---------------------------------------------------------------------------
**** http://www.GOANET.org ****
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Happy New Year Twenty-Ten
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
History in the region is as murcky as those Shatt al Arab/ Gulf waters ! Iran
fought a ten year Basrah war over ten square miles of disputed marsh. When
Britain owned 'Mesopotamia,' Basrah merchants filled Bombay's hotels and cafes,
the boarding school at St. Marys on Nesbitt Road a regular destination for the
children of their Armenian elite.
The Arab shores of the Straits of Hormuz are a part of Oman. That small neck
of land is isolated from the country, seperated by fifty miles of UAE/Dubai
territory: Bedouin camels do not read maps, shifting sands make for crumbled
borders ! I met many of the dominant Muscat merchant trading class. They dress
and speak native, but switch to the Baluchi version of the Sindhi dialect,
once in the safety of the home: Compulsive entertainers, they would make both
Merwyn, as well as Mario feel very much at home.
A final thought: it was Sinbad's cousins who founded Mombasa and Merwyn's
hometown, Dar es Salaam, and brought da Gama along on his way to the 'discovery
of India.' eric.
________________________________
From: Frederick Noronha [email protected]
Wasn't as-Sindibād al-Baḥri the fictional sailor actually from Basrah
(the main port of the country where, we are told according to
Marioism, that the US of A is currently rescuing Muslims (or some such
humanitarian endeavour)?
FN
2010/1/3 eric pinto <[email protected]>:
> If Merv decides to travel to Oman, his land of Myrrh/Merv,
> I will delight in arranging for him to be feasted/fested by
> some very nice natives of Sinbad land. eric.
--
Frederick Noronha
Columnist :: journalism :: editing :: alt.publishing :: photography :: blogging
