MUSCAT, or more correctly Maskat, the chief town of Omân in Arabia, lies upon the sea-coast in 23° 40' N. lat. and 58° 25' E. long., at the extremity of a small cove in the gorges of a great pass leading inland through dark mountain walls, scorched with the sun and utterly without vegetation, which rise almost right out of the sea to a height of from 300 to 500 feet on both sides of the cove. The town itself is built on a sloping shore, which affords space for some scanty patches of cultivated ground beyond the gates. The interior aspect of Muscat does not correspond to the extremely striking appearance it presents when approached from the sea. The ruins of the Portuguese cathedral, the palace, the minarets, and a few other great buildings tower over narrow crowded streets and filthy bazaars, long rows of good houses now falling into decay, and a mass of mean dwellings of sun-dried brick or wretched huts of palm branches. The whole aspect was described by Palgrave in 1863 as that of decay, but the town was still populous, and Palgrave estimated the inhabitants at 40,000, exclusive of the suburbs. Indeed the excellent harbour so admirably situated for the Indian and Persian Gulf trade, the strength of the whole position, which is defended by forts on the encircling rocks and might easily be rendered impregnable, together with the command of the passes to the fertile lands beyond, make it naturally the most important point on all the coast. The inhabitants and government are favourably spoken of; the population is a mixture of the most varied nationalities, including very many Indians; but good order is maintained and equal justice administered to all creeds. The Mohammedan citizens have a considerable strain of African blood, the slave trade having been very active ...before the convention of England with Zanzibar. The climate is not good; the summer heat in so confined a situation is very great, and epidemic fevers are common. The exports (salt, dates, fish, cotton, pearls, mother-of-pearl, &c.) and imports (rice, coffee, sugar, piece goods, &c.) are very considerable, amounting pejhaps together to a million sterling per annum.
Round the cape which forms the north-west limit of the cove lies the prosperous and well-built town of Matrah, with 20,000 to 25,000 inhabitants, and a considerable production of Omân stuffs. It may be regarded as a suburb of Muscat, though. the land road over the cape is so rough that communication between the towns is conducted chiefly by boats.
Muscat is an ancient place, perhaps identical with the Moscha of the Periplus. In the 9th century of the Christian era ships trading from Siraf to China took in water at Muscat from the well which still supplies the town; but the place was then quite small, Soliar, farther up the gulf, being the chief place on the Oman coast. The importance of Muscat appears to date from the Portuguese occupation (1508-1658). In the first half of last century the contests of the rival imams of Oman, Saif and Ibn Murshid, placed the town in the hands of the Persians, who were expelled about 1749 by Ahmed b. Sa ’ id. The residence of this prince was at Rustâk, but his grandson Sa’id made Muscat the capital, and cultivated the friendship and commerce of the English in Bombay and of the United States, to the great advantage of the city. Under Sa'id’s successor Thuaini family feuds and the intervention of the Wahhabites impaired the prosperity of the state. Thuaini was murdered in 1867, but after some further troubles his son Turki was established on the throne by the aid of British influence.
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MUSCATINE, a city of the United States, the county seat of Muscatine county, Iowa, is built on a rocky bluff on the west bank of the Mississippi, at the apex of what is known as the Great Bend. It carries on a large business in lumber, milling, canning fruits and vegetables, <fcc. Settled in 1836, and incorporated as a city in 1853, it increased its population from 5324 in 1860 to 8295 in 1880.
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