¹ This expression, more pertinent to European historiography, is here used to refer metaphorically to the red color of the Omani flag. In effect, the sovereigns of Oman, between the 18^th and 19^th centuries, established numerous mercantile and political-strategic concessions along the shores of the Persian Gulf and of the western Indian Ocean.

Author’s note: this contribution is a revised version of a paper presented to the International Conference on Cultural Exchange and Transformation in the Indian Ocean World, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 3–4 April, 2002.

² A.A.W., Il Baluchistan: una “terra incognita” al crocevia dell’Asia, “Storia Urbana” (edited by Redaelli, R.), year XXII, n. 84 (Milan, 1998).Google Scholar

³ I owe the description which follows to Prof. Valeria Piacentini, to whom I am deeply grateful.

⁴ Rentz, G., “Banu Kharus,” Encyclopedia of Islam (hereafter, EI.), CD Rom Edition (Leiden, 1999), vol. 4, p. 1084Google Scholar; Wilkinson, J.C., Thelmamate Tradition of Oman (Cambridge, 1987).Google Scholar

⁵ According to the Norwegian anthropologist Frederick Barth, it is difficult to determine precisely the origin of the Baluchi presence in Barth, Oman. F., Sonar, Culture and Society in an Omani Town (Baltimore, 1983), p. 39.Google Scholar Scholars are divided in their opinions. It is possible that, given the regular contacts between the two shores from earliest times on, the presence of communities which identified themselves with the “Baluch” culture date very far back. Miles proposed their presence already at the time of the Ya’rubi dynasty, a theory which he supported by quoting extensive Portuguese documentation. Miles, S.B., “Journey from Gwadar to Karachi,” The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society 44 (1874): 163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar According to Kelly, J.B., “Sultanate and Imamate of Oman,” Journal of Royal Institute of International affairs (London, 1959)Google Scholar, passim, on the contrary, it was only with Ahmad bin Said Al Bu Sa’idi that the recruiting of troops from among the Baluchi peoples of the Makran began on a regular basis, that is to say, not before 1749.

⁶ Miles, S.B., “Notes on the Tribes of Oman by L.C.S.B. Miles, 27 May 1881,” in Sirhan, Sirhan I.S.I., ed. Annals of Oman to 1728(Cambridge, 1984), p. 94.Google Scholar

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¹⁴ The tse-tse fly of equatorial Africa transmits tripanosomiasis, a disease to which local cattle are resistant but which causes deadly epidemics among those imported from Eurasia and North Africa. Diamond, J., Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (New York, 1997).Google Scholar

¹⁵ Lively debate continues on this topic, aimed at refuting the theories put forward by the authors of the 1975 edition of The Cambridge History of Africa, (J.B. Webster, R. Gray, E. Alpers), to essentially anti-Eurocentrist ends. Among the many, see R. Pouwels, T. Pearson. See also paper presented to the International Conference on Cultural Exchange and Transformation in the Indian Ocean World, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 3-4 April, 2002.

¹⁶ Nichols, C.S., The Swahili Coast: Politics, Diplomacy and Trade on the East African Littoral 1798–1856(London, 1971), p. 74.Google Scholar

¹⁷ The term derives from the Arabic mawsin (pl. mawasin), season, from which we also get the Portuguese monçao.

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²³ Although the Portuguese colonial empire was ousted by the Dutch about halfway through the 17^th century, this did not prevent a Lusitanian presence from continuing in the trading and strategic centers of East Africa and the Indian Ocean.

²⁴ Beckingham, C.F., “Bu Sa’id,” E.I. vol. 1, p. 1281.Google Scholar

²⁵ Hughes-Buller, , Gazetteer of Baluchistan, pp. 283Google Scholar; Miles, , Countries and Tribes of the Persian Gulf, p. 282.Google Scholar

²⁶ Lorimer, , Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia (Dublin, 1908), pp. 601–22.Google Scholar

²⁷ With the death of Sultan Bin Ahmad Al Bu Sa’idi, Oman tost Chahbahar in 1804, but then retook it after a short interval. In 1809 its revenue amounted to 5000 rupees a year and went in its entirety to the Sultans of Oman.

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³⁰ Ibid., p. 9.

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³⁷ See the numerous contributions made during the conference “Islam in East Africa: New Sources,” Università “La Sapienza,” Rome, 3-4 December, 1999.

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⁴² Research carried out at Pemba by Nathalie Arnold, Department of Anthropology, University of Indiana, USA. My personal thanks for the interesting information from the international forum on the Asian presence in east Africa Namaskar-Africana.

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⁵⁸ I.O.R. L/MAR/C/586.

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⁶⁰ I.O.R. L/MAR/C/586.

⁶¹ I.O.R. L/Mar/C/586, “Extract of Paragraph 12 of a Memoir from Ibrahim Purkar dated 21 September 1800. Marine Cruiser Ternate, document 2. Translation of a paper from Ibrahim Purkar to the Honorable Jonathon Duncan, Esq., Governor of Bombay, dated 10 Mohurrum 1224 Hijree, 26 February 1809. Marine Cruiser Ternate, document 3.

⁶² Akinola, G.A., “Slavery and Slave Revolts in the Sultanate of Zanzibar in the Nineteenth Century,” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 6 (1972): 220.Google Scholar

⁶³ Yaqut b ‘Ambar al-Habashi, was appointed governor at Zanzibar for the loyalty he showed to Sultan bin Ahmad of the Al Bu Sa’idi (1792-1804), and also because he owned property in Oman, which would have guaranteed his political integrity in the eyes of the Omanis. Bhacker, , Trade and Empire In Muscat and Zanzibar, p. 74.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ The Arabs imposed a tax of 5% on every article exported from Zanzibar.

⁶⁵ I.O.R. L/MAR/C/586.

⁶⁶ The ivory from the tusks of Asian elephants, with its reddish veining, is hard and little suited to the production of precious objects since it yellows immediately and has always been inferior to that of the African elephant. There was always a great demand for African ivory in India, since Hindu women for their marriage ceremonies wore ivory bracelets from their wrists to their elbows as well as anklets. These bracelets were burnt on their death and, following the abolition of suttee, broken as a sign of mourning. Sheriff, A., “The Rise of a Commercial Empire: An Aspect of the Economic History of Zanzibar 1770–1873,” unpublished PhD. Thesis, University of London, 1971, pp. 118–20.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Public Record Office, Admiralty Records, “Journal of Lieut. Emery, who was in Mombasa from 1824 to 1826,” folio 52/3940.

⁶⁸ Akinola, , Slavery and Slave Revolts in the Sultanate of Zanzibar, p. 234.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ I.O.R. L/MAR/C/586.

⁷⁰ Ibid.

⁷¹ Ibid.