Maritime History and Shipbuilding in the City of Sur

The researcher Hammoud Al Ghailani to Shurfat:
Sur is a model city for speaking of maritime history and shipbuilding
I did not document any piece of information in my book without it having a mention in a reference, and I gathered much from the lips of the lovers of the sea

"Maritime History and Shipbuilding in the City of Sur".. a book recently published by the researcher Hammoud bin Hamad Al Ghailani, dealing with the biography of the sea inscribed in the sails of the masts and the planks of teak, summarising the old tale of love between the Omani sailor and the ship — an inherited love whose roots extend to the old (maajani) time. This book, which runs to 532 pages of medium size, includes everything related to maritime history in the ancient Omani city of Sur, which the researcher chose as a model city for his research and material, owing to its old relationship with the sea, its fame in building ships of various kinds, its being an old anchorage for the Omani sails and others, and a home to hundreds of captains and nakhodas who inherit the many maritime professions. The city of Sur is the memory of the sea in the Omani east, an anchorage for sails and a harbour for masts, and it is a history deep in antiquity; so the book of the researcher Hammoud Al Ghailani comes to document this civilisation in all its details, where he captured every detail — to the utmost of his ability — about what relates to the history of the ships sailing on the blue pages across the time periods and distant ages. The book includes a number of old photographs, maps, illustrations and documents published for the first time.

Shurfat met the researcher and conducted this conversation with him, which dealt with his experience in gathering and authoring the book's material, recounting his research work from when it was just a small idea to speak about the types of ships in the city of Sur, until it later developed into an important piece of research dealing with the maritime history of the city with precise documentation. So, to the details.
From a mere idea to a reference book

• How did the idea of the book spring up? Tell us about your experience in gathering the material until it appeared in this final form.
— First of all, I would like to affirm that the idea of authoring the book sprang up within me after I listened to the lofty address of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said — may God preserve and protect him — where His Majesty said, in his meeting with his sons, the male and female students of Sultan Qaboos University: "We will not allow the confiscation of thought", as well as His Majesty's call to work so that researchers follow the scientific path in research and in recording Omani history. This lofty sultanic thinking was the great motive for me to research the history of the Wilaya of Sur, which many historians, researchers and travellers see as a city unique in its heritage and its maritime history, so it is also a model, and its material is still virgin. Preserving the Omani heritage and recording it before it is lost is the task of every researcher zealous for his city and his homeland, and I saw it as a duty to investigate what had been scattered and to gather what had been dispersed of tales, stories and information about this maritime history, which — unfortunately — is mostly hidden, or stored in the bellies of books and the breasts of the living nakhodas and sailors. So I gathered the material, read much about this history, and was able — praise be to God — to sift the chaff from the wheat, recording only what is true and acceptable to reason and logic, and I documented no information without it having a reference or a source from a book or a document, or that I captured it from the lips of the lovers of the sea. I saw it as necessary to benefit from those who remain of the nakhodas and the wasatid (shipbuilders), of whom only a very small number remain. My dream at the beginning of my project in gathering the material of this book was about the building of sailing ships, then a group of questions appeared and took shape in my mind as I was gathering the material, among them: for whom are these ships built, and why?.. and where?. and who built them?.. and the subject of the book branched out to emerge in its current form, as the reader will follow it between its two covers — it became a discussion of the city as a location and as a history.

As for the first idea of the book, it was about documenting shipbuilding in the city of Sur in all its stages, for this city gained wide and distinguished fame in shipbuilding, to the point that it became a principal workshop in shipbuilding, not only at the Sultanate level but extending to the Arab Gulf states and some African countries. My proof of this is none other than the spread of the "ghanja and sambuk" types of ship, whose building it was distinguished in, in these countries. Before that, the ships were of the "baghla" type. After I finished gathering all the information about the building of sailing ships from the remaining shipbuilders, nakhodas or shipowners, those questions I mentioned earlier appeared, and by answering them I was able to form the material of the book.

Maritime history, a cultural formation

• In your research you dealt with the maritime history of the city of Sur. Why this city specifically? And what about the rest of the other Omani cities?

— I was able to speak about the maritime history of the city of Sur specifically, being one of its sons, so I am more worthy of researching it because I know it best, and the maritime history of this city is part of my cultural formation; indeed it is within my social fabric, customs and traditions. I know all the living nakhodas and sailors, I knew them and lived among them, and I know specifically many aspects of the human stories that happened to the lovers of the sea, some of them recorded in old documents and some preserved in the breasts. Being one of the sons of this city enabled me, more than others, to record and document this history — a work that took a decade of my life. I came to the conclusion that many of the Omani maritime cities have an old memory, and the city of Sur, like other historical cities of Oman such as "Muscat and Sohar" and Al Balid, has a memory, and it needs those who research, study and feel the aspects of creativity and spirit in the history of these cities. It pleases me that the book is published coinciding with the most beautiful cultural occasion, namely the milieu's celebration of Muscat as the capital of Arab culture for this year.

• How many nakhodas were you able to compile data and information about, as well as the wasatid, as you call them in the book?

— As for the matter of figures in the book, allow me to clarify the following: the number of nakhodas is about (444) nakhodas, and I am confident that there are many names I was unable to reach or identify; while the number of wasatid reaches about (25) wustad mol and (48) wustad, and I was able to publish 385 photographs, documents, maps and illustrations. The number of individual ship names is 274 individual names, and there are many ships that share the name, of the same type or of other types, such as.. Fath Al Khair, Atiyat Al Rahman, Al Mutasahhil and Amanat Al Rahman.. etc.).

Terms specific to shipbuilding

• The book includes an appendix specific to the terms and names used in shipbuilding and celestial navigation, most of which are what people know in their dialect. How did you deal with this language in composing the book? Will the reader recognise the meanings of those words?
— Yes, and I devoted a special appendix to them, in which I clarified the linguistic meanings of each word and how it is used. How many are the words that those working at sea converse with, which others do not know! That is why I devoted an appendix to them, in which I clarified those words with precise enumeration and their equivalents in classical meaning.

• What are the most important topics you dealt with in your research that you feel need more saturation in research?

— Everything that appeared in the book is dear to me, for it took no short time to appear in this form, and the beginning was in 1997. However, there are topics that really need saturation in research and the availability of multiple efforts, and they deserve to be books in their own right, such as:
the history of the city, the nakhodas and the wasatid 'the carpenters', the stages of shipbuilding, and conducting a comparative study with the ships of other civilisations and nations regarding the development of the Sur ship.

Refuting the charge of the slave trade

• In this book you refuted, in a methodical manner, the idea of the slave trade — a charge that historians spoke of in their books. What about this dark aspect in the human history of the city of Sur?
— The slave trade is a ready-made charge, linked in that historical period to the idea of colonial control over Oman, and the attempt to strike at its commercial fleet and its political dimension. Unfortunately, what astonished me is that many Arab historians dealt with this subject as it appeared in Western writings and documents, but without study and scrutiny, and without seeking accuracy and credibility, which helped spread the saying that Oman was a centre of the slave trade in the world in that period, and an unjust charge was directed at some rulers of old, and at the people of Oman, and the people of Sur in particular. The operation, even if it existed, was individual and unorganised, while at the same time many European countries were issuing laws and royal permits for trading in slaves, who were sold by auction to companies specialised in this business.

Thanks and appreciation

• Was there anyone who stood by you in accomplishing this work?

— Yes, and it pleases me in this conversation to pay tribute to everyone who gave me a piece of information, or an idea, or cooperated with me in photographing a scene, a document or a book, and who — by the grace of God — opened for me many of the locks that I would not have managed without their cooperation, for the researcher does not work alone, otherwise his work would be feeble and weak; rather, he must benefit from everyone, and take his time in gathering his material. At the forefront of these names are His Highness Sayyid Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, Minister of Heritage and Culture, and Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali bin Mohammed Al Oraimi, who has a word in the book — both of them have a word placed at the front of the book — as well as His Excellency Al Mukarram Dr Saeed bin Mohammed Al Ghailani, professor of Islamic history at Sultan Qaboos University, Dr Yusuf bin Abdullah Al Ghailani, head of the History Department at the Faculty of Arts at Sultan Qaboos University, and Mr Salem bin Saeed Al Oraimi; all of these did not stint me of their thought and culture, and I hope the book gains the reader's approval.

Maritime History and Shipbuilding in the City of Sur..

The biography of the sea inscribed in the sails of the masts and the planks of teak
The researcher Hammoud Al Ghailani divided his book (Maritime History and Shipbuilding in the City of Sur) into ten main chapters from which many titles branch out. In the first chapter he dealt with the geographical location of the city of Sur, touching on part of its history, and speaking about the archaeological discoveries found by the European excavation campaigns sent by the world's largest universities; he also spoke about the city of Sur in historical writings, and the effect of Omani-European relations on the city. The second chapter dealt with celestial navigation, speaking about the navigational tools and instruments such as "the batli, the kamal instrument, the deera and the astrolabe", and touched on mentioning the maritime routes whose paths the sailors and nakhodas memorise. In the third chapter he dealt with aspects of some problems related to maritime history. In the fourth and fifth chapters he spoke about the development of shipbuilding in the city and its types, such as: the ghanja, the sambuk, the baghla, the jalboot, the badan, the uwaisiya, the boom, the shoui, the lanj, the sammak, the mashwa and the houri. In the sixth chapter he dealt with the composition of the ship's parts, such as the mast (dikl), the types of ropes, the types of wood used in shipbuilding, the types of nails, the organic materials used in building the ship, the ship-building crew, and the sea experts in the city of Sur, such as the nakhodas, the sailors, and the (wasatid), meaning the masters of the sea, and the most famous names of the Sur ships.

In this book the researcher Hammoud Al Ghailani was able to employ an aspect of the human history with the sea, narrating events and situations the sailors and nakhodas lived at sea, which the researcher captured from the people's oral memory. In the ninth chapter he dealt with the agreements of the Omani government with the British and French governments during the years 1822, 1833, 1839 and 1844, and the tenth chapter was devoted to listing the references and personal interviews from which he drew his material.

This book is distinguished by the precise documentation it contains of everything related to maritime history in the city of Sur, which opens the field for other researchers to write the maritime history of other Omani cities that extend along the sea coast — beginning with the cities of the Dhofar Governorate, passing through the cities of Qurayyat and Muscat, the cities of the fertile Al Batinah coast such as Barka, Sohar and Shinas, and ending with Khasab in the Musandam Governorate. This coast, with its long extent, is rich in fertile material, but it needs a researcher endowed with patience, long breath and the ability to investigate. According to the interview we conducted with the researcher Hammoud bin Hamad Al Ghailani, gathering the material of this book took ten full and complete years of his life, and during this decade he was researching, gathering, reading, re-composing what he wrote, photographing, and capturing the human stories preserved in the breasts of the living nakhodas, sailors and (wasatid) who inherited the profession generation after generation. In addition, he benefited from Omani, Arabic and translated foreign references and oral interviews, numbering 121 references, and conducted 26 personal interviews with different categories, such as: professor, nakhoda, muqaddam (head of sailors), and sailor (the worker on the ship), all of whom reside in the city of Sur.

The researcher in brief

Hammoud bin Hamad bin Mohammed Al Ghailani, graduate of the Faculty of Arts, History Department, Beirut Arab University, an employee of the Ministry of Education at the Directorate General of Education for the South Al Sharqiyah region; his personal interests are historical research and folk heritage, culture and literature.

Source:

Oman newspaper.. Shurfat supplement