Nakhoda Saeed bin Hamad bin Matar Al Tamami

A captain who became famous in his era at the beginning of the 19th century. He was among the captains renowned across the Arab Gulf region and Oman, not only in his city of Sur. He has an important maritime treatise, of which about 274 pages survive, preserved in the British Museum [1]. It reached the British Museum through one of the captains of the British naval fleet when they seized one of the Omani ships in 1860 — the period in which the English began their blockade of the ships of the people of Sur. The manuscript contains tables of longitude and latitude for all the coasts, ports, seas, islands and reefs through which sailing ships passed at that time, in addition to astronomical information and rules and maritime advice for ships' captains.

Description of the manuscript:

1.  The manuscript consists of about 274 large-format pages.

2.  It contains several chapters and sections.

3.  It begins with tables measuring lines of longitude and circles of latitude.

4.  It contains much maritime and navigational advice.

5. It gives a detailed account of the places and coasts of the Arab Gulf, Oman, Yemen, Somalia, Abyssinia and the Gulf of Suez.

6.  It includes a precise description of the coasts of India, Pakistan and East Africa.

7.  What distinguishes it from the other maritime treatises written later is its measurements and tables for the coasts of the island of Ceylon and the coast of Bengal.

---

[1] Khalid Salem Mohammed — Captains of the Arab Gulf and their Maritime Writings — distributed by Al Rubaian Publishing and Distribution Company — Kuwait — 1982 — p. 10

Reference: Hammoud bin Hamad bin Mohammed Al Ghailani — Maritime History and Shipbuilding in the Omani City of Sur — Arabic Press — 2006