from the book by Ian Skeet which is a must for anyone researching Omani History. Oman before 1970 (The End of An Era).
In fact, though the book was written only about 45 years ago it could describe what the country was like 300 before, as hardly anything had changed!

Quote" Mutrah is the commercial centre of Oman. There the simple necessities of life are bought and sold; cloth rice coffee versus dates and limes.That has always been the basis of the economy and it still is in 1967.The addition of oil as an export will one day transform the way of life, commercial and social, as it has done nearly everywhere else in the Arab world, but this has not yet happened.
In Muttrah, then, are the manipulators of money, whose skills must overcome the fiscal peculiarities of the country, which are as variable and inconsistent as most other things. If you are a Muttrah merchant you must be equally versatile at least in rupees, annas, naya peis, dollars, pounds, baizas, dinars; annas do not exist officially either; there are now 64 baizas in a rupee, which used to contain 16 annas and later 100 naya peis, and which is still valued at the old pre-1966 Indian devaluation rate , but only 3 baizas and 5 baizas coins exist for small change; The Maria Theresa dollar (MTD) (Officially pegged at 5 rupees but unobtainable at that price) is divided into 120 Omani baizas, which are quite different from Muscati baizas(needless to add, Dhofari baizas are different again); exchange rates tend to be described in terms of rupees to a Kuwaiti dinar, but may equally be in terms of the Bahraini dinar which used to equal 10 Muscat rupees before the 1967 sterling devaluation, or in terms of MTDs ( referred to indiscriminately as dollars or riyals which may alternatively be US dollars or Saudi riyals in a different context) to 100 rupees; and you must also be on your guard for rupees to the MTD or rupees to the gold tola bar. And once you have mastered that lot, you must start on the difference between Muscat maund, which equals 24 kiyas, each kiyas representing the weight of 6 MTD., and an Omani maund which equals 24 kiyas, each kiyas representing the weight of 6 Omani baizas, remembering that 5 Omani baizas are the same weight as 1 MTD. and that in arabic a maund is a mun; 200 Muscat maunds = 1 bahhar, which is the same weight both on the coast and in the interior but varies when applied to different produce, a bahhar of salt or firewood being equivalent to 400 Muscati maunds.
Oh I forgot to tell you that a Muscati rupee is worth one shilling and sixpence., and a kiyas weighs 5. 9375 ounces.
Curiously enough a maund (or mund or mun) is a weight of far greater pedigree than might be imagined and though this is less surprising, of great complexity; in the heyday of The East India Company ( and for all I know, still) it represented something different in almost every area of the Indian Ocean region, from 90 lb. 4 oz in Bussorah for grain to 2lb 8 drams in Bettlesakee for coffee (3 lb. for other goods). Mind you if the Muttrah merchants must be profficient in currency manipulation today, it is nothing to what the East India Company official needed at his fingertips. The maund was not the only weight or coin to fluctuate its value; The Spanish dollar was worth 5shillings and 4pence halfpenny at Surat, 5shillings and 3pence three farthing at Bombay, but 6shillings and 8 pence(about) at Bussorah; the bahhar varied between 222lb 6 oz (equivalent to 10 frazils) at Judda and 814 lb (40 frazils) at Bettlesakee. In the handbook on this general subject published in 1789, and issued no doubt, to all recruits to the Company, it may be easy enough to check up the number of budgerooks in a Muscat Mamoody but one is really up against it when one has committed to memory a list of coinage values only to read~

"The above is the calculation on real silver rupees (Surat or others) which often rise or fall in value. There are also imaginary rupees current in Tattah, in which denomination the Merchants keep their Accounts."

Sometimes you feel that the Muttrah merchants too have read that last sentence and have taken it to heart. Unquote.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

11th March 2012, 08:53 AM	#7
Ibrahiim al Balooshi Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Buraimi Oman, on the border with the UAE Posts: 4,408	Salaams all ~ I have an interesting anecdote from the book by Ian Skeet which is a must for anyone researching Omani History. Oman before 1970 (The End of An Era). In fact, though the book was written only about 45 years ago it could describe what the country was like 300 before, as hardly anything had changed! Quote" Mutrah is the commercial centre of Oman. There the simple necessities of life are bought and sold; cloth rice coffee versus dates and limes.That has always been the basis of the economy and it still is in 1967.The addition of oil as an export will one day transform the way of life, commercial and social, as it has done nearly everywhere else in the Arab world, but this has not yet happened. In Muttrah, then, are the manipulators of money, whose skills must overcome the fiscal peculiarities of the country, which are as variable and inconsistent as most other things. If you are a Muttrah merchant you must be equally versatile at least in rupees, annas, naya peis, dollars, pounds, baizas, dinars; annas do not exist officially either; there are now 64 baizas in a rupee, which used to contain 16 annas and later 100 naya peis, and which is still valued at the old pre-1966 Indian devaluation rate , but only 3 baizas and 5 baizas coins exist for small change; The Maria Theresa dollar (MTD) (Officially pegged at 5 rupees but unobtainable at that price) is divided into 120 Omani baizas, which are quite different from Muscati baizas(needless to add, Dhofari baizas are different again); exchange rates tend to be described in terms of rupees to a Kuwaiti dinar, but may equally be in terms of the Bahraini dinar which used to equal 10 Muscat rupees before the 1967 sterling devaluation, or in terms of MTDs ( referred to indiscriminately as dollars or riyals which may alternatively be US dollars or Saudi riyals in a different context) to 100 rupees; and you must also be on your guard for rupees to the MTD or rupees to the gold tola bar. And once you have mastered that lot, you must start on the difference between Muscat maund, which equals 24 kiyas, each kiyas representing the weight of 6 MTD., and an Omani maund which equals 24 kiyas, each kiyas representing the weight of 6 Omani baizas, remembering that 5 Omani baizas are the same weight as 1 MTD. and that in arabic a maund is a mun; 200 Muscat maunds = 1 bahhar, which is the same weight both on the coast and in the interior but varies when applied to different produce, a bahhar of salt or firewood being equivalent to 400 Muscati maunds. Oh I forgot to tell you that a Muscati rupee is worth one shilling and sixpence., and a kiyas weighs 5. 9375 ounces. Curiously enough a maund (or mund or mun) is a weight of far greater pedigree than might be imagined and though this is less surprising, of great complexity; in the heyday of The East India Company ( and for all I know, still) it represented something different in almost every area of the Indian Ocean region, from 90 lb. 4 oz in Bussorah for grain to 2lb 8 drams in Bettlesakee for coffee (3 lb. for other goods). Mind you if the Muttrah merchants must be profficient in currency manipulation today, it is nothing to what the East India Company official needed at his fingertips. The maund was not the only weight or coin to fluctuate its value; The Spanish dollar was worth 5shillings and 4pence halfpenny at Surat, 5shillings and 3pence three farthing at Bombay, but 6shillings and 8 pence(about) at Bussorah; the bahhar varied between 222lb 6 oz (equivalent to 10 frazils) at Judda and 814 lb (40 frazils) at Bettlesakee. In the handbook on this general subject published in 1789, and issued no doubt, to all recruits to the Company, it may be easy enough to check up the number of budgerooks in a Muscat Mamoody but one is really up against it when one has committed to memory a list of coinage values only to read~ "The above is the calculation on real silver rupees (Surat or others) which often rise or fall in value. There are also imaginary rupees current in Tattah, in which denomination the Merchants keep their Accounts." Sometimes you feel that the Muttrah merchants too have read that last sentence and have taken it to heart. Unquote. Regards, Ibrahiim al Balooshi.