OMAN-INDIA TIES, ACROSS SEA AND SPACE

kilometres from Muscat, in the northeastern port town of Sur, where the Sohar was built, one can still see a living piece of Oman’s maritime history.

Another historical re-creation was the ‘Jewel of Muscat’, based on the design of the Belitung Shipwreck found off the coast of Indonesia in 1998. The shipwreck, surprisingly well preserved, showed the exact way in which these dhows were made. ‘The Jewel of Muscat' was built in Sur, using wood and other material as close to the original as could be found. It sailed to Singapore in February 2010, reaching in July 2010, stopping at Kochi, Kerala on the way, as it historically would have, halting for supplies and for the weather to change. This mid-way point in Kerala furthered the maritime connections between Omani ports and the southern Malabar Coast.

Cheraman Perumal in Salalah A thousand kilometres south from Muscat, the city of Salalah is less often associated with historical trade in the Indian Ocean than its beautiful Khareef winds. But in prehistoric times, the port of Sumhuram (now approximately 35 kilometres from Salalah) was a major trading site with ideal sea conditions.

Archeological evidence shows that this ancient port engaged with trade as far as the Mediterranean. As the traditional regional capital, the city’s history stretches back two millennia, when, thanks to its strategic location, it was an important stop on the frankincense and silk trading routes. In the 19th century the region was incorporated into the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, and Salalah served as the country’s working capital from 1932 until the accession of the late His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said in 1970 who relocated the capital to Muscat.

Salalah has various holy sites central to Islam, including the tombs of Nabi Hub and Nabi Ayoub but there are also other places which reflect connections with the western Indian coast with its multiple layers of history and legend.

Embodying its closer links with coastal India, there is another tomb that is of legendary importance and points to the pre-Islamic connections between India and Oman. The legend is that Cheraman Perumal Rama Varma Kulashekhara35 (622-628 CE, Hijra 1-7) became interested in the stories coming out of Mecca and decided to make a pilgrimage there. Keralolpatti, a work in Malayalam dealing with the rise of Kerala, narrates the story thus: “Cheraman Perumal, the last Perumal ruler of Kerala, who became enamoured of Islam, partitioned the Kingdom and secretly left for Mecca with some Arab traders and lived 35 For more information on Perumal, see M. H. Ilias (2007). ‘Mappila Muslims and the cultural content of trading Arab diaspora on the Malabar Coast’.

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