Figure 5 (above) - A falaj official ensuring precise distribution of water in Misfat Al Abriyeen. The importation of this sophisticated technique of artificial irrigation date back to about 1000 BC. Figure 6 (above-right) - Jabal Al Fay marks the northern boundary of the oasis.
The next few pages continue with an excited description of Manah, the town, its people - happy and contented, and his encounter with the local sheikh of the Hinawis who were in conflict with the Ghafri groups occupying a neighbouring “settlement”. Forty years later, Colonel Miles, an excellent Arabist who was also meticulous in his observations and recordings, found this “large and straggling oasis standing in a rich and well-watered district”. Standing out amidst the arid barrenness of the regional landscape, defined by a rocky outcrop of Jabal al-Fay on the North and restrained by the desert-bound wadi courses of Kalbu and Mu’aydin, the oasis once truly affirmed the Arabic meaning of its name, “the gift of God”.
The gift of God
The beginnings of oasis settlements date back to the very early days of human habitation in the region. The ancient Arab-Omanis did not fail to spot these areas of natural exuberance in an otherwise inhospitable terrain; they, as W. Robertson Smith noted, “seemed to be planted and watered by the hand of the gods”. Initially supported by the surface flow in the wadi-s but also utilising water from natural springs, these early agricultural communities were soon to develop, and later import (from Persia), sophisticated techniques of artificial irrigation we know today as the falaj. According to the Kashf al Ghumma, an 18th-century historical chronicle attributed to Sirhan bin Said 12 - Manah: A Gift of God
