Nizwa, Oman’s 17th Century capital
I found myself blinking hard. And then blinking again. A little dazed. Bewildered is perhaps a better word. Was this for real? Was it indeed the 20th of December, 2024, or had I by some unexplained miracle time-travelled a good few centuries back?
Around me was a scene pulled right out of a medieval Arabian livestock souq. Sellers in pastel dishdashas were running around a ring. First with their goats, and then their cows, in tow. On either side of this parade were buyers in crisper, whiter dishdashas calling out if a particular animal caught their interest.
What followed next was a thorough examination of the selected livestock’s teeth, gums and hooves, and some hard-core bargaining. At times the seller won, at times the buyer, and the mute creature swapped masters. Often nothing materialised till another early Friday morning, when a display would again be put on show.
There were a handful of foreigners in the periphery, looking on, as amazed as me. Just like maybe a Marco Polo or Ibn Battuta did when witnessing a similar scene.
The business on hand was, however, completely unaffected by the cameras or gasps. There were more important things to focus on for these gentlemen. Would that goat be an asset? Would he be able to resell that cow for a profit? It’s a stock market in its most basic form wherein livestock are sold and resold every week.
In a couple of hours, the hullabaloo simmered down. The sellers and buyers dispersed. Showtime was over.
Did the end of the spectacle bring me back to the present? Not exactly. For next to the Friday traditional livestock souq were the 17th Century Nizwa Fort and Castle, the latter predating the fort by a few decades. Both built by the Ya’rubid dynasty, rulers of Oman from 1624 to 1742 who had made Nizwa, a historical city built over a stream and trade crossroads, their capital.
Nizwa Fort dates to the middle of the 17th Century. Built on the orders of Imam Sultan bin Saif Al Ya’rubi, the enormous earth-filled stone tower took 12 years to complete.
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