Mapping Micro-relations between the Omani Interior and Coast in the Nineteenth Century

The commercial papers of the nineteenth-century Banyan Muscat merchant Ratansi Purshottam represent one of the richest collections of local historical materials in the Arabian Peninsula. Ratansi Purshottam was a major date exporter, weapons trader, and money-lender who, by the end of the nineteenth century, owned a good amount of the waterfront property in the Omani capital of Muscat and its surroundings. Through a comprehensive survey and analysis of the hundreds of Arab, South Asian, and Persian names that appear in the Purshottam documents, this paper hopes to contribute to the mapping of the social and communal life of Muscat and the Omani interior in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Who were Ratansi’s clients and borrowers? Where did they originate on the Omani tribal or pan-Asian map? What can we learn about the Omani interior populations from the nature of their economic exchange with Ratansi? Studying the micro-interactions of a Banyan trader in Muscat with his diverse customers and debtors, this paper argues, helps draw out unrecognized historical connections between the sociologically disparate communities of the Arabian Peninsula.