Salalah, Oman

Salalah, despite lying in the Arabian desert, enjoys a temperate climate through most of the year. However; our tour director said in the summer the temperature can go up to 55 degrees Celsius or around 140 degrees Fahrenheit with 99% humidity. Everything is air conditioned, homes, cars and businesses. The city is known as the perfume capital of Arabia.

Our tour directors’ name was Abdulla which means the son of God. He was full of information and talked in pretty good English for the full four hours of the tour. He told us that the city was very clean and we would see no trash or rubbish. Cleanliness is very important to the people, in their homes as well as the city. The city is also one of the safest, no worry about leaving things on the bus when we were gone. If someone steals an apple, they will be put in jail. Those in jail may have written a bad check, drove without a license or in the country illegally. Everybody has a job, free education, free health care and no taxes. They do take 5% of salaries for Social Security. When a young person turns 18 they are given free land where they can build a home.

You will see the pictures of the cranes which load containers.. Seven thousand containers are loaded onto the ships daily. Also we were told that one million barrels of oil are pumped daily. Petro (gas) is cheaper than water. They use the water from the sea for everything except drinking and that has to come from springs in the mountains.

Our tour took us out of town which began with a drive to a grove of frankincense trees, a species unique to Southern Arabia. During the monsoon season the mountainside setting is lovely, lush and green, but today it was dry and brown. The scraggly trees yield an aromatic medicinal resin that is used to make the sweet smelling incense. There were very little cars on the highway, but the only traffic problems encountered were the camels that wondered on and off the highway. (See picture)
Also you will see a picture of the frankincense tree and our tour guide in his native dress.

Abdulla gave us some information about uses for frankincense. He said the people clean their houses in early morning after first prayers before sunrise then burn the incense. It is said to absorb smells and kill germs and keeps away the flies. Another benefit is to help asthma and stomach upsets.

We asked Abdulla about women’s rights and we were told that they could drive, work or stay home and that some women have been elected to positions of power. Not long ago women were not permitted to leave the house without their husbands permission.

Abdullah’s family history was interesting. He said his father married in Oman and they had eight children in nine years. Times were very difficult then in Oman and his father left for Africa to find better living conditions, there he married again and had twelve children. He then moved again to find a better place and married again. Abdullah was the first born from this 13 year old wife in 1963, and had six brothers and sisters. The total number of children fathered was 27. The father has recently built a house with 17 bedrooms as when the family get together there are 306, enough for two football teams and then fill the stadium.

In the Islamic religion a man can marry up to four women, but he has to get permission from the first wife and everything must be equal. Whatever the first wife has, others must have the same and the man’s time must be divided equally. Also the man has to buy the wife. Abdullah called it a dowry, but the man pays $25,000, with 30% going to the girls’ parents. The dowry for each wife is the same, but if the next wife has been divorced there is a 50% discount. We were surprised when Abdullah said that 20% divorce. He thought the reason is that marriages are arranged. When a boy reaches marrying age, the mother and sisters check around to see who is available. All the women have their faces covered in public but not at home. The female family members will visit available girls and return to the boy with a description of the girl. Abdullah said he wanted to make sure they had good teeth and a nice nose.

Most of the Omani people adhere to the ancient tenets although the society is one of the least rigid. Still the call for prayer comes five times daily. The central Islamic belief is: “There is only one God, and Mohammed is his prophet”. Islamic faith further requires its followers to give alms to the poor. Other pillars of Islam include a one-time pilgrimage to Mecca and fasting during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar.

Abdullah said that jihad has often been tragically misinterpreted. The translation is “holy war” but it is a reference to man’s internal struggle against impure motivations and manifest behavior. There are some sects with wrong ideas, but according to Abdullah Islamic faith is as gentle and as much concerned with peace and goodwill to fellow human beings as any other religion. We just completed a book on Islam and the Quran and it disagrees with Abdullah. However; we had a good impression of the people of Oman and with Abdullah’s sincerity.